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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s decision to invite President Maithripala Sirisena as a guest at the G7 summit next month is a singular honour for Sri Lanka and underlines the significance of the relationship between the two nations. So far, the only other guest at the summit, scheduled to take place in Shima in Mie Prefecture on May 26 and 27, is Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

The meeting of the world’s seven most powerful industrialised countries — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the United States, along with the 28-member European Union — will be the 47th annual G7 summit, this time to be presided over and hosted by Japan.

According to the Japanese, the agenda will include one of the major issues confronting the international community: the growing uncertainty of the global economy, impacted by a range of factors, including slowdowns in emerging markets, the sharp drop in oil prices and weakening trade.

The hidden agenda, however, may include how best the G7 could cooperate in the battle against rising global terrorism. But, unfortunately, the agenda, does not include lessons learnt from Sri Lanka on how it wiped out terrorism — the end justifying the means.

There are diplomatic moves between Colombo and Washington to arrange a brief meeting between President Sirisena and US President Barrack Obama on the sidelines of the G7 meeting.

One of the lingering questions in the runup to the summit is whether the US President will make a side trip to the site where the United States unleashed a horrendous nuclear attack 71 years ago during World War II. The atom bombs killed more than 200,000 people, mostly civilians on the twin cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No sitting US President has either visited the site of the bombings or apologised for what would today constitute war crimes.

A visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki may also be a part of President Sirisena’s itinerary. Japan has shown gratitude to countries which continue to sympathise with the indelible nuclear horror its people experienced in 1945.

S.M. Wickremesinghe

IGP post: CC summons three for interviews tomorrow
The Constitutional Council (CC) has summoned the three candidates named by the President for the post of Inspector General of Police (IGP) tomorrow (April 18).

“This is not for interviews and its sole purpose is to clarify matters should any issues arise,” a source associated with the CC said.

Chandana Wickremeratne

The move will help the CC indicate a preference from among the three for the post of IGP. Those summoned in writing are Senior DIGs S.M. Wickremesinghe, Pujith Jayasundera and Chandana Wickremeratne.

The CC is to hold the meeting at 3 p.m. tomorrow after the Presidential Secretariat sent it a letter. It said President Maithripala Sirisena recommended the names of the three prospective candidates and sought the help of the CC to select one.

Pujith Jayasundera

Senior DIG S.M. Wickremesinghe served for eleven years as head of the Presidential Security Division (PSD) under former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. It was only after the presidential elections of January 8 that he began serving President Maithripala Sirisena. He hails from Polonnaruwa and is the son of a Govi Raja in that district. He holds a PhD in an agricultural subject.

SDIG Pujith Jayasundera is now in charge of Colombo. SDIG Chandana Wickremeratne, DIG Southern Province, holds a PhD in Defence Studies in Management. His post-graduate thesis was on conflict resolution and national security.

Anchor of Sri Lankan  parentage on NY TV
Kala Rama, a woman journalist of Sri Lankan parentage, is now the weekend anchor and reporter for the New York City TV station WPX channel 11. She is the first TV anchor with a Sri Lankan lineage to get a break in a New York TV network.

Before her New York assignment, Ms. Kala worked as an anchor and reporter in Orlando, Florida where she was nominated for several Emmy Awards for distinguished TV reporting. According to her bio data, she received the Associated Press (AP) award for Breaking News at a TV station in Springfield, Massachusetts. She got her start in television news as an assignment editor at WTNH-TV in New Haven, Connecticut.

A graduate of Fairfield University, Connecticut, she earned her degree in political science and communications. The last name Rama is an Anglicised version of Ramachandran, and her father Dr. Myl Ramachandran is a retired physician originally from Sri Lanka’s Northern Province and currently living in Trumbull, Connecticut.

After leaving from back door, Jaffna DS slams front door
Jaffna District Secretary N. Vethanayagam has decided that he will no longer entertain any protestors inside his office.
This was after a group of protestors from the Northern Provincial Council and local council members walked into his office.
The “public representatives” cum politicians who serve at local bodies and NPC staged a protest on Monday against continuing land grabs by the Government for security purposes in the province.

After shouting in front of the District Secretariat for some time, they went inside to hand over a petition to the District Secretary. He accepted it and assured them he would take up the issues with the proper channels. The protesters demanded a ‘quick reply’ and told him they would be waiting outside for the ‘good news’.

The protesters suddenly locked the door at the entrance to his office and sat on the hallway blocking the veranda. Police were called in but they could not make them move. After hours, the District Secretary left with no option but to leave through the back door. The District Secretary in addition has now sought police security. He has written to the Northern DIG seeking police security for his office and premises from trouble-maker protesters.

Pillow fight sends MP to bed
Parliamentarians of different hues cast aside their differences to celebrate the national New Year.
The event, organised by the Parliament staff, was held in the grounds opposite Parliament.
The pillow fight turned out to be an unfortunate encounter for Professor U. Marasinghe, an MP. He hit his opponent but fell when there was a retaliatory blow and is now limping.

They crowed  too soon about Mattakkuliya park
Mattakkuliya residents were overjoyed with the news of the opening of a recreation park in the Crow Island area from where the Colombo Port and even Galle Face Green could be viewed. The news went around that the park was due to be opened on April 9. Accordingly the park was opened.

With the number of holidays during the week coinciding with the National New Year, hundreds of people, some of them in three-wheelers, came to the park. But, to their disappointment, a notice has been put up by the Colombo Municipal Council saying the park would be opened to the Public only from April 20.

“If the politicians have opened it why can’t they open it to the public? It may have been to suit their own convenience,” remarked one of those who arrived there.