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With a free Business and First Class return ticket from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa travelled to Uganda to receive a welcome afforded to heads of state and government, it has now transpired. He was afforded all the courtesies extended to other heads of state and government.

The Business Class ticket was from Colombo to Dubai and there onwards on First Class to Kampala (Uganda) for the inauguration of President Yoweri Museveni’s fifth term in office. Details related to Mr. Rajapaksa’s visit, with the blessings of Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, have begun to trickle in only now.

Both after the presidential election in January last year followed by parliamentary elections in August, the Ugandan Government sent congratulatory messages to President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera. Ironically, Sri Lanka did not reciprocate when Museveni was‘re-elected’ in February this year. Was the ministry being selective on whom to congratulate and whom not to?

Instead, there was an official communication from the Foreign Ministry in Colombo to the Ugandan counterparts in late February 2016 saying that the Government was closing down the Sri Lanka High Commission in Kampala. The reason given was that there was a “rationalisation programme.”

In late March 2016, two Foreign Ministry officials (one from the Accounts Division and another from the Overseas Administration Division) went to Kampala to complete what they called “administrative and financial” measures to shut down the High Commission. Thereafter, the sole Clerical Officer has been functioning as the acting High Commissioner.

Foreign Ministry sources said they had incurred expenses to the tune of US$ 350,000 to maintain the High Commission in Kampala from February 2015 to April 2016 – the time when the Clerical Officer was acting High Commissioner and the two officers visited Kampala.

Now, having busted up US$ 350,000 on the non-functioning Kampala mission, the Foreign Ministry has sent out appeals to all Sri Lanka missions overseas to hurriedly raise funds to help victims of the recent floods and landslides. There has been a marked shift from the “Look Africa” policy introduced by former External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris to one of “Ignore Africa” by the UNF Government; from one extreme position to another.

A one-time Foreign Office official asked whether one could blame Uganda for ignoring the present Sirisena-Wickremesinghe-Samaraweera government and inviting Rajapaksa if Sri Lanka cannot show the minimum courtesy to a fellow Commonwealth country. “A free ticket was given at taxpayers’ expense (with no Cabinet approval) to Mr. Rajapaksa whilst ignoring the Ugandan Government in other dealings,” noted this retired official.

He said the “funding” amounted to the Government’s “full acknowledgement” of the former President and his entourage’s visit to Uganda. “The more they say things would change, the more they remain the same,” he said with a knowing smile.

Weeratunga claims he met Mahinda in Kampala as well

Sri Lanka’s one time Ambassador to Russia — wanted for questioning by the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) over the procurement of MiG-27 jet fighters and allegedly helping pro-Russian rebels fighting in Ukraine –was in Uganda last week, or so he claims.

In a statement he e-mailed to newspapers, Udayanga Weeratunga claimed he met President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Kampala. He accused the Government of taking political revenge against him and leaders of the previous regime.

Noting that the Department of Immigration and Emigration had issued him an ordinary passport on March 6, 2015, as reported in the media — it was revealed exclusively in the Sunday Times of May 15 –, Mr. Weeratunga said that the Secretary to the President had in a letter dated April 26 last year (Ref. SP/4/4) said that his container load of personal effects could not be released since he had not returned his diplomatic passport. He claimed that the issue of an ordinary passport proved that he had handed it over.

Mr. Weeratunga claimed that the non-clearance of his container load of personal effects and the resultant (demurrage and other) dues to the Government should be met by the Foreign Secretary. He claimed he would hold her responsible for withholding it.
The former envoy to Russia also said that on April 29, 2015, the Central Bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit director, without any intimation to him, had frozen all his accounts. However, he did not say whether these were in foreign or local banks but added that this act was also a political revenge.

This time, however, there were no photographs of Mr. Rajapaksa with Mr. Weeratunga.

Justice Minister denies opening and closing car door for MR

Justice Minister Wijayadasa Rajapakshe in a letter to our publisher – a copy of which has been forwarded to us — has taken umbrage at our reference last week in these columns regarding his son’s lavish wedding. We reported that he escorted former President Mahinda Rajapaksa who had attended the event to his car and opened and shut his car door.
As the Minister himself states, we ourselves, have no real issue with a lavish wedding for his son, particularly when he funds it with his own personal finances. This would be what any parent would desire for his offspring, on what is perhaps the most important day of the young man’s life.

As for escorting the former President to his car, and seeing him comfortably ensconced therein, is a courtesy we feel any citizen of this country would have extended to a former dignitary and in similar circumstances. Why the minister wants to distance himself from what is a normal courtesy, we don’t know.

While we are at a loss to understand Minister Rajapakshe’s ire, we don’t endorse the minister’s claim that the media have no business to report on his private life. That debate is now passé. The Americans would say to those in public life, “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”. And the Minister’s leader, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, once said, “even the soap a public figure uses is of public interest”.

Mangala wants to work closely with Jayalalithaa
Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera has sent a congratulatory message to the newly elected Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jeyaram Jeyalalithaa, saying her “resounding victory bears ample testimony” to the trust and confidence the people have placed in her politics and leadership.

Samaraweera adds, “It is my sincere belief that under your stewardship, the multifaceted relations that exist between the people of Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu will continue to flourish and develop into new vistas of cooperation.

“I look forward to working closely with you in the new conducive environment created by the people of Sri Lanka after the Presidential Election in January 2015, whereby greater emphasis is placed on addressing issues of peace-building, sustained reconciliation and resettlement of displaced persons.”

Samaraweera concluded by saying he extends his “warm wishes for your good health, happiness and personal well-being and for the continued progress and prosperity of the people of Tamil Nadu.”

The re-elected Tamil Nadu Chief Minister will be sworn-in tomorrow for another term, but the verdict in her Disproportionate Wealth case in the Supreme Court will be delivered in a few weeks, probably as early as next month.

In this case, taken up in an adjoining state of Karnataka she was asked to account for her personal wealth being disproportionate to her known income.