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SLAF chief allowed to test India’s flying machines

India accorded a red carpet welcome to Sri Lanka Air Force Commander Kapila Jayampathy and allowed him to fly its Advanced Light attack helicopter and sit at the controls of the Tejas fighter Jet.

These pictures show Air Marshal Jayampathy taking off in the helicopter and sitting at the controls of Tejas at the Indian Air Force base in Bangalore.

India is keen to sell some of these flying machines to Sri Lanka. China is also making a bid for some sales to the SLAF.

Media Ministry Secretary on chopping block

ass Media and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry Secretary Nimal Bopage is likely to be replaced, highly placed Government sources said yesterday.

A new official will be appointed early next month, these sources said.

Mr. Bopage is alleged to have embarrassed the Government through a news conference he held early this week.

The purpose of the news conference was to provide details of an alleged plot to assassinate President Maithripala Sirisena.  The claim was based on a forecast made by an astrologer though most of his colleagues say it is bunkum. This forecast has been made in the Facebook page by Vijitha Rohana, a one-time naval rating who attempted to assault the then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi during a guard of honour in Colombo in July 1987.

Secretary Bopage held the news conference together with an astrologer he had brought along. The latter was to say that President Sirisena’s erashthraka or malefic period was different from other assassinated political leaders including the late Rajiv Gandhi, Minister Lalith Athulathmudali and President Ranasinghe Premadasa. He said therefore Vijitha Rohana’s claims were wrong.

Mr. Bopage said he had earlier written to Police Chief Pujith Jayasundera asking him to investigate the matter. However, there has been no response. A Police Headquarters official said, “if we are to probe every astrological forecast, we may have to have a new division.”

A state run television network aired Mr. Bopage’s assassination claim in its early evening news bulletin. By then, officials in the President’s Media Division have spoken to other media organisations and appealed to them not to run the story. They explained that President Sirisena did not share the views expressed by Mr. Bopage.

At the same news conference, the Secretary said he had not heeded a request from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to sign a letter to facilitate the issue of Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) for 58 MPs to carry out development work. Mr Bopage said Premier Wickremesinghe had said if he could not place his signature, he should resign. A Government Minister said Wickremesinghe’s request came only after he obtained official sanction to provide the MPs with the luxury vehicles.

Mr. Bopage had said that he had been asked to sign for the lease of the vehicles in question for 60 months when the tenure of the Government was only 45 more months. This position was dismissed by ministers who pointed

out that there were other similar transactions where contracts had been signed for 60 months.

Premier Wickremesinghe, Government sources said, had also raised issue with President Sirisena over Mr. Bopage’s conduct. He has pointed out that by officially holding a news conference and making statements, he had given credence to claims by the Opposition that there was a rift in the Government. No official at Secretary level is allowed to hold news conferences without the permission of the Government, he had pointed out.

Police chief’s phone comments go public again

This is the second time Police Chief Pujith Jayasundera’s telephone conversation was recorded on tape, both video and audio.

It came when Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake was addressing a news conference. He had earlier called Mr. Jayasundera but was not able to reach him. When the call arrived, he was talking to the media on a variety of matters.

As soon as it became clear, the Police Chief was returning his call, Minister Karunanayake switched his mobile phone to hands free mode. Those present could hear the conversation.

Mr. Karunanayake asked what happened to the case of a politician’s daughter who was arrested for driving without a licence and not heeding the Police order to stop at Weweldeniya along the Kandy Road.

Mr. Jayasundera replied “two Police fellows” arrested her at Nittambuwa. The case is being called on January 5. He added that she is “….ge kelle ney, Sir.”  He had mistakenly mentioned the name of the elder brother instead of the younger one.

Mr. Karunanayake turned to the media and said “you all must name her. People think it is the daughter of someone from the Government.”

JVP wants to till the political field

With Local Council elections likely to be held early next year, political parties are readying themselves for the polls. The JVP is among the early entrants to the fray. Its members were seen in the Fort area in Colombo this week walking around with tills collecting money for its election campaign. How a till collection will go to fund an election campaign is anyone’s guess.

Modesty blaze over sleeveless blouses in parliament

The conclusion of the budget debate was historic not only because a biometric system of identification was used for the first time during the vote. It also saw the imposition of a rule that showing women’s shoulders is not modest.

A trilingual notice freshly placed on the door to the Public Officer’s Box in Parliament stipulated the dress code for female public officers as being saree and a blouse with long-sleeves.

And so, a number of female public officers who came to discharge their duties during the budget debate were barred from entering the Box and thus prevented from performing their official functions on the grounds that they were not properly dressed.

No doubt there is an ongoing debate whether the concept of Parliamentary Supremacy is applicable to Sri Lanka. But, female public servants, and the numbers are growing, would not in their wildest dreams have imagined that the legislature had also vested in itself the supreme role of playing fashion designer to public servants? Does “Good Governance” include governing the female body, and is a woman’s shoulder ‘indecent exposure’ asked an irate official turned away from the Officials Box.

Sri Lankan women have often been victims of the collective, selective memory loss that the country suffers from in respect of the history of its prudish dress codes as well as other social behaviours.

One need only look at Kandyan customary laws on marriage and divorce to appreciate the liberal thinking of Sri Lanka’s native population with regard to social norms, compared with the general law on these same subjects which is a product of colonial legislation.

The even more frustrating aspect of Parliament’s latest rule is that it also highlights the regressive thinking of its female MPs. What makes our women representatives in Parliament so? Sadly, apart from a few who may genuinely have political acumen and selfless ambitions to serve the public, many are there by default.

In fact, it was a female MP who can be traced as the proponent of the fateful notice that now adorns the door to the Public Officers’ Box in Parliament. Last year she sent a message through the Sergeant-at-Arms to a female public officer in the Box that the latter should not be wearing a sleeveless saree blouse. (Incidentally, this public officer had been attending Parliament in the same manner of attire without encountering any objection from anybody for many years and certainly many more years than the said MP had been an MP.) So, it can only be assumed that, rather than fighting for women’s rights or any other noble cause, this female MP had either herself or with the support of like-minded, narrow-minded fellow MPs succeeded in imposing the new rule on female clothing within the Public Officers’ Box.

Is Parliament going to “tailor” the rule that ensures compliance with a formal dress code by going as far as imposing a custom-made style of saree blouse to be worn.

It was a dress code for mothers bringing their children to schools that was quickly shot down. Now, women public officers can only have a sliver of hope that at least there is a liberal-minded Prime Minister and a Speaker, for some degree of sanity to prevail upon the House and they would expeditiously act to overturn the ridiculous rule that shoulders are too sexy. The question is: Are they man enough to shoulder that burden?

Hail Mary pray for us sinners

A fund-raiser for a poverty alleviation project jointly organized by the Archdiocese of Colombo and the St. Joseph Vaz Trust recently turned out to be an embarrassment to the organisers. In place of the popular prayer “Hail Mary”, a rather explicit rap version of a song with a similar title had appeared in print in a souvenir sold at the event.

The souvenir was sold at Rs100 at the beginning of the event titled “Joy to the World – 2016” – a festival of music for peace and harmony. The organisers were unaware of the rap ‘Hail Mary’ with some crude words, but some of the guests had realised the horrible blunder and brought it to the attention of the organisers who quickly moved to get the souvernirs back, saying there was a ‘serious mistake’ . The refunds were made.