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These are days when different United Nations agencies have focused considerable attention on Sri Lanka.

Even UNDP Asia Pacific regional head Neil Buhne, was in Colombo this week to make a first-hand study of developments in Sri Lanka. He was onetime UN Resident Representative in Colombo, a position now held by most affable Hanna Singer.

Mr Buhne hosted Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) architect and National Organiser Basil Rajapaksa to lunch at the Shangri La Hotel this week.

They discussed political developments. That saw a long time UN advisor in Sri Lanka, one known even for deciding which journalists should see which UN official, dropping a brick or even a building. Known for her charming ways, she was to note in her own way that the country was headed towards a one-party state. This is on the premise that there was crisis in both the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

The remarks did not slip past Basil Rajapaksa. He caught it. He promptly explained that any suggestion such a one-party system was being engineered is wrong. He quickly pointed out that the cause for such a situation was driven by internal crises the parties concerned were facing. The advisor hurriedly tried to soften her own remarks much the same way as dissolving a Punjabi sweet. Now, the story is doing the rounds in government circles.

When advisors act on wrong premises, it is the country and the people who pay for it, declared a senior SLPPer. He said this was how Sri Lanka was being trapped into many a controversy.

Kshenuka Senewiratne

From hamburgers to diplomacy

Today is International Women’s Day, the UN-based IPS has interviewed Kshenuka Senewiratne, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations.

The article gives an interesting insight into her life. It said:

This is not her first time with the U.N. Between 1988 and 1990, she served as First Secretary in the Permanent Mission to the U.N. in New York. But for Ms. Senewiratne, her journey started more than three decades ago as she was walking down the streets in London, where her parents had just moved from Sri Lanka to provide her and her brother with high quality education.

Having just completed her high school board exams from Sri Lanka, she wasn’t sure what was ahead of her.

“I was walking down High Street, and saw ‘Help Wanted,’” she recalls of a sign she saw at a McDonald’s. So she figured she would give it a try.

Soon after she joined the cafe, she heard back from the University of Salford that she had been accepted into their programme for the next academic year.

She decided to continue working for McDonald’s in order to earn some money until her school began.

“And that was a time when they thought I had some amount of potential and they wanted to send me on training for floor management,” she recalls.

When she declined the offer citing her university admission, they were even more moved by her honesty. They still decided to send her to the training and told her they’d have an open space for her whenever she wanted to return.

She did return once after she joined university. Even though the McDonald’s experience came far before her expansive career in foreign diplomacy — spanning from London to Brussels to Geneva – she still holds her lessons from the McDonald’s store in her work today.

Because of the nature of the work pressure on workers at a fast-food joint such as McDonald’s, Ms. Senewiratne says it taught her the importance of being punctual and to think quick on her feet — which she says are key requirements in diplomacy.

“You have to learn everything around the store — from cleaning the toilets to the lobby area, the dining area, [or] how you would put the milkshake machine together — all those technical things,” she says of her time there. “If something happens you must know which button to pull.”

She recalls a particularly funny memory with the milkshake machine where she pulled the wrong button, and was drenched in chocolate syrup. Today, decades later, she laughs as she re-tells the story. But back then, it was a major cog in the wheel of what would become her career.

“That’s where you learnt the essence of time that is inculcated into you,” she says, “whether be it flipping the hamburger, whether it is putting french fries, getting it and bagging it, [or] serving customers — it is all on timing.”

SLFP union avoids Women’s Day event

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)-affiliated Sri Lanka Nidhas Sevaka Sangamaya which usually takes part in the events organised by trade unions to mark International Women’s Day celebrations has this time opted out.

The event is due to be held at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute (SLFI) today. The reason, the SLFP unions say is that they were opposed to inviting Minister Gamini Lokugue who is backing the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna.

Kiriella blows his fuse at cancelled media show

With speculation rife that the UNP’s Kandy district Parliamentarians were to announce their decision to support the alliance led by Sajith Premadasa, journalists were awaiting for the formal announcement to be made at a news conference on Thursday.

But, when they turned up at the venue, a hotel around the lakeside, there were supporters of one of the MPs who had protested about making such announcement. The news conference itself had been called off in view of the protests.

Nevertheless, journalists persuaded former MP Lakshman Kiriella to make a comment. He said that he had decided to support the alliance of Mr Premadasa.

One of the journalists present wanted the ex-MP to repeat his comment as the switch of his recorder was not on.

But instead of a repeat of the comment, the ex-MP visibly angry said he will not repeat it and accused the journalist of writing against him and the party.

Ambika Satkunanathan

HRCSL member to get TNA nomination

The talk of the town in Jaffna these days is how the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) decided to field one of the five members of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) as one of its candidates contesting from the Jaffna district.

On Friday, Ambika Satkunanathan resigned from the HRCSL to contest the upcoming Parliamentary polls.With the TNA finalising its nomination lists this week, this came as a surprise for many in the party, also. While the party hierarchy believes that Ms Satkunanathan would be the ideal choice to represent the war-affected people of North in Parliament, it also caused concerns among other male politicos who are contesting from the same electoral district, considering the voting pattern of people who favour well known-influential persons.

Ms Satkunanathan is a researcher and human rights activist engaged in the field for decades prior to her appointment as one of the five members of the HRCSL in 2015. From 1998 to 2014, she functioned as Legal Consultant to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Sri Lanka.

Presidential Secretariat gets involved in election process

In an unprecedented move, the Presidential Secretariat wrote to state institutions this week instructing them to send to the National Election Commission details of staff and state vehicles to be used for election purposes – though the NEC has already sent the relevant circular to respective departments weeks ago.

The circular issued by Presidential Secretary P.B. Jayasundera is titled “Collection of data relating to all officers and government vehicles to be engaged for election purposes”. It instructs that all government officers who are expected to be engaged for duties at polling stations, counting duties and government vehicles which are to be used for election purposes at the forthcoming Parliamentary polls should be sent to the Commission.

“As such you are kindly requested to take necessary steps forthwith to provide the Election Commission with the details requested as specifically instructed. As senior Government Officers, your special and personal supervision is required for this purpose and I expect your fullest cooperation for the above purposes,” the circular said.

Stressing that this was the first time where the Presidential Secretariat issued a separate circular in this regard on conducting elections, a highly placed NEC source said this move downplayed the functions of the Commission and the Commission was notified of such a circular being sent from the Presidential Secretariat.

Meanwhile, government institutions have already taken steps to compile data of government staff and vehicles to be used as per the circular issued by the Commission weeks ago. However, some senior government officials expressed concerns on why the Presidential Secretariat got itself involved in the electoral process which is solely handled by the Commission.