Columns

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) is to take up the cudgels with its parent counterpart, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), over its onetime Chairman and Secretary Rohana Luxman Piyadasa being overlooked for a National List appointment as MP.

The SLFP’s grouse is that instead its partner had picked Dr Suren Raghavan, a former Governor of the Northern Province.

The issue is knotty since all SLFP members, with the exception of Angajan Ramanathan, contested on the SLPP ticket. They are therefore bound by the SLPP led main alliance the Sri Lanka Nidhas Podujana Peramuna (SLPNS) disciplinary codes. Moreover, SLPP-ers point out that Dr Raghavan’s name had been forwarded by none other than the SLFP leadership as among its potential National List MPs.

“It is an issue they should have settled among themselves,” said a senior SLPP member who did not wish to be identified. However, he said the prerogative of selecting the most suitable in the National List was one for the ruling party, the SLPP, and it did not lie with the SLFP. He spoke on grounds of anonymity.

Prof. Piyadasa’s SLFP supporters have prepared a dossier which lists allegations that Dr. Raghavan in a social media post had branded Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa as a traitor. These social media comments posted on December 14, 2018. He had also strongly criticised United National Party (UNP) Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe when he was Prime Minister. Another claim is that Dr. Raghavan had criticised the Maha Sangha.

Food for thought: MPs express distaste over quality and cost of meals

On both sides of the aisle of Parliament, MPs were united this week in venting their displeasure over the quality of the food served to Parliamentarians in the Members’ Canteen after a claim by a Parliament official that the lunch served for MPs at the subsidised rate of Rs 200 per MP actually costs Rs 3000.

New MPs attending the workshop where Parliament's Director (Finance) mentioned the cost of meals served to the MPs. Pic by Priyantha Wickramaarachchi

The comment had been made on Tuesday by Parliament’s Director (Finance) during the closing stages of a two-day workshop for new MPs. The Director had been speaking on the functions of the food, catering and housekeeping departments of Parliament.

The claim that meals costing Rs 3000 each were given to MPs at the subsidised rate of Rs 200 had immediately drawn a furious response from some new MPs who were in attendance, including State Minister Seetha Arambepola and SLPP parliamentarian Premanath C. Dolawatte. Dr Arambepola told the gathering that, having had meals from the Parliament canteen over the past two days, she could say with certainty that they did not cost anywhere near that much.

Parliament officials had later corrected the error, telling MPs that the real cost of the meal was a little more than Rs 950.

The matter was formally raised by Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP S. M. Marikkar in Parliament on Thursday. Mr Marikkar asked the Speaker to immediately announce the real cost of the meals, as the Rs 3000 figure had been widely reported in the media.

“The people maybe feeling we eat gold. At the Parliament canteen today, the fish was not fresh. We actually eat better at home,” he quipped.

The issue came up again on Friday when Mr Dolawatte said he could not accept the Rs 950 figure given by Parliament officials as a correction.

Mr Marikkar questioned whether officials had arrived at the Rs 3000 figure after dividing the cost of all meals served in Parliament, including to several thousand staff, by 225 – the number of MPs.

Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said he had made inquiries and found that it had indeed happened as Mr Marikkar said, and that the cost of all meals served in the complex had been divided by the number of 225 MPs.

“The real cost of the meal is about Rs 296. However, we will make a detailed analysis and give the exact figure later as we know that not all MPs have their meals in the canteen. In fact, there are some MPs who often do not eat from the canteen,” he said.

Many new MPs get first chance to speak, but it was a race against time

Many new MPs were given the opportunity to make their first Parliamentary speeches during the two-day Parliamentary debate on the Government’s Rs 1.7 trillion Vote on Account.

There are 81 first-time MPs in the Ninth Parliament and many were given the opportunity to speak. Unfortunately for them, the sheer number of speakers meant that while senior MPs were given more time, the junior first-timers rarely got more than five minutes.

Some MPs were only given four minutes to speak. By the time they thanked the voters who elected them to Parliament, their party seniors, members of their family and offered their congratulations to the presiding Member, nearly half that time was gone. Ultimately, many could not make a meaningful contribution to the debate.

Big row over delayed biopsy at private hospital

Ill treatment takes even private hospitals, though they boast of a service fit for kings and queens.

A suspected cancer patient was asked to check in and be on a fast for a needle biopsy (an examination of tissue removed from a living body to discover the presence, cause, or extent of a disease).

After waiting from morning till 4 p.m., the patient complained that no biopsy had been carried out though he was on an empty stomach overnight till that time.

At first, the duty officer breathed down the neck of the patient saying there was no biopsy scheduled. The helpless patient called the physician. All hell broke loose thereafter.

The officer apologised. The hospital reduced its charges. However, the patient had to stomach all the humiliation in that sordid encounter.

Russia allegedly using poisoned tea to eliminate critics: So to be safe drink Pure Ceylon Tea

According to an article in the New York Times last week, the Russian secret services are suspected of using a range of poisons – mostly tea ingested with poison – to eliminate critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin. But Russia is officially denying this.

The NY Times, however, has identified two of Putins’s critics – Anna Politkovskaya, who survived the poisoning but was shot dead later, and Alexander Litvinenko, who died after having tea with two Russian agents. Last week, Aleksei Navalny, was another victim. He has been battling for his life after drinking tea at an airport in Siberia.

So, perhaps, Sri Lanka’s new tea promotion board slogan should be:

if you want to stay alive, drink Pure Ceylon Tea.

Wimal against move to make Maithri Deputy PM

Industries Minister Wimal Weerawansa was accosted by a trade union official when he was walking out of his office to travel for a meeting.

“There are rumours that former President Maithripala Sirisena will be made a Deputy Prime Minister. Is it true?” the union official asked.

“We have also heard those rumours. However, I must say one thing clearly. If that ever happens, we will be strongly opposed to the move,” said Mr Weerawansa, who is also the leader of the National Freedom Front (NFF).

Press releases on trivia: What kind of diplomacy is this?

In the corridors of the Foreign Relations Ministry, the talk is the turbo-charged media campaign with a flurry of media statements which focus more on the minor “achievements” of some envoys and not so much on the country.

From a far corner, one envoy sent in a political report and insiders say this came after he met a school principal in that country.

Not so far from home, an octogenarian envoy wrote a three page political report after meeting the desk officer of the Foreign Office in that country.

From colder climes, a third envoy based his political report on a meeting with an Asian envoy and that too after a courtesy call he made.

In one case, the political report lists the name of the stenographer who was in attendance.

Little wonder there is much wanting in Sri Lankan diplomacy. Other than speaking for themselves, there is little or no move to counter anti-Sri Lanka statements issued by INGOs and even state bodies in some countries.