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The Public Administration Ministry earlier decided to declare Friday as a holiday for public sector employees and encourage them to engage in home gardening.

The Friday holiday was declared due to the fuel crisis. But, as the fuel situation improved, the Government wanted the administration to be fully functional, and the Friday holiday was withdrawn.

One public sector employee, apparently unhappy about the fresh decision, wrote a poem saying his home garden plants were just starting to grow and due to the high cost of living it was difficult to turn up at work. He also lamented that senior officers did not know the hardships the lower level public servants were going through.

His poem was seen by Public Administration Ministry Secretary Priyantha Mayadunne. He decided to respond with a poem of his own.

His response was that he was hopeful sufficient rains would be received and crops would grow well. He also said the complainant could find a suitable job keeping with his talents and come back to work after five years. The Secretary was alluding to the option given to public sector employees to take temporary leave from their employment.

Tamil parties seek arrest of Gotabaya and others for alleged war crimes

With the United Nations General Assembly scheduled to begin next month, the West-led Core Group on Sri Lanka is reportedly working on a fresh resolution on Sri Lanka. Tamil political parties are back in action as usual by writing letters to the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and other UN offices with new demands.

The latest collective letter signed by five political parties, with the exception of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK) was sent to the UN last week requesting the UN Human Rights Council to exercise international jurisdiction on former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and other senior military officials accused of war crimes and crimes committed against humanity by arresting and prosecuting them even in foreign lands.

Meanwhile, the Government has also begun working on how to tackle these challenges at the UN next month. Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe met senior officials at the Foreign Ministry to discuss Sri Lanka’s response to the UN reports considering recent developments in the country and the international criticism it brought on the
new Government.

Minority parties work out deals with Ranil

Minority political parties were busy this week trying to secure one-on-one appointments with President Ranil Wickremesinghe on his call to work out an all-party national programme to tackle the political and economic challenges the country is facing.

One Muslim party MP who took part in the meeting said he was convinced President Wickremesinghe could steer the country towards its revival, but was worried about how to market it to his constituency.

Meanwhile, it seemed All Ceylon Muslim Congress leader Rishad Bathiudeen had figured out what to do ahead of others. Following a meeting with the President this week, he claimed President Wickremesinghe reportedly agreed not to implement the recommendations of the ‘One Country, One Law’ Presidential Task Force headed by Ven. Galagodaththe Gnansara Thera.

The task force came in for criticism when President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed the controversial monk as its chairman.

Many Tamil parties trying to attract Pathinathan

Just a couple of months passed since his retirement from various positions in the state service, and the former Northern Province Chief Secretary is receiving offers from various political parties to join full-time politics.

Anthony Pillai Pathinathan served as Chief Secretary of the province from 2015 until last year and opted to spend his retirement with family. But Tamil political parties have been approaching him ever since with intention of fielding him as a candidate for the Chief Minister post or Parliamentary polls once elections are called.

The former senior ranking official even turned down an appointment to be part of a presidential task force due to personal reasons, in the recent past as well.

The behind the scene talks with the former Chief Secretary became public when one of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Mannar district Parliamentarian Charles Nirmalanathan, addressing a farewell ceremony held yesterday, declared he was even willing to sacrifice his seat to Pathinathan for him to be elected to Parliament, if he decided to contest in the next election.

Our man in Kenya: Hoping Goodluck has some good news for SL

On the sidelines of the Kenyan General Elections this week, Sri Lanka’s ambassador in Kenya Velupillai Kananathan made a plea from the former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan for crude oil on tick. Both are members of the Independent Election Observer team. Nigeria is the biggest oil producer in Africa.

The bets seem to be on Vice President William Ruto winning with a wafer-thin majority. Our man lost no time
in greeting the prospective winner too (top right).

The sitting President Uhuru Kenyatta is backing the opposition candidate Raila Odinga in the presidential race.

Aragalaya: Action against top officers who supported it

During the recent public protest campaign or aragalaya, it was clear some top public sector officials were either reluctant to perform their duties due to pressure from protesters, or had taken decisions to support those in the campaign.

Some of them have already been identified and moved out from their positions, while investigations are underway on a few more.

Among the top positions where changes have been made are those in the Railway Department, Customs, Immigrations and Civil Aviation Department. One top officer has opted to retire. They have been moved out on the grounds of failure to perform their duties.

They did not see eye to eye over a tooth

A young Police officer’s mishap over the identification of a tooth is making the rounds in Police circles these days to the extent some say Police officers should be given specific training on how to identify human teeth compared to animal teeth during their mandatory training stint.

The new recruit officer who was deployed in Kandy randomly stopped a businessman at D.S. Senanayake Street in the city centre and found a tooth in his pocket. The businessman told the Police officer it was his since he had to undergo a tooth extraction a few days earlier and the dental surgeon gave it to him at his request.

The young officer who felt he had stumbled on a solid case suspected that it was an elephant’s tooth which might cost millions of rupees as most elephant parts are sold on the black market at exorbitant rates.

Despite the efforts by the businessman to prove his point, the Police officer did not seem to be moved and called his superiors who also suspected the tooth to be of an elephant. The Kandy perahera had been going on during the week after all and there were plenty of elephants in the town.

Finally, another senior high-ranking official had to attend to this issue amid his busy schedule and the businessman also had to provide a certificate from the dental surgeon who carried out the extraction procedure.

The whole saga took hours before said businessman cleared his name and left the scene. He lamented among his friends that Police should be given training on the identification process on various matters, including dental matters before being deployed on duty.

Katchatheevu issue comes up as bottom trawling continues to keep fishing in troubled waters

The continuing Indian bottom trawling within Sri Lanka’s territorial waters in the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar at the expense of the livelihood of Northern fisherfolk has become a bigger sore point.

The ongoing economic crisis has forced local fisherfolk to pool their limited fuel to send out a limited number of boats a day.

While many boats remained anchored on the Northern shore, the massive high-powered Indian trawlers are openly engaged in illegal fishing methods even during daytime while Sri Lankan authorities are mere spectators and Sri Lankan fisherfolk are in the kerosene queues.

Tired of taking up the issues with the authorities, Mullaithivu fisherfolk decided to take the matter to the Police directly to see what they could do.

Mullaithivu Fisherman’s Federation leader V. Arulnathan lodged a complaint with the Police alleging that despite many complaints made by them to many authorities, no action had been taken against Indian fisherfolk coming into Sri Lankan territorial waters and engaging in fishing.

Police personnel who processed the complaint were not sure how to take action against authorities who failed to take action to protect the livelihood of fisherfolk, but agreed to accept the complaint from the fisherman’s federation leader.

Meanwhile, M. Kannadasan, a regional trade unionist attached to Tamil Nadu’s ruling party–Dravida Munnetra Kazagam (DMK)–was in Jaffna this week to attend the annual conference of a local Tamil party. During a media briefing, he claimed the only solution to resolve the fisherfolk’s conflict was to allow India to retrieve the Katchatheevu islet from Sri Lankan custody.

He also made it clear that it was the way forward and the best possible solution for fisherfolk communities in both countries. He added that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin was also of the same view. He did not elaborate how this was going to help Sri Lankan fisherfolk. It was a wonder how the trade unionist was not hooted all the way back to the South Indian state.

Looks like certain elements were at play to fish in troubled waters for their own political benefits without understanding bilateral treaties and an agreement reached by the two governments on this same subject decades ago, and recently confirmed even by Indian courts.