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Lanka relegated to bottom slot at UN General Assembly sessions
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When the high-level segment of the UN General Assembly begins on September 20, the long list of speakers includes 92 heads of state (HS) and 56 heads of government (HG). But our own HS/HG will be MIA (missing in action).
In the original list of speakers released last month, Sri Lanka had a prime speaking slot on September 21 because the UN listed our HS as the speaker for that day. But now we have been relegated to the position of one of the last speakers on Saturday (September 24) because the leader of this year’s delegation will be a “minister” designated by the UN with the letter M.
But this year’s “usual suspects”, mostly leaders of authoritarian regimes (read: dictators), are skipping the UN, including Vladimir Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China, Kim Jong-un of North Korea, Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and Myanmar’s military leadership. A Western diplomat said last week
these missing leaders looked like a veritable “political rogue’s gallery”.
SLPP MP D.V. Chanaka being sworn in as a state minister on Thursday by President Ranil Wickremesinghe
Family feud: State Minister refuses to work with his minister
A long-standing family dispute forced the Presidential Secretariat to switch a State Ministerial portfolio this week. This week D.V. Chanaka was sworn in as State Minister of Conservation of Wildlife and Forest Resources but later he realised that the Cabinet Minister of his Ministry is Mahinda Amaraweera.
The families of the two politicians have been having a feud for decades and the newly appointed State Minister made it clear that he could not work with him under the same Ministry. Therefore, the Secretariat which was not aware of the family feud had to change the subject of the State Minister.
Following the intervention by the Secretariat, he was given the portfolio of Power and Energy which was already assigned to Indika Anuruddha. There were another instance where the subject of ‘Finance’ was given to two State Ministers — Ranjith Siyambalapitiya and Shehan Semasinghe.
As they say, what matters for politicos is the ‘post’ to stay relevant to politics until the next election.
Distrust and mistrust over Liz Truss’ turnaround
The United Kingdom’s newly elected Prime Minister Liz Truss, a working-class woman from the Conservative party, made history this week but little is known about how she has evolved over years as a political leader and her political ideas too took a turn along the way.
According to a profile published by The New York Times shortly after her appointment to the UK’s highest office, she was a star student activist even during her school days.
As a passionate 19- year-old student at Oxford in 1994, Ms Truss called for a referendum to abolish the British monarchy, telling an audience of fellow Liberal Democrats, “We do not believe that people should be born to rule.”
Three decades later, Ms. Truss, now 47, travelled to a Scottish castle on Tuesday to be anointed as Britain’s new prime minister by Queen Elizabeth II, days before her death, completing a political odyssey from rabble-rousing republican to tradition-cloaked leader of the Conservative Party.
The onetime Foreign Secretary, Ms. Truss was seen in an official photograph shaking hands with the monarch to accept her offer to form a new government and become the 15th Prime Minister of her 70-year reign.
Exposed: Economic illiteracy of some MPs
As elected representatives, MPs are expected to reflect the grassroots level situation and raise in Parliament difficulties faced by their constituencies, but these days such conduct is rarely seen since it is largely ‘wheeler-dealer’ politics.
Statesmanship of yesteryears where the House witnessed the oratory skills of some of the most brilliant minds the country ever produced is long gone.
Now it has come to the level of educating the so-called elected representatives on the relationship between inflation rate and interest rate as rates shot up sharply in recent months.
The Committee on Public Finance (COPF) met in Parliament this week to discuss the need to brief MPs on the nature of the current economic crisis the country is facing in the wake of “Mid-Year Fiscal Position Report -2022″ which was tabled in Parliament on July 27.
Pointing out that the interest rate may increase with the increase in inflation, COPF Chairman Harsha de Silva proposed to educate MPs on the relationship between inflation and interest rate under the awareness initiative.
The economic literacy among the MPs was evident during a recent meeting that was attended by Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe to brief them on the current economic situation in the country.
Later, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa openly expressed his disappointment over the conduct of some MPs who took part in the meeting and attempts by some of them to discredit the Central Bank for its
past decisions.
Aiyo Sirisena: More power but no action
Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Chairman and former President Maithripala Sirisena is increasingly cutting a sorry figure as a party leader after more MPs defied him to take up state ministerial posts in the government.
Six SLFP MPs were among the 37 new state ministers who were sworn in before President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Thursday. They are Jagath Pushpakumara, Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, Lasantha Alagiyawanna, Shantha Bandara, Dr. Suren Raghavan and Chamara Sampath Dasanayake. Earlier, MPs Nimal Siripala De Silva and Mahinda Amaraweera went against Mr Sirisena’s wishes and accepted Cabinet posts.
Given the latest defections, the SLFP leader is increasingly becoming isolated from his own MPs. Mr Sirisena was successful in amending the party constitution last week, giving him powers to take action against members who violate the party’s constitution.
Though there had been some sabre rattling by Party General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekara earlier that the party would take action against MPs who take up posts with the government, the only ‘action’ that has come about is a statement from Mr Sirisena expressing ‘regret’ at the actions of SLFP MPs who had accepted ministerial posts against the wishes of the party and for ‘personal gain.’
PM acts as role model: Returns fuel allowance
Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena has returned more than Rs. 1.5 million that had been allocated for the use of his official vehicle as a fuel allowance when he was Leader of the House.
The money was from the fuel allowance that had been allocated for his official vehicle when he was Leader of the House from January to July 2022. Mr Gunawardena had saved the money from the allowance when he held the post and returned the amount this week to the office of the Leader of the House.
Mr Gunawardena ensured that the funds were personally handed over to the new Leader of the House, Susil Premajayantha.
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