By Neville de Silva

Those holidays in the good ole' days

Her encounter with Tim Sebastian during a probing interview on "Hard Talk" left Chandrika Kumaratunga as though she had just gone two rounds with Mohamed Ali or Lennox Lewis.

During a hugely expensive media blitz in London last November, the president lost an opportunity to get back at an inquisitorial novice from CNN. She only managed to come out of the David Frost meeting without shedding a few pounds in sweat, simply because the crafty old interviewer played the English gentleman and handled Chandrika Kumaratunga with kid gloves.

For the opportunity of watching this veritable verbal slaughter on television, the Sri Lankan public had to cough up millions of Sterling Pounds to a PR agency named Bell Pottinger that was potty enough to pit her against a media that seemed determined to make mincemeat of her.

When we thought that all this was thankfully over and done with, and the whiz kids who thought of exposing President Kumaratunga to international cross examination had quietly disappeared, comes last Sunday's delightful little piece in the London Sunday Times travel section which is generally read by those looking for cheap flights or even cheaper holidays.

"My Hols: Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga", is the headline of the article written by one Vanya Kewley which is all about where and how the president of Sri Lanka used to spend her holidays and how she has been cut away from the most wonderful visual sights in Sri Lanka.

In case readers have forgotten, this is the same newspaper that sent Marie Colvin to Sri Lanka to talk to LTTE leaders in the Wanni, cleverly camouflaging the real assignment by telling the Sri Lanka High Commission in London that she was going to report on the political situation in the country. Colvin's inaccurate, biased and contradictory reports got more international mileage than they would normally have, because she was injured in the eye by grenade shrapnel when she was surreptitiously returning to government-held lines after several days in the Wanni, even unaware as to whether she spent one week or two there.

It might be that the London Sunday Times, which is not particularly well known these days for ethical and good journalism, in a moment of sudden atonement for all the damage that Marie Colvin and the newspaper collectively did to Sri Lanka, decided to present the president with a chance to speak out freely- but only on holidays. And so the newspaper sends another of its writers to ask Chandrika Kumaratunga where she likes to spend her holidays.

It did remind me of primary school back home. 

At the beginning of every new term when we returned to school after the holidays, the English teacher would inevitably ask for a composition on "Where I spent my holidays". The intention being that we would let our imagination wander freely even if we didn't venture beyond the village Irida pola 

There was this mischievous chap who used to sit on my left. He was always thinking of some new prank to pull, especially if there were lady teachers. He would send a shrieking art teacher running out of class by placing frogs in her desk drawer.

So one day, not even two minutes after we were asked to write about where we spent our holidays, he put his pen down.

This gesture having been noted by the vigilant teacher, she asked him whether he had finished the composition.

"Yes teacher".

"All right. Read out to the class where you spent your holidays".

"At home," he said with a straight face.

Those were the days when corporal punishment was still an accepted mode of treating recalcitrant children and there were no do-gooders to shout child abuse each time your father slapped your face or the teacher tweaked your ear. The poor chap got what the teacher announced were his just desserts. The president responded thus: "After the Tamil Tigers tried to blow me up, concern about my personal security made nearly all the most beautiful holiday spots in Sri Lanka off limits to me."

Tourist Board Chairman Renton de Alwis, at least can draw some solace that the millions of pounds were not all wasted, for the president of the country herself gives the scenic beauty of Sri Lanka a certificate. At least he can have it displayed at every Tourist Board office.

And talking of certificates and student life, Chandrika Kumaratunga refers to her student days at the Sorbonne and in London where she had spent some memorable holidays. "Once I hitchhiked with a French girlfriend through most of Europe. I love history and was lucky to see and absorb a vast amount of Europe's incredible old architecture."