Untitled Document

Knowledge of the basics
Lack of a basic knowledge of procedural formalities, or not being conscious about it, seems to be causing President Chandrika Bandaranaike considerable embarrassment.

Earlier, the mandarins at the Ministry of Defence wrote direct to S. Prabagaran aliais Pulithevan, Head of the LTTE Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi about the need to maintain a direct dialogue over the Ceasefire Agreement. Firstly, such a communication should have been channelled through Norwegian facilitators. Secondly, the man to whom such a request should have been made was S.P. Tamilselvan, head of the Political Wing, who is negotiating peace.

Now there is another gaffe. It is over the extension of the service of the Inspector General of Police, Indra de Silva. He reaches 60 years on Thursday (February 19), the age of retirement. Presidential staff had asked the Constitutional Commission to re-appoint him as Inspector General of Police.

The Commission which met on Friday deliberated on the matter. They noted that they had no power to either appoint or extend the term of Mr de Silva who would become 60 years next Thursday.

The appropriate authority to decide on such an extension would be the Cabinet. Hence the CC had no option but to reject the request. The next Cabinet meeting is not likely in view of the public holiday for Maha Sivarathri. Hence the meeting of the Caretaker Cabinet will be held only on February 25.

In the meanwhile insiders say Mr. de Silva will be asked to function as acting Inspector General of Police.

Dictation of a kind
It happened recently at the country's only international airport.
The amorous boss had summoned the attractive typist for dictation at his official chalet, or so the security guards were told.

The men who are more alert after the devastating guerrilla attack on the airport two years ago discovered it was dictation of different sorts. It was the boss who was doing the dictation. The security men caught them in a love tryst.

Unable to get their story across to those who matter, the men put out their own "news bulletin". It only contained this story and complained that the typist has since been rewarded. They also complain that others at higher levels are suppressing the news about the incident.

Vanishing trick
Political appointees in Sri Lanka's overseas missions are usually a law unto themselves because of the power they wield with politicians in Colombo. In a Sri Lanka mission overseas, insiders say, two of these political appointees have strong-armed their way like the New York underworld thugs, and forcibly taken two computers donated by an international organisation and earmarked for poor children in schools in the villages. The two, one of them a former bodyguard of a VIP in Colombo, nearly fought over the computers, with one of them threatening to slit the throat of the other.

Five of the 32 gifted second-hand computers have disappeared to private homes of staffers, according to insiders in the mission. The head of the mission, who is also a political appointee, has remained helpless because his driver and his documentation officer have more political clout than the envoy.

If there is a change of government by April, all of these political appointees will surely get their marching orders to leave the country, with bag, baggage and their pilfered computers.

Back to Columns