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Swipe boomerangs?
Cabinet spokesman Nimal Siripala De Silva makes it a point to take a few swipes at the UNP and its Presidential candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe at almost every one of his weekly press briefings.

This week when he announced the Government was bringing a new Bill to establish a Commission to protect women’s rights, he said it wasn’t like the UNP “Rosy –Anchor” type of Charter.

Then he also took a swipe at the UNP for saying (George) Bush, as if Bush will do everything for our country. Shortly afterwards the minister himself went on to say that the Government was signing an agreement with the US government to enhance co-operation between the two countries in counter-terrorism measures. Sure looks like they want Bush as much as the UNP does.

An alternative method!
Cabinet has approved the purchase of four high-tech electronic scanners for the Colombo port which will be used to screen containers coming into the port. The equipment costing US $ 15.6 million was a long felt need, Cabinet Spokesman Nimal Siripala De Silva said.
He said with their introduction, even the LTTE won’t be able to smuggle things into the country. It’s very likely the LTTE will find an alternative method to do so.

Difficult to fathom
As for the LTTE, Mr. De Silva said the Government last week provided security to transport from the Wanni to Batticoloa, the body of a LTTE cadre who died of natural causes, and also provided a helicopter ride for another LTTE cadre who had to return to the Wanni after having received treatment at a private hospital in Colombo, for an ailment. Both requests were made by the LTTE to the SLMM. This he said was a demonstration of the ‘humane’ nature of the government.

Then he went on to vehemently condemn the LTTE for illegally detaining three policemen who had strayed into an LTTE area to arrest a British paedophile last month. As to why the Government cannot get these policemen released in exchange for providing such ‘humane’ facilities to LTTE cadres is difficult to fathom. Next time the LTTE might request a guard of honour for their dead cadres as well.

Something stinks
Clashes in the Rupavahini Corporation have become common these days. Last week office rooms of two top officials there came under an excreta attack from angry employees.

Some permanent employees had sprayed excreta into the rooms after the two officials had acted to grant permanent status to fifteen casual employees disregarding a circular. The two rooms were kept closed until a cleaning company got the stink out of them. Since the attack, the rooms have been put under heavy guard.

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