Columns

It is a common feature in Lankan politics where to ‘get something done’ or secure a government job, you have to go behind politicians to get recommendation letters or as some say ‘pull some strings’ to make things happen. Unfortunately, even some learned academics have resorted to following this pattern to secure posts.  

The latest in this sort of recommendation letter saga came from Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa who wrote to the Environment Minister Naseer Ahamed recommending M. H. D. P. Karunaratne, a resident of Tangalle, for the vacant post of Chief Executive Officer of the GSMB Technical Services (Pvt) Ltd which comes under the Minister.

While the letter titled ‘Requesting a job opportunity’ recommended the individual as a qualified person for the role, it added “I kindly request you to pay attention to this and provide the necessary support to fulfil this request and I highly appreciate your support in this regard.”

The letter was signed by Mr Rajapaksa in his capacity as Attorney-at-Law and Hambantota district Parliamentarian but what caught the attention is the spelling mistake for the word ‘Attorney’. The Parliamentarian dismissed this botched attempt casually saying many Parliamentarians give letters of recommendations.

Considering all these back-channel attempts, President Ranil Wickremesinghe appointed a committee headed by the President’s Secretary Saman Ekanayake to look into fresh appointments and transfers in top posts in State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). The committee is vested with powers to hear transfer requests on valid grounds and vet those individuals for the relevant vacant slots.

COVID in New York: UN requests only three to five delegates from member states

In a bygone era, our delegation in one memorable year, consisted of more than 100 delegates—to be precise a total head count of 132. But most of them were holidaying at tax payer expense–visiting tourist spots like Niagara Falls, making a tour of seedy porno shops in New York’s notorious Times Square (some of them run by Sri Lankans offering discounts to our delegates), trying their luck at casinos in the neighbouring state of New Jersey or visiting friends and relatives in the US.

If Sri Lanka still decides to field a huge delegation this year, there is joke currently in circulation as to how many of our delegates will defect–try to seek political (or mental) asylum in the US, as several of our athletes did during the Commonwealth Games at Birmingham in the United Kingdom early this month or the Sri Lanka Navy sailors on a US Navy drill in Hawaii.

SLPP media briefing: Gotabaya goes missing for a day

In the post-Aragalaya scenario, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) is trying its best these days to stay relevant in politics even though it lost the popular mandate after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country and Prime Minister   Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned.

Frequent media conferences, organised at the party’s office throughout the week give some space for its MPs and activists to make statements on various topics, but they are careful enough not to criticise the Ranil Wickremesinghe government which the party wholeheartedly supports.

On Monday, it was the turn for Digamadulla district Parliamentarian Wimalaweera Dissanayake. As he started addressing the audience, reporters noted a change in the background digital banner. There was one image missing in the digital banner–it was former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

There were only two Rajapaksa brothers–former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and ex-Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa–featured in the banner. When one reporter noted the difference and raised it with party officials, he was told by those on stage they were not aware of the reason.

The matter was raised later with the party secretary’s office and the next day’s media briefing had the former President reinstated and all three Rajapaksa brothers were back on digital display.

Jaffna University under stress: Head of department tries to commit suicide

A series of suicide attempts last week, including a learned professor attached to the University of Jaffna, sent shock waves among the community and highlighted the need to raise awareness of mental health issues and seeking therapy to counter them.

According to University insiders, the professor was set to be appointed as a department head in the absence of the incumbent who was due to leave for post-graduate studies abroad. A last-minute change, however, cancelling his study plans caused the professor stress to the point that he had attempted to take his life within the university premises itself this week.

Some days back, a university student who was among a group of 18 students who were allegedly involved in ragging activities in the universities tried to commit suicide, but survived and is now in hospital. It was just weeks ago that another student also tried to take her life in her boarding room due to academic stress.

A fellow academic was heard saying in his circles that it is high time society as a whole took a serious look at mental health issues within the community rather than merely considering it taboo and to ensure help for those in need to avoid the recurrence of such behaviour, especially when those who are said to be learned and to lead in society in the future find themselves struggling with this issue.

Cattle help ex-minister in court battle

Former Minister Mervyn Silva probably did not expect that his one-time campaign against cattle slaughter would help him to walk out without any bail conditions after being arrested by Police over an incident that happened some fifteen years ago.

The controversial Minister known for punishing individuals by tying them to a tree, presented himself when he was summoned by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) on Thursday over entering into the state-run Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) and causing tension among the staff. After being grilled for a couple of hours, he was arrested and produced before the Colombo Additional Magistrate Court.

After hearing the submissions by counsel representing Mr Silva, Colombo’s Additional Magistrate Keminda Perera declared in open court there was no need to grant bail for someone who stopped cattle slaughter in Kelaniya, and released him with the instruction that the irrepressible currently hibernating politician can present himself to court on November 16 when the case would be taken up for hearing.

Transport Minister faces rough ride as passengers grumble

Transport Minister Bandula Gunawardane was met with hostile reception from some passengers when he boarded a luxury expressway bus at the Makumbura Multimodal Centre on Friday to launch a new prepaid
card system to enable cashless
public transport.

Mobile phone footage shows passengers protesting, saying officials had forced some passengers, including elderly ones, to disembark from the bus to make room for the minister and his entourage. They also protested that the minister’s presence was delaying the bus from leaving on time.

This prompted an exchange of words among the passengers, the minister and officials. The minister then spoke to an elderly couple in the front of the bus who claimed it was they who had been forced to disembark briefly and they were not terribly affected by what happened.

“This country cannot change because of older people like that,” a young female passenger was heard saying.

Tamil diaspora groups lobby candidates for Downing Street

These days, the British Tamil diaspora groups are busy lobbying with potential Prime Minister candidates to ensure they have some sort of influence at Number 10 Downing Street regardless of political developments
in Sri Lanka.

Weeks before the crucial British Conservative Party leadership election, an outfit called British Tamil Conservatives organised a virtual meeting with one of the candidates–Rishi Sunak to discuss matters relating to Sri Lanka.

In his opening statement, the Indian-origin British lawmaker made it clear that he is with the international community on taking a tough stand on Sri Lanka’s wartime accountability and the role played by the United Kingdom in the passage of the UN Resolution passed by the UN Human Rights Council.

During the Q&A session, one participant raised a question on how his future government will make sure that “corrupt Sri Lankan officials” would not be able to spend ill-gotten financial gains in the UK. Mr Sunak responded by saying that a similar approach to what happened to Russian officials would be considered by his government.

“We have got a much better playbook and we know more about how to do it… It is a new tool in our toolkit,” Mr Sunak said while pointing out his role in formulating the mechanism on the Russians as former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister).

Fire on Israeli-owned ship which came to Colombo but it was not reported

A Zim container ship suffered a cargo hold fire shortly after departing Colombo earlier this month. The 102,500 dead weight (DWT) capacity Zim Charleston, registered in Hong Kong and operating under charter to Zim, had departed China and made stops in Hong Kong and Singapore before Colombo.

The incident has gone unreported here, but the Maritime Executive, the maritime industry’s leading source for breaking maritime and marine news, has reported the incident.

Cargo claims consultant W. K. Webster is advising clients, “We have received reports that container ship, Zim Charleston experienced a fire in cargo hold no. 4 while navigating off Colombo on August 8, 2022. The vessel is reported to have berthed at East Container Terminal, Colombo, where containers stowed on deck in the affected bays were discharged on August 12, 2022,” according to the Maritime Executive.

The extent of the damage remains unconfirmed with reports saying that officials were working with Zim to determine if it was safe to discharge containers from the affected hold. AIS signals show the vessel remained docked in Colombo on Thursday. The fire appears to have been discovered while the vessel was underway in the Indian Ocean west of Sri Lanka and the ship reversed course returning to Colombo.

According to Webster, about 300 containers may have been affected by fire, heat, smoke and water damage arising from the subsequent firefighting operations. This would be the second fire reported aboard a container ship operated by Zim in the last year. The integrated shipping services Ltd. commonly known as Zim is a publicly
held Israeli international shipping company.