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While President Ranil Wickremesinghe commissioned the offshore Patrol Vessel P627 as the most recent inclusion to the fleet of the Sri Lanka Navy as SLNS ‘Vijayabahu’ at the Colombo Port this week, the third such ship donated by the US Government, Sri Lanka’s newly appointed Ambassador in Japan, Rodney Perera who is yet to present his credentials formally to the Emperor got the unique opportunity to meet with the Japanese Prime Minister, its Defence Minister and Naval Chiefs of key Asian countries when he attended by invitation the International Fleet Review on JS IZUMO at Sagami Bay.

The IZUMO, the largest Japanese naval vessel and a helicopter/light aircraft carrier, has visited Sri Lanka before.

During the event, Ambassador Perera was able to have brief interactions with Japanese Premier Fumio Kishida, Defence Minister Yasukazu Hazama,
and the Vice Defence Minister Kimi Onoda.

At another event to mark the conclusion of the Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS) in Yokohama that brought together the chiefs of 27 navies, Ambassador Perera had the opportunity to meet with host Admiral Ryo Sakai, Chief of Staff, Maritime Self Defence Force, Admiral R. Hari Kumar, Chief of Naval Staff of India, Admiral Muhammad Amjad Khan Niazi, Chief of Naval Staff of Pakistan and Vice Admiral Wang Dazhong of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, along with Rear Admiral Neville Amara Ubayasiri of the Sri Lanka Navy.

Seems like a lot is happening over the ‘warm waters’ of the Indo-Pacific region.

Sirisena’s tale of 2 presidents and call for overhauling armed forces

Participating in the debate on the head of expenditure of the Defence Ministry on Thursday, former President Maithripala Sirisena drew parallels between the way he claimed intelligence agencies failed him as well as former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

President Sirisena claimed senior officials had shared information between them of an attack prior to the Easter Sunday bombings, but they had not communicated it to him as the President in any way. “What happened to President Gotabaya? His experience was similar to what I went through. From what I understand, intelligence agencies informed him on the day he was forced to flee that only between 25, 000 to 30, 000 were converging on Colombo. So he believed it could be controlled. But more than 400, 000 turned up. No one expected that. So what happened? The President had to flee and the Prime Minister and other ministers had to go into hiding.”

He said both incidents show that rather than pumping billions more funding into the defence budget, what was needed was a complete overhaul of the armed forces.

Spare the cane and spoil the teacher

The question of whether teachers should be able to report to school in any attire other than the saree continues to be a hot topic, with strong opinions being expressed on the matter by those on both sides of the debate.

Some teachers continued to report to work in casual attire throughout this week after an initial protest that began on Monday (21). At a mixed government school in the North-Western Province, some old boys took it upon themselves to visit the school to meet the principal to register their protest against several teachers at the school reporting to work in casual attire.  The group, all men, posted a video and photographs on their “old boys association” Facebook page (again excluding female alumni), signing a petition against the teachers, accusing them of “destroying the Sri Lankan culture.”

The leader of the group, who some commentators have identified as a local council chairman, is seen warning the principal in the video that they may be forced to resort to “other means” if the teachers did not listen to their request. “If the bull ignores the farmer’s shouted command when ploughing the field, he is forced to use the cane. Likewise, we too will be forced to take the farmer’s route if our request is not heeded,” he says.  A majority of Facebook users have not taken kindly to what clearly amounts to a threat by a group of men to use violence against female teachers who don’t subscribe to their view. The Facebook page of the old boys’ association has now been
inundated with a flood of negative comments.

Milk tea and one short-eat: The most a visitor gets at President’s office

The entertainment budgets have been slashed in ministries as well as the President’s
office in view of the current economic crisis.

This week after the Cabinet meeting a separate meeting of selected offices was being held. Among the participants were ministry secretaries and they were served cake .

One of the senior officers from the Prime Minister’s office attending the meeting remarked, “it was after some time we are enjoying a piece
of cake”.

It was only later that they found out it had been the birthday of one of the officer’s of the President’s office and that was the reason cake was served – on his account.

It was revealed that due to the strict budget, a new schedule of entertaining visitors is now being implemented depending on the time spent at the President’s office. – for one hour the visitors are served a plain tea, for two hours a
milk tea and more than three hours , milk tea with a solitary short-eat.

This was in contrast to the lavish entertainment facilities available earlier catered from five star hotels for bills which are still being paid.

The state of our House!

It certainly was an eventful and yet comical week in Parliament, with several MPs making fools of themselves in full public view.

First up was Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Hambantota District MP Dilip Wedaarachchi, who chose to hold a protest in the well of the House on Monday to mark World Fisheries Day. Mr Wedaarachchi has long been an advocate for fishermen’s issues and a former State Minister of Fisheries. He (in)famously ate raw fish on live television in 2020 to prove there was no risk of COVID-19 transmission through the consumption of seafood.

Mr Wedaarachchi said on Monday that he was holding the protest over injustices being suffered by local fishermen. He claimed he would continue with his protest in the House until the end of that day’s Parliament session. He thereafter made his way to the middle of the chamber and sat on the ground.

His protest barely lasted 10 minutes, with Deputy Chairperson of the Committee Angajan Ramanadan who was presiding in the Chair, repeatedly telling Mr Wedaarachchi to end his protest so that the business of the House could continue. The former state minister was then accompanied back to his seat by two SJB MPs.

On Wednesday, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena ordered SJB Badulla District MP Chaminda Wijesiri to leave the chamber after he attempted to assault Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) MP Nimal Lanza. The incident occurred when Mr Wijesiri protested that Mr Lanza, who is sitting as an independent with the Opposition, was using time allocated by the Opposition to speak in favour of the Government.

An angry Mr Lanza was heard telling Mr Wijesiri that he would speak what he wished and asking him, who he (Wijesiri) was to question that. It was at this point that Mr Wijesiri attempted to make his way down to Mr Lanza seemingly to assault him before other MPs intervened. He was subsequently ordered out of the chamber.

The MP however, returned to take part in the committee stage debate, where he got into an argument with the Leader of the House, Susil Premajayantha, who had called on the Speaker to remove him.

SLPP MP Chamara Sampath Dassanayake, who was recently sworn in as a state minister, also took issue with Speaker Abeywardena after the latter referred to him as “Honourable Member.”

“I’m not an MP. I’m a State Minister thanks to Ranil Wickremesinghe. Don’t you know that?” an angry Mr Dassanayake queried from the Speaker. Mr Abeywardena then apologised, with a giggle.

Mr Dassanayake is among those MPs representing the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) who have defected to the government. SLFP General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekara pointed out the next day that all MPs are referred to in Parliament as Members and need not be referred to as Minister, State Minister or Deputy Minister. He said he regrets that the Speaker actually apologised to Mr Dassanayake over the matter when it was the latter that was in the wrong in insisting that he be referred to as a State Minister.

Is it any wonder that people constantly say they don’t care for any of the 225 MPs in the House?