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In Kenya, Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner V. Kananathan is setting records by getting invited to be an independent observer of election after election on the African continent.

This time, Liberia’s National Elections Commission has asked him to be part of an observer team for its October 10 elections for a President, Vice President, almost a third of its Senate, and all seventy-three members of its Lower House, the House of Representatives.

V. Kananathan

Liberia’s electoral system is based on elections for all representatives on the same day, and in the case of the President, a 50 percent plus one vote is required for the winning candidate or a runoff two weeks later between the first two higest-polling candidates from the October 10 poll.

Dr. Kananathan previously served on the independent observer teams in elections in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe.

Who knows, his expertise may be required at a Sri Lankan election in the not-too-distant future.

Police permission to start affairs; SSP says it’s fake news

The Police Department was the butt end of jokes in sections of the mainstream and social media this week after officers raided a park run by a private institution in Homagama following complaints that underage couples were behaving indecently in specially made cubicles inside the park.

Police claimed that 24 underage couples were found inside these cubicles and that steps were taken to hand them over to their parents and guardians after issuing a stern warning to the ‘kids’.

An argument between a senior police officer and a person from the park company over the raid also went viral on social media. While some social media users voiced support for the police action, others questioned whether the police had their priority right to engage in what could be termed as moral policing when there were so many other, more serious, and violent crimes being committed seemingly at will.

Soon after the much-talked-about raid, a document began circulating online purporting to be an “application” that anyone wishing to start a love affair must fill out and submit to the police station of the area where a person wishing to begin a love affair resides. This was recommended to obtain the necessary police approval to begin a courtship.

It may have been due to some people’s growing penchant for believing whatever they read online, or it may have been driven by the bizarre manner in which police have been prone to act in similar cases. Whatever the reason, some mainstream media outlets actually contacted Police Spokesman Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Nihal Thalduwa to verify the authenticity of the purported application. SSP Thalduwa firmly replied that there was no truth in the rumour that prior police permission should be obtained to start a love affair and stressed that the so-called application for such permission being shared online was fake.

Ministry sets up integrated database to encourage public servants to go for foreign jobs

These days, the government is actively promoting more Sri Lankan professionals and the local labour force to go abroad as migrant workers and remit funds back home, while civil society organisations are decrying the brain drain that is going to have a serious impact on the country.

The latest initiative taken by the Labour and Foreign Employment Ministry is to set up an online database for public sector employees who are interested in foreign employment.

The platform, Integrated Guidance and Referral System (IGRS), is designed to provide end-to-end services including registration, screening, referral to upskilling, on-the-job training, and guidance towards foreign employment for those public servants who are willing to take up foreign jobs.

Red light for Treasury official who wanted to go to Marrakesh

Even though a team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was in Sri Lanka for several days this week, a senior Treasury official from the Department of External Resources has asked for permission to travel to Marrakesh in Morocco this month to attend the annual meetings of the World Bank and the IMF.

The official has requested travel expenses totalling more than Rs. 1.4 million to attend the meetings. It is yet another example of government officials attempting to go on “joy rides” at state expense despite strict instructions to minimise non-essential foreign travel.

The Presidential Secretariat has rejected the request.

Port City investment meetings: Presidential advisor misuses secretariat letterhead

The issue of certain officials overstepping their authority has been an all-too-common problem when it comes to governance in Sri Lanka. Yet another such incident has been reported in recent days, and it is one that has caused international embarrassment for Sri Lanka.

The country’s efforts to attract foreign investment for the flagship Port City project received news that former British Prime Minister David Cameron had come forward to promote Colombo Port City.

Mr. Cameron was scheduled to promote investments in Port City during invitee-only events in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the Emirates this week.

The events were carefully planned, given their importance and the fact that many potential foreign investors would be in attendance. While these preparations were underway, a senior presidential advisor wrote directly to one of the invitees regarding the event in Dubai and urged him to get in touch with his own coordinating secretary and confirm his attendance for the event.

The letter was sent under the letterhead of the Presidential Secretariat. It was only recently that the Presidential Secretariat issued a circular laying out strict instructions on the usage of its letterhead, stressing that the letterhead cannot be misused.

Neither the President nor senior officials on his staff were aware of the move by the advisor to reach out directly to a potential investor.

Presidential official says he does not give massages

At the President’s Office, a top official was taken aback recently when the head of a major government institution in the livestock sector asked him in writing to send a message of felicitation congratulating the institution on its 50th anniversary.

The institution is planning a series of events to coincide with the anniversary, including the publication of a tabloid supplement in Sinhala and English in state-run newspapers. Its chairman had accordingly sent a letter to the senior official requesting him to send a message to be carried in the supplement.

The letter’s heading, however, boldly proclaimed that the state organisation was requesting the official to provide a “Massage” for its 50th anniversary.

The request was turned down, with a firm “message” that the official was not in the habit of giving “massages.”

Will we get more dollars as Sabry, Moragoda support India in its spat with Canada

The ongoing diplomatic row between Canada and India turned out to be something Sri Lanka could have kept its nose out of.

It is a known fact that the government opposed the shocking announcement by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that there was ‘genocide’ committed in Sri Lanka while issuing commemorative statements marking the end of the final phases of the separatist insurgency in Sri Lanka and racially motivated riots against Tamils in 1983. Its diplomats based in Colombo were also summoned to the Foreign Ministry to express the government’s displeasure with the stands taken by the Canadian leader.

But for Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Sabry to wade into the Indo-Canadian spat over the assassination allegedly by the Indian spy agency, RAW, of a Sikh dissident took even his own government by surprise. He criticised Canada and its Prime Minister for levelling baseless allegations in public against India without any evidence. He did not stop there but went on to claim that some terrorists had found a safe haven on Canadian soil as well. There you go.

Synchronised with the Sabry onslaught was some solidarity rhetoric with India by the outgoing Sri Lankan High Commissioner Milinda Moragoda who is scheduled to return home at the conclusion of his term in India.

Addressing a farewell reception organised by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia in New Delhi earlier this week, the High Commissioner said India’s response to the Canadian accusations has been “equitable and also firm and direct”. Come on, India, you owe Sri Lanka another billion dollars for all of this support.