Columns

• President’s office orders probe and action against strikers

Unrest erupted at the Jaya Container Terminal of the Colombo Port early yesterday after Sri Lanka Port Authority (SLPA) workers went on strike because they were not served the usual banana with their meal.
SLPA workers are already incensed over the controversial event hosted this week by Ports and Aviation State Minister Premalal Jayasekara. That event, hosted on January 9, saw more than a dozen Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) MPs including former President Mahinda Rajapaksa being entertained on board an SLPA vessel, allegedly at state expense. Mr. Jayasekara denied this after hidden cell phone camera footage of the party went viral on social media and was picked up
by television channels. He held a news conference to claim much of the expenses had been borne by his personal funds.
Many SLPA workers appear to believe otherwise, as shown by their angry reaction to the failure to give them the bananas. It is reported that the workers decided to go on strike, saying that if ministers and MPs could go on tours and joy rides in the port, there was no excuse for authorities failing to give them the banana that they always got with their meals.
The disruption over the banana matter lasted for almost four hours before employees went back to work. The matter was later conveyed to the Presidential Secretariat, which instructed those in charge to first find out whose fault it was that the bananas had not been given and to take action against them. Secondly, they have also been instructed to identify from the roster employees who took part in the strike and take disciplinary action against them, noting that the courts have already issued an enjoining order preventing trade union action from interrupting operations at the port. The president’s office has also instructed officials to file a motion in court and inform it that a group of employees had gone on strike in violation of the court order. This is tantamount to contempt of court.
“Just another day in bananaland,” a senior official quipped when asked about
the turmoil over boat rides and bananas.

Disappointments over President’s appointments of ministry secretaries
The appointment of 10 new ministry secretaries recently by President Ranil Wickremesinghe has drawn the ire of some officials who had been bypassed for promotion, though they are higher on the list of seniority in the state service.
The decision to appoint several junior officials as ministry secretaries had left some of the seniors disgruntled. They include some additional secretaries of various ministries and district secretaries. Some of them, concerned that they may not get a chance to be a ministry secretary and retire without reaching the top post, have publicly questioned whether there is any point in
having seniority lists anymore if this is how things are being done.
When contacted, a senior official at the President’s Office acknowledged that they were aware that the recent appointments had been met with anger among some senior officials, but said that appointing a ministry secretary was the President’s prerogative. The President had appointed several junior officials and some seniors on service extensions after reviewing their performances, he claimed.
“Each official will initially be in this post for one year. They have been given specific targets to meet. If they fail to achieve that, then those on extension will be sent home, while the juniors will be demoted. We are confident, however, that they will perform as we were looking for officials with proven records and don’t have allegations of wrongdoing against them,” the official said.
He stressed that there was no reason for senior officials to be disgruntled. “What they need to do is work well in the positions given to them.
If they perform, they have nothing to worry about,”
he added.

Bark and bite in hunt for precious puppy
Batapola Police have launched an extensive “dog hunt” to track down a puppy valued at more than Rs. 100,000. It was recently reported to have been stolen from a house in the area.
The pup’s owner had put out a Facebook post offering a reward of Rs. 50,000 for information leading to the recovery of the pup. He had then received a tip from a person claiming to have seen a puppy being taken in a three-wheeler on the day it was reported stolen and that the three-wheeler had stopped at a filling station in the area for petrol.
The police have now obtained a court order to obtain the CCTV footage recorded at the filling station on the day of the theft. They are also looking into a report that a woman living nearby orchestrated the theft and had given the puppy to her brother who is serving in the police.

TNA MP seeks economic weapon from Tamil Nadu
The Tamil National Alliance’s Batticaloa District Parliamentarian Shanakiyan Rasamanickam was one of the guests invited to the two-day World Tamil Diaspora Day event organised by the Tamil Nadu State government in Chennai this week.
Some 58 guests of Tamil origin from various countries took part in the event. In parallel to the event, the state government held a major investment forum titled “Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet”, which attracted USD 6 billion in investments.
During his speech, Mr. Rasamanickam requested a ‘weapon’—not in the sense of meaning as Indian intelligence agencies funded, armed, and trained Tamil militant gangs in the 1980s but on the lines of “economic support and collaboration” to develop the former war-torn areas.
The MP also recalled how those days’ militant groups used to land in Tamil Nadu for arms, regrouping, and political support, using the foreign land as a base before returning home to launch an attack.

Question from Northern fishermen: Lanka cannot stop Indian fishermen in Palk Strait but going to stop Houthi attacks in Red Sea
Many have expressed their concerns and questioned the rationale behind the government’s recent decision to send a Navy ship to the Red Sea to counter the Houthi attacks.
The latest group to criticise the move was the Northern Fishermen Unions, which are at the receiving end due to Indian fishermen routinely engaging in illegal bottom-trawling in Northern waters despite heavy Navy presence.
To save their boats and equipment, Northern fishermen groups have stopped going to sea on selected days or when they see Indian bottom trawlers venturing into Lankan territorial waters.
One fishermen leader who addressed the media asked, “If our Navy ships cannot prevent Indian fishermen from coming into our waters, fishing for hours, and returning safely to their shore, how are they going to protect shipping lanes in the Red Sea?”

Namal keen on SLPP dissidents returning to the fold
This week’s meeting of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) MPs and State Ministers was held at the official residence of parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa at Malalasekara Mawatha. A group of SLPP seniors too were in attendance at the discussion.
Talk soon turned to MPs who had left the government to sit independently. While some of these liked to join other opposition parties, a majority were indicating a willingness to return, some MPs said.
Namal Rajapaksa noted he had publicly said that both Prof. G.L. Peiris and Dullas Alahapperuma should be with the SLPP. “Can’t we speak to them and see?” one of the MPs present asked.
Mr Rajapaksa said he hoped to meet personally with each independent MP and party leader starting next week to extend them an invitation to return to the party.

Treasury Secretary insists Lanka did not declare bankruptcy
Members of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to Investigate Causes for Financial Bankruptcy were left stunned this week when Finance Ministry Secretary Mahinda Siriwardana told them that the name of their PSC was wrong.
Mr. Siriwardana was called this week to give evidence before the Committee chaired by Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam. Before he began giving evidence, the Finance Ministry Secretary said he had serious concerns regarding the name of the PSC. “The country did not declare financial bankruptcy. What it did on April 12, 2022, was declare a debt standstill, which meant that it would not pay back selected loans for a specific period. We asked our creditors for time to pay back our loans as we were going for a debt restructuring programme. Nowhere did we use the term bankruptcy,” he told the PSC.
The members present pointed out that the term bankruptcy had been used extensively, including by the President, who is also the Finance Minister, the opposition leader, and even the courts. “It is not a technically correct term. We have never declared bankruptcy,”
Mr. Siriwardana insisted.

SLT restructuring: Hello, who is Gortune or is it a typo?
The much-awaited announcement of the restructuring of Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) came on Friday through a statement issued by the Finance Ministry’s State-Owned Enterprises Restructuring Unit, which oversees the restructuring process of loss-making state entities.
What caught the attention of many was the profiles of three companies, and one in particular, “Gortune International Investment Holding Ltd,” represented locally through an investment fund. There has been no evidence to suggest any global company registered under that name, prompting netizens to speculate whether there was a ‘typo’ in the statement.
The other two prospective investors are major players in the global telecommunications industry, with one being Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Platforms Ltd., India. The other is Pettigo Comercio International LDA, the parent group of Lyca Mobile, whose founder and Chief Executive Officer is Sri Lankan-origin British businessman Subaskaran Allirajah. He is already making inroads in Sri Lanka through other investments, such as movie production and electronic media.

India-Maldives row deepens: Boycott campaign intensifies
Recent anti-Indian sentiments expressed by Maldivian junior ministers who were later suspended by their government turned out to be a major blow to diplomatic ties between the Maldives and India.
The social media took the matter to another level, resulting in effective “Boycott Maldives” campaigns both online and offline in the past few days by Indians.
The Maldivian ministers’ comments were directed at Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indians in general following his recent visit to Lakshadweep. The visit was interpreted as a “checkmate” for the Maldives by Mr. Modi’s supporters after the new Maldivian government, which is close to Beijing. The new government made it a priority to remove Indian military personnel who were stationed in the archipelago, as it was one of the election pledges during the campaigns.
With angry patriotic Indians, Bollywood celebrities, and travel companies taking the social media platforms to express their feelings, India’s External Affairs Ministry also summoned the Maldivian Ambassador to South Block to express its displeasure.
Even the leading corporate collectives such as the influential Indian Chamber of Commerce also joined the campaign with its Chairman Dr. Subhash Goyal urging Indian business entities to join the boycott call as a ‘patriotic Indian in the larger national interest’.
He issued a statement, saying, “This is in spite of the fact that Indians are one of the biggest sources of foreign exchange and creation of jobs in the Maldives. Please divert all such enquiries to Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar Islands which are even better than Maldives in many ways, and other
destinations which can be promoted in the Indian Ocean area are Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Bali, and Phuket.”
Amidst all the chaos, an ordinary Indian citizen stressed on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that they require ‘prior approvals’ from multiple Indian government agencies before visiting the Indian islands, whereas to visit the Maldives where Indians are welcomed with visa on arrival facility without much hassle.