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Sri Lanka’s digital literacy definition, which is much simpler than that of UNESCO, has led to Sri Lankans being classified as “digitally literate,” even if they possess below-average skills. Accordingly, even five-year-olds are identified as computer-literate if they can play video games.

In an attempt to simplify the definition of a “digitally literate person,” the Department of Census and Statistics in its Annual Bulletin of Computer Literacy Statistics 2023 identified “a person aged 5-69 if he or she could use a computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone on his or her own” as a digitally literate person.

Interestingly, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) defines digital literacy as “the ability to access, manage, understand, integrate, communicate, evaluate, and create information safely and appropriately through digital technologies for employment, decent jobs, and entrepreneurship.” Given this definition, one wonders how a five-year-old could be considered “digitally literate”.

The Census Department report identified a computer-literate person as “a person aged 5-69 if he or she could use a computer on his or her own” and cites as an example the 5-year-old child if he or she can play a computer game.

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Actor-turned-politico staged his own shooting

Detectives probing the shooting allegedly directed at actor-turned-politician Uddika Premarathna in Anuradhapura in September last year have unearthed startling details that point to an Oscar-worthy performance by the former MP.

Mr. Premarathna, known for his roles as the dashing young hero in Sinhala films, orchestrated the shooting
himself, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has now found.

An Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), who had allegedly colluded with Mr. Premarathna to carry out the shooting, fled to Malaysia this week after sending back his service revolver through a third party. The CID is to seek assistance from Interpol to arrest him and bring him back to Sri Lanka to face charges.

Mr. Premarathna lodged a complaint last year that unidentified assailants who had arrived in a car had opened fire on his private vehicle parked next to his residence on the night of September 17 last year. He claimed the gunmen had targeted him while his car was approaching his residence.

The MP subsequently resigned from his parliamentary seat and left the country along with his family. He is currently residing overseas.

Rajapaksha-Aluthgamage second round next week

Gunathilaka Rajapaksha

The ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) faces an uncomfortable week in Parliament next week over the continued fallout from the alleged physical altercation between its Kandy District parliamentarians, Gunathilaka Rajapaksha and Mahindananda Aluthgamage.

Mr. Rajapaksha, who claimed Mr. Aluthgamage assaulted him after the government parliamentary group meeting at the Presidential Secretariat, has said he intends to make a statement in Parliament on the matter.

Mahindananda Aluthgamage

Mr. Rajapaksha suffered serious injuries in the incident that required surgery on one of his legs. He claims he suffered the injury after being attacked by Mr. Aluthgamage. The latter, however, counters that while he grabbed Mr. Rajapaksha by his shirt collar, he did not assault him and that the injury was sustained when Mr. Rajapaksha fell down the stairs of the president’s office.

Mr. Aluthgamage has also said he intends to file a defamation case against Mr. Rajapaksha.

The spectre of Mr. Rajapaksha rising in Parliament next week to blast his own Parliamentary colleague and the possible reaction it will elicit from Mr. Aluthgamage are sure to worry the party.

The public spat between the two MPs has generated intense media coverage. The matter has raised serious concern among the SLPP hierarchy as well, especially given that the party is trying hard to rebuild its image, which was left in tatters after the economic crisis.

SLPP National Organiser Namal Rajapaksa referred to the matter recently during a meeting with a group of SLPP MPs, saying that MPs “aren’t children” and should behave more responsibly.

Old-timers recall a similar incident in the Parliament precincts on the eve of the 1977 elections when two cabinet ministers, no less, Health Minister W.P.G. Ariyadasa and Cooperatives Minister S.K.K. Sooriyarachchi, exchanged blows. It was known as the ‘Ari-Siri’ boxing match, with each claiming to be the champ, Mohammed Ali.

Alleged threats from President’s Office to divisional secretaries: Complain to police, says official

The Sri Lanka Association of Divisional Secretaries and Assistant Divisional Secretaries has complained to President Ranil Wickremesinghe over recent instances where officers claiming to be from the President’s Media Division (PMD) had allegedly called and threatened Divisional Secretaries using official landlines of the Presidential Secretariat.

The association’s letter alleges that a person claiming to be from the PMD had phoned and threatened a Kandy District divisional secretary on May 17 to issue a sand-mining permit.

In another complaint, an Anuradhapura District Divisional Secretary was threatened on June 11 for not releasing school land for a banana plantation.

The letter also claims that a senior PMD official allegedly contacted a Puttalam District divisional secretary on his mobile phone on June 13 and made serious threats.

A senior Presidential Secretariat official said the Secretariat had a staff of about 1,100. If they used two phones, that amounted to 2,200 calls. As such, it is impossible to monitor such calls.

“Public officials should know how to handle these threats. They get paid for performing their duties,” said the official. “If they scold, the divisional secretaries should scold back.”

The source said divisional secretaries who have been subjected to threats from those claiming to be from the PMD should also complain to the police and the Bribery Commission.

Break-in at Ranil’s private residence: Suspect gets bail

A suspect arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on May 29 this year on charges of forcibly entering the private residence of President Ranil Wickremesinghe on July 9, 2022, and stealing valuables from the residence was released on a personal bail of Rs. 500,000 by the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court this week.

The suspect was arrested almost two years after the theft, and the CID informed the court that he was found with items stolen from the president’s residence.

Move to extend AG’s term: Oppostion grows

Whether the current Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam will be given a six-month extension based on the recommendation of the President or retire after reaching the age of sixty will be decided by the Constitutional Council (CC) next week.

With the CC scheduled to meet on Tuesday, the Opposition vehemently opposed the extension recommended by the President. In addition, some influential civil society outfits also condemned the move and even went one step further by encouraging the Opposition to reject the proposal outright, saying the extension is linked to moves to appoint the AG to the Supreme Court. Usually, an AG is appointed as a Chief Justice.

Lanka wants to cement ties with BRICS

For quite some time, the government has been mulling over joining the multilateral organisation BRICS (named after its original members, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). This year, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the UAE joined the grouping.

The government believes that BRICS membership will bring more benefits and lead to more foreign direct investments.

At Nizhny Novgorod in Russia last week, Foreign Minister Ali Sabry attended the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ meeting with the developing countries. He met leaders from countries like Thailand and Vietnam—countries that are planning to join the group.

But before he left, he put the move into some form of action by submitting a cabinet paper to secure formal approval for the country to join the group. Following the Cabinet paper, a ministerial sub-committee has been appointed to study the pros and cons of joining it and is expected to hand over its report by the end of this month.

Rush of new bills: Sabry’s balancing act

The speed at which this government has been passing legislation in the past 18 months is unprecedented.

The process has also come under criticism from opposition politicians, who allege that the government is rushing these draft laws at a speed that even opposition MPs barely get time to study and have healthy debates on them in the House.

It came to light that there are more in the pipeline and the government is selectively putting them before the House for consideration, as the IMF said this week in its Governance Diagnostic report that Sri Lanka has delayed some of the legislation, particularly the Asset Recovery Act, which should have been passed by April but has been postponed till October.

When a journalist raised the issue with Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Sabry on Friday at the Presidential Secretariat about the delay in passing the legislation, the Minister took a swing at the journalist, saying, “Most of the time you ask, why such a hurry to pass these legislations? You have to have a balance when passing them. All this time, we brought all these bills, and everybody was asking what the hurry was for the CEB bill and the debt management bill. Sri Lanka is a complicated place to make laws. That’s good. You need to agree on principles.”

The Minister continued to give a brief lecture on the long process of enacting laws to prove his point that “some laws’ are being delayed to have a balance, whatever that was supposed to mean.