Coming soon!! Pro motions galore in the Sri Lanka Army.
They will begin right at the top with the Commander becoming a Four Star General.
Naturally, creating history by becoming the first Four Star General to hold office will be sporting Lt. Gen. Rohan De S. Daluwatte, the present Commander.
A few senior Brigadiers are due to become Majors General. Many Brigadiers and Colonels are also to go up the ladder.
Whether these changes will also pave the way for five star Generals or Field Marshals, as they are usually known, is not altogether ruled out. Not because Sri Lanka is yet to recognise those men in uniform with exceptional valour in the battlefield.
The reason is different. There is no provision for a higher rank for the exalted however much guts and bravado one can display for the cameras.
Soon after being voted to office, the People’s Alliance Government declared its new policy-the services of those over 60 years of age in the security forces and the Police were not required.
Hundreds said goodbye to their jobs.
Barely two years in office, the policy changed at least in the Police Department with some receiving extensions of service after 60 years.
Rules are meant to be bent. But the move angered most middle rungers and some big wigs. The latest move has infuriated them.
One of the fortunate top cops who received an extension has now been rewarded with a foreign scholarship.
A criteria adopted in the State sector when awarding scholarships is to ensure the recipient has a remaining period of his\ career to be in service.
The idea is to ensure he gives the benefit of what he studies to the job he performs. In other words to serve the public better.
It is not to be in this case, they say. Serve longer, see the world and quit when you are forced to, seems to be the new policy. That’s the new law and the new order.
Hopes of lying for Colombo in Tel Aviv appears to have become a disappointment for the man in uniform who preferred to serve long but forced to retire gracefully.
No one would blame him for all the advance planning he did, whether it was procurements, promotions or his own professional future.
He even went through a studious course in diplomacy to prepare himself for the overseas career.
But Sri Lanka has no immediate plans for a mission in Israel, not until the current tensions ease off.
One witty colleague who is still serving remarked “he should have done that diplomacy course before taking on the earlier job.
He would still have remained.”
Return to the Editorial/Opinion contents page