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The Fifth Column

7th June 1998

An unusual week

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Monday - Mangala wants to know what he should do regarding his credit card issue. I told him to maintain that he did the correct thing and even that he would do so again in the future. But Bala - great thinker that he is - has a question as usual. He wants to know what a Minister who has no privatised companies under his control should do.

Tuesday - Kadi is anxious about the SAARC summit in July, wondering whether Sharif and Vajpayee would come after all their nuclear antics. I told him that he must somehow get them here because the entire international media will be watching and it will be a good chance to get my picture across the globe. I might even be called the "Rose among the two thorns"....

Wednesday - There was this convocation at Belihuloya University. I felt so odd, wearing that yellow coloured robe. I wonder how G. L. did it when he was at the Colombo University. But the best part of the show was awarding an honorary degree to Richard - he looked a bit embarrassed when accepting it, though. Of course he deserves it for all the shouting he does, but how fortunate I was in not appointing someone like S. B. as education minister. Imagine calling him, "Dr. S. B."!

Thursday - I was watching this programme on ITN, where they were discussing, among other things, why Vimukthi wasn't admitted to Royal College. Mangala was defending me but I had to phone in to put the record straight, of course, I didn't tell them that in the application I cited him as a relation who had been educated at Royal. I guess that must have been a disqualification, because C. V. was in the OBU and he couldn't help either!

Friday - Asked Anu to clamp a censorship on military news, because he is always crying that the newspapers are criticising him for not finishing the war. I told him not to give deadlines for shaking Prabhakaran's hand. Anyway, a censorship will at least stop Daluwatte from criticising the government in public.

Saturday - D.E.W. wants me to do a live interview with Rupavahini. I asked him whether it would be like the last time - with DEW changing his voice every now and then and asking easy questions over the phone and Palitha totally unaware of what was going on. He just smiled.

Anyway, I told him not to tell Palitha anything about it.


Rajpal Abeynayake's Column

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