Outside Politics

4th October 1998

'Saree' for the mistake

It happened just three weeks ago at the Non Aligned Summit Conference in Durban, South Africa.

An elegantly clad, smiling President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga was walking down the customary red carpet to greet South African President, Nelson Mandela. The colourful moment was being seen throughout South Africa via live television coverage.

The South African Television commentator, however, got things mixed up. Obviously mistaking the attire, he described the President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka as Mrs. Vajpayee. Viewers saw Shri Vajpayee pacing the red carpet some distance away from Mrs. Kumaratunga.

A clear case of international mistaken identity. But the television station promptly apologised for the faux pas. Someone had told them within minutes that they had blundered.

Buthgottas no more

Gone are the days when UNPers, all and sundry, were branded with the title "Buthgottas," for their regular habit of handing out cooked packets of rice and curry at party events. That is for the hoi polloi in mother Lanka.

But the party has now gone international. They hold more meetings in Colombo with the local diplomatic community than public rallies countrywide. They send more campaign material to NGOs (non governmental organisations) and foreign human rights groups than to their party caucuses. They organise more party branches abroad than in principal towns in Sri Lanka.

No wonder, some of the party's back-room boys decided to arrange a visit for their leader to California where the rich and the mighty (many Sri Lankans included) mingle in their tuxedos and gowns. A fund raising dinner was arranged at the Los Angeles Marriot at $ 100 per plate. A thousand guests were to take part. That would have brought the cash strapped UNP over Rs 6.8 million.

Alas, only a half of the guests attended thus halving the projected revenue.

But that did not evaporate the sense of humour of some of the UNP old timers. "A paan and parippu (bread and dhal) meal at ten rupees a plate in a Colombo playground could have raised more money for the party," declared a senior party member, a colourful personality of yesteryears. Another, a more vociferous type declared "let's hope they only learn of fund raising in the US"

Sorry, it's a private visit

After a highly publicised debut at the UN General Assembly, President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, arrived in London, for a stop-over en route to Sri Lanka.

The news broke by then that Sri Lanka's worst tragedy in the 17-year-long separatist war had occurred at Kilinochchi.

The boys of the BBC world thought it a good opportunity to ask the Commander-in-Chief what went wrong. Perhaps, they would have wondered why, particularly when 98 per cent of the war, according to Deputy Defence Minister, General Anuruddha Ratwatte, was already over.

But the High Commission boys were not too happy. They politely turned down the request for an interview on the grounds that "Her Excellency is on a private visit. Hence no interviews."

Jungle Telegraph

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