Sudath Gunasekara 6.7.2018

It was reported few days back that the government has decided to appoint the Ex-Secretary to the President Austin Fernando as Ambassador to UK.  In this backdrop I have a brilliant suggestion to fill the vacancies in New York, Moscow and Singapore. Lf there is no vacancy at Singapore then they can create one  Because necessity is the mother of invention.

Now that the Prime Minister has requested the President to temporally suspend Vijayakala Maheswaran wife of late Prabhakaran for her famous Kilinochchi   speech instead of sacking her from Parliament and putting her behind bars for violating the Constitution and instigating the Tamils to take to arms.  It is obvious that he is playing with time, being his usual game, until the people forget in 15 days a, to bring her back to Parliament or at least appoint het to a high post under his own Ministry as he did to Mahendaran for robing the Central Bank, why not he ask the President to this LTTE woman to one of the vacant positions, preferably to New York as she would be the ideal person to help Atul Kesap and US State secretary to handle the Sri Lankan case at the UN and Geneva.

Secondly, I strongly suggest that the PM ask the President to appoint Arjun Mahendran as High Commission to Singapore, perhaps he can take the letter of appointment by hand and hand it over to his chum when he goes there on this Sunday. Singapore will be more than happy to have  Arjun as their Ambassador as he has all the qualification to hold that high post. Apart from him being a Singapore citizen who will look after their interests he also has helped to empty the Central Bank of Ceylon and he is also trusted by the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. If Ranil feels it not practicable then he can at least bring him back with him when he returns after the Singapore meeting and hand over Mahendran to the CID to prove the country that Ranil is honest enough to hold that post for some more time. This mission want be a problem in any case as he will definitely meet his old chum at least to find out whether he is in good health. After all it is his family obligation.

Such appointments will fall in line with the Government’s policy of appointing defeated politicians, or spouses of dead MPP, Army and Police high up who have failed in war and keeping peace at home or close relatives and friends of ministers and some of those people who have helped the Government at elections etc as Ambassadors.

Past experience proves that the President will never say no to Ranil if he makes this suggestion. Because he can’t afford to say no to him. First he is there today thanks to Ranils votes and second as he has repeated time again and time again he owes an obligation to Tamils as he thinks the they have voted en-masse to him although that is far from the truth and it is only wild imagination he etched in his mind.