{"id":56432,"date":"2016-07-10T23:06:10","date_gmt":"2016-07-11T05:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=56432"},"modified":"2016-07-10T15:10:59","modified_gmt":"2016-07-10T22:10:59","slug":"yahapalanaya-an-old-gramaphone-record-now-on-blu-ray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/07\/10\/yahapalanaya-an-old-gramaphone-record-now-on-blu-ray\/","title":{"rendered":"Yahapalanaya\u2013 An old Gramaphone Record, now on Blu Ray!"},"content":{"rendered":"

REGGIE PONNAMPALAM\u00a0Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

July 9, 2016, 6:07 pm<\/span><\/p>\n

And played on the most sophisticated Home Theater system on a Screen as wide as your imagination lets you stretch. We now have a Right To Information Act, but putting the infrastructure together to \u2018act\u2019 on it, according to latest reports, “will take time\u2019. Meanwhile, is it not right for us to exercise our Right to request answeres to the following \u2013<\/p>\n

* ETHANOL \u2013<\/strong> There has been so much talk, before and after elections about the \u2018Ethanol Mafia\u2019 and it was also claimed in Parliament that members of this \u2018Ethanol Mafia\u2019 are still in Parliament. Is the carpet in Parliament so thick that so much ethanol could be swept under it?<\/p>\n

* CONTAMINATED PETROL<\/strong> \u2013 A couple of years back, there were reports of vehicles breaking down due to use of contaminated petrol. This happened more than once. Has any enquiry been initiated into this or has a smokescreen been drawn over this burning issue?<\/p>\n

* LTTE GOLD<\/strong> \u2013 Tons of gold were recovered after the war ended. There apparently were some disputes on the number of tons recovered. Just checked prices of gold on Google today \u2013 US$43,625.00 per kilo, or US$43,625,000 (over forty three million dollars) a ton! Not being able to say exactly how many tons went missing takes the glitter out of Yahapalanaya.<\/p>\n

* LETTER FROM PRIME MINISTER\u2019S OFFICE<\/strong> \u2013 There were reports of a letter from the former Prime Minister\u2019s office demanding the immediate release of a container that was subsequently found to contain one of the biggest heroin hauls in the country. The bureaucrat who issued the letter ostensibly resigned. End of story?<\/p>\n

* WELLE SUDA<\/strong> \u2013 At least something achieved \u2013 a death sentence. But, what was the quantity involved in the case that brought on the death sentence? One kilo! Judging by the reports of his dealings in newspapers of this \u2018Drug Overlord\u2019, this quantity could be akin to petty cash for him. No doubt the kind of operation he carried out required a great deal of \u2018oiling\u2019 and greasing of palms. There were also reports that he gave money to MPs and even ministers. Enquiries glossed over or, better still, \u2018powdered over!<\/p>\n

* SAJIN \u2013<\/strong> Remanded and released on bail for extorting money from a businessman. How many other accusations are there against him? It was also reported that he had an aircraft parked at Katunayake Airport. Not bad for a former wharf clerk and I don\u2019t envy ambition and success. However, does switching sides and revealing tidbits of information qualify for sweeping everything (including the aircraft) under the tarmac?<\/p>\n

*The ISLAND of July 01, 2016 gave a comprehensive description of how a 60 billion rupee tender for the supply of coal, on a Cabinet approval of a Tender on 22\/SEP\/2015 “could not be considered a valid decision” as judged by the Supreme Court. The way I understand it, “a wrongful decision”. Just imagine someone being \u2018rewarded\u2019 with just 1% of tender value for efforts made to wrangle procedure in such an instance \u2013 that\u2019s six hundred million rupees. Was this even brought up in Parliament?<\/p>\n

* PALM OIL \u2013<\/strong> The Island\u2019s Opinion column of today (JULY 8) carried an article on this million dollar scam. Ironically, to oil the palms of Yahapalanaya these 24 containers of Palm Oil don\u2019t seem to be enough.<\/p>\n

Remembering and reminding those concerned of these and other breaches in the trust and confidence placed in Yahapalanaya is not a pleasant task to both the sender and the receiver. Cuddling up with wrongdoers for the sake of a Parliamentary majority is bound to backfire some day. Forget the policy of “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”. The enemy will always be the enemy, my friend!<\/p>\n

REGGIE PONNAMPALAM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

REGGIE PONNAMPALAM\u00a0Courtesy The Island July 9, 2016, 6:07 pm And played on the most sophisticated Home Theater system on a Screen as wide as your imagination lets you stretch. We now have a Right To Information Act, but putting the infrastructure together to \u2018act\u2019 on it, according to latest reports, “will take time\u2019. Meanwhile, is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56432\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}