Features
Escape of a PM;exposé of scam
The inebriated horde of ruffians who emerged from Temple Trees and were merely watched by the police, went berserk on GFG and destroyed conveniences like a library and medical centre that the Aragalaya persons had installed. This was before the leftist thugs invaded the Aragalaya and overran the innocent protestors and then invaded President’s House and the Government Secretariat in the old Parliament building. Prez Gotabaya escaped by boat, it was said, and sought refuge in the Maldives, but not for long. He had to move and did wander hither and thither, not welcomed as ex-head of a country. He is safely back in SL, living in secure comfort funded by government money generously given past Prezs, notwithstanding whether they destroyed the country or did good.
Sheikh Hasina left in a more dignified manner – in a military helicopter to an undisclosed destination in India until she leaves for Britain which she hopes will have her. BBC news mentioned that her daughter was in the UK, but googling, Cassandra read that her daughter, Saima Wazed, is based in New Delhi; WHO Goodwill Ambassador for South and South East Asia. Queries where she lives, Google answered as not known. Saima has been a helper to autistic children and designated WHO Champion for Digital Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.
Since 2022, she has been a member of the Commission for Universal Health convened by Chatham House. Hence perhaps, Sheikh Hasina’s hopes of domiciling herself in Britain.
The violent and prolonged riots in Dhaka and other Bangladeshi cities, resulting in at least 300 deaths (The Hindu gives it as 440), was mainly by students with calls to abolish civil service job quotas and fuelled by repression of freedom of expression and the government and Sheikh Hasina turning more autocratic. The protest, begun in July, progressed to demanding Hasina to quit after 15 years in power.
The protesters stormed Hasina’s official residence and looted, so also government buildings; a la Colombo post 09 July 2022. Have we, this little dot of an island, usually peaceful with its smiling people, taught our neigbouring countries how to protest violently and unlawfully while a well-known act to be ashamed of is that the LTTE taught the world criminal suicide by making oneself a time bomb.
An interim government is being formed in Dhaka with well recognised intellectual economist Mohammed Yunus as chief advisor and the head of the military. No military government is to be installed.
Sheikh Hasina Wazed (b 1947) is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, considered the founding father of Bangladesh when it broke away from Pakistan on 26 March 1971, after being a part of the newly created Muslim state of Pakistan on 14 August 1947. In 2006-2008, Hasina served a jail term on extortion charges but won the 2008 election. Time was when we laughed at the warring widows of Bangla – Khalida Zia and the final winner Sheikh Hasina.
To give her her due, Sheikh Hasina was among Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2018; listed among the 100 most powerful women in the world by Forbes in 2015, 2018 and 2022; and longest serving female head of government.
Utterly dishonest visa issuing deal
Remember some months ago we were made aware of a new system of issuing visas to visiting tourists and others at Katunayaka international airport by an arriving young man making a shindig over the issue or non-issue of visas to him and his girlfriend by an Indian officer. Then came to light that the issuing of visas on arrival by Mobitel, which is government owned, was suddenly stopped (we now learn via an email message) and a foreign consortium based in Dubai had taken over – them being IVS-GBS-VHS, and visa fees shot up but the increase syphoned out and Sri Lanka losing millions in lawful income. The Cabinet is supposed to have agreed to the change of who issues visa. It transpired the entire proceeding was a scam – money making to some outsiders and believed to pour in black money to pockets here. Latest was that this illegal money was akin to the bond money – to finance elections of a certain individual. It was a scam even larger than the bond scams.
A video clip had Dr Rohan Pethiyagoda illustrating its tangles and twists and utter dishonesty by his pretense of a German seeking a visa to travel to Sri Lanka. Then in the Sunday Island of August 4, he very lucidly exposed the entire scam; it being an enterprise of the Dept of Immigration and Emigration which comes under the purview of the Ministry of Internal Security whose minister is Tiran Alles. His name rings the bell of the presidential election of 2005 when Ranil Wickremasinghe, poised to win, lost to Mahinda Rajapaksa (50.29% to 48.43%), all because Prabhakaran forbade all Tamils in the north from voting. And why did the Supremo order thus? Whispered was a transfer of big money. Cass only says whisper. How is she to write authoritatively about such matters, she being just an ordinary woman? However, to put it mildly now the shoe is on the other foot!! How times and fortunes and loyalties change.
Thankful we are to Dr Rohan Pethiyagoda for his clear exposé which he did in spite of placing his neck on the block with the sword of revenge wielded by persons used to swords and guns and all that probably poised overhead. Then came the very welcome action being taken by three powerful politicians – Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala – who place country before self and are actively against corruption, submitting a FR petition to the Supreme Court. Action already taken: Mobitel was directed to resume issuing visas and at the old cost, we presume.
But, and here’s the million rupee question: will the perpetrators of the scam be portioned out due punishment, meet their Waterloo?
Light note in all this hurly-burly
An article sent to me says that most acclaimed British film actress – Dame Judi Dench was given a tattoo on her wrist by her daughter as the daughter’s birthday present to the mother on the latter’s 89th birthday. The tattoo reads ‘carpe diem’ – Latin for ‘seize the day’.
59 year old daughter Finty Williams is also an actress. A picture of Judi Dench at the Chelsea Flower show had a hint of the tattoo peeping out from under a huge bracelet.
History of tattooing goes back millennia and seems to have been practiced in all areas of the ancient world. Interesting to read about this skin art. Preserved tattoos on ancient mummified human remains showed in 2015 that the age of the oldest known tattooed mummy had 61 tattoos and was embedded in glacial ice in the Alps, dated 3250 BCE. Also discovered in 2018 were two Egyptian mummies who had tattoos dated between 3351 and 3017 BCE.
Cass is surprised at women wanting tattoos but we get plenty locals, too, with these marks. Cass shivers when she sees huge designs and figures, most grotesque, on mostly male arms. Why disfigure your skin is Cassandra’s question; the surely considered stupid by most.
Live and let live should be our aim, plus seize the day.