cat'S eye

The skies seem to have been the giddy limit!

Menika from that village in Kandé Uda Pasrata in the Kandyan Province mewed absolutely cattily and purred with malicious delight when she read about, and saw on TV news, the gen contained in the Weliamuna report on Sri Lankan Airlines.

Good investigation. Results were as expected: cutting corners, high pricing, pocketing doodles of dough and girly talk too. Leave it to this ex-Director of Transparency International to unearth stuff from locked drawers and padlocked lips of employees of our national carrier.

What about the sub-carrier Mihin that piggy backs on Sri Lankan enveloping both in debt? Kumari is cat-like in her brain and habits. Does not waste thinking power to ponder on matters national; she prefers her creature comforts but does lap up all news, particularly salacious stuff. And it was all there in Attorney-at-Law J. C. Weliamuna's Commission Report on Sri Lankan Airways.

Menika in her ignorance or wisdom always wondered how Mihin Air could suffer losses having such lucrative destinations allocated it. Maids travel en masse to West Asian destinations that Mihin touches down in, and so also Buddha Gaya and other destinations in India with so many Buddhist pilgrims travelling thataways.

So how come the horrendous losses from the day it was instituted. Simple: expenses outweigh income; salaries and other perks disbursed like free tickets decimate what is earned so that the final accounting is loss to the airlines.

And since Sri Lankan had to subsidize this national carrier started by that wiz Sachin de Vaas G, (or so he and his Master thought - his wizardry Menika means) even Sri Lankan showed balance sheets with losses in them.

Menika travelled a bit and also followed the fate of the Sri Lankan flag carrier since people spoke so much about their flights. It all started with Air Ceylon with two hired planes in 1942 under Prime Minister D. S. Senanayake. Air Lanka took off when J. R. Jayawardhene was PM and then President in 1978 but soon enough jetted ahead becoming popular.

People booked their flights very early to be sure to get Air Lanka tickets with all the extras offered like free alcoholic drinks as much as you could imbibe, never mind if you landed like a tic at your destination. (We had a singer who went ahead with limitless drinking so he missed the first step of the stairway when descending at Katunayake and died. This was before the tunnel thing was fixed).

Then the airline, after benefitting much from the tie-up with Singapore Airlines, switched over to cooperation with Emirates. It was named Sri Lankan during President Ranasinghe's time. It continued to be prideful in the air and much sought after.

The President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, returning to the Island wanted 31 seats for himself and his entourage. (Menika thinks it was at Heathrow). Sorry said the Manager; we cannot off-load booked passengers, but we will give you seven seats.

Maybe they offered to those awaiting embarkation, as is done in airports in the US of America, money and the assurance of a seat in the next flight if a seat on this flight was given up.

Thus perhaps they managed to get seven seats for the Prez and his immediate family and security personnel. No, was the answer.

Did they charter a flight? Sri Lankan was made to disconnect itself from Emirates and the CEO sent home. Then it was suicidal downward diving. No wonder with Mr Wickremasinghe as the CEO and Sachin as copilot who did not lock him out but invited the first son to be involved in the employment of cabin crew.

Menika is not going to deal further with findings of Weliamuna's report but will intone the cliché: for further information watch the 9.00 o'clock news or read all about it in the newspapers.

But she must narrate what a cousin told her about her return to US via Heathrow. Her first leg of her long haul was on Sri Lankan to London. This was in February 2014. There were around 300 all ready to depart; screened, searched and made to sit in the departure lounge when a sudden announcement comes over the speaker. 'Flight UL ... to London delayed." That was all, no delay duration, no reason, no nothing announced further.

So naturally there was a surge to the counter with many asking the same three questions: when, how long, why. The girl at the counter could only manage a weak 'I doan know' with a smile that she thought would overshadow her ignorance and total lack of communication ability. Overpowered, she rings for a man officer who is no better. Invariable answer to questions: Doan know, plane delayed.

A foreign passenger with sense asked the people to quieten down and buying some bottles of water distributed them to the passengers left high and dry. Menika's cousin stirred, drew herself up to her five feet nothing and demanded an alternate flight. She got it.

She said the cabin crew, particularly the girls, were absolutely clueless and seemed untrained and could speak very little English. When Menika reported this to her friends some of them guffawed. You simpleton! Don't you know how crew is selected now?

All discarded bedmates, given employment with no interviews, training et al. If the male VVIPs - old and young - need to get a girl a job, Sri Lankan was the place to land them in.

Heli rides

Another scandalous profligacy of the Madam's regime was circulated via email with venom spat out. The email writer's school mate died due to the senseless greed of a then powerful man.

The VVIP's visit (he carried a cane) to an Air Force base required a helicopter to be sent to the other base for a silver tray to serve tea to him which resulted in the chopper being shot down by the LTTE and the loss of lives of four SLAF personnel.

This email had an important message with the picture of a receipt included proving that the helicopter ride to airlift the President's brother, Priyantha Sirisena, to Colombo Hospital when he was fatally attacked with an axe was paid for by another brother.

The government was not involved at all. Juicily the anonymous writer says that members of the previous First Family and others closely connected helicoptered all over the place never driving if the journey was more than 30 km. Helicopters took doting mamas to watch sons' rugger matches and so on. No wonder wings over Sri Lanka were soon broken moneywise.

Arms deals

Another scandalous occurrence, hardly believable in its duplicity, is the supposed-to-have-happened supply of arms to the Ukrainian rebels by no less a person than the ambassador of Sri Lanka to Russia, Udayanga Weeratunge.

That's what the papers say. As most diplomats posted to 'lie for the country' during the time of President Rajapaksa, this Mr Weeratunge too had close family connections to the President.

So while this is being investigated with the ambassador having business interests in Ukraine, the body of one of his help karayas who ran his restaurant in Ukraine and later was posted to work at the Sri Lankan Embassy in Moscow was exhumed at the cemetery in Nittambuwa. Foul play is suspected in the death of this 39 year old man.

What this cat growls is that no crime was left undone in the last ten years. Here may be a huge diplomatic faux pas, nay crime on an international scale, with murder most foul probably included.

To all this, Mahinda Rajapaksa responds with "Even standard practice portrayed as abuse" with regard to road construction.

His secretary says as reported in The Island of 6 April: "Govt. busy with witch hunt; people losing jobs" and the former First Son and Heir cautions in the Daily Mirror of 6th "Don't compromise on national security, Namal to Govt." with regard to the "threat posed by the LTTE." Menika thought they, the LTTE, were defanged long ago by his father and uncle.

Good events

In contrast there were some hope inspiring events that made it to TV news. The President participated in the aluth sahal uthsavaya in the precincts of the Sacred Bo Tree. It depicted patronage by the highest in the land to an age old, traditional custom.

The Maha season is over, harvests stored and so the offering of rice from this harvest first to devatavas, we suppose who ensured the good harvest, and to the earth and sun. There Maithripala Sirisena announced that farmers would be given greater help since if the farmers are extricated from poverty that straps them, the country would progress. After all, they are the backbone of this basically agricultural country notwithstanding its being awash in social media in this age of electronics.

And so we move to the Sinhala and Tamil New Year. Thus Menika, wishes readers of the Sunday Observer a joyous Aluth Avuruda with hopes burning bright like the pahanas we light to make more festive our avurudu messa!

Menika