Mind your tongue Mr. Prime Minister
Prime Minister Dee Moo Jayaratne seems to have put his foot in his mouth, though he was forewarned only weeks ago to be careful in speech, one of the tenets to be followed by good Buddhists.
On Wednesday, he told Parliament that there were LTTE training camps in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu only to draw the wrath of the Indian authorities who lost no time in denying the story.
Of course, the Indians had often been denying that their soil was used for LTTE activities when it was public knowledge to all and sundry at the time. That was, however, in the bad old days of yesteryear when the Indians actively supported the Sri Lankan insurgency i.e. until such time as the LTTE killed one of India's former Prime Ministers on Tamil Nadu soil.
Premier Jayaratne has now quickly backtracked from the claim saying that he was merely going by local media reports (local meaning Indian or Sri Lankan was also not clear), but then he cannot get away so lightly because for one thing, he said that he was basing his claim on "intelligence reports", and more importantly, here is the Prime Minister of a country making a claim in no less a place than the National Parliament.
It was even more serious a gaffe than the claim made at the same august assembly by the country's External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris the other day about Nepal wanting President Mahinda Rajapaksa to settle its internal disputes.
These neighbours of ours must be thinking, surely, "why have enemies when we have friends such as this". As for Premier Jayaratne, he was forewarned a few weeks back by no less a persona than then newly appointed Chief Sangha Nayaka of Bharatha (India) Ven. Dr. D. Revatha Thera to prepare his speeches without ohe dodawanawa (rambling). Ven. Dr. Revatha complained to President Rajapaksa before a large gathering that his Prime Minister monawa kiyanawada kiyala danne naa (no one knows what he is saying).
He was referring to a speech he had made at a temple function the previous day where he had spoken about the cost of living and urged the people not to blame the Government for it. The President laughed at first but then realised that decorum and protocol require him not to.
It was also the other day that we reproduced in these pages the Prime Minister's National Day message that was replete with mistakes and was stopped at the last minute by an alert official at the External Affairs Ministry.
It is probably not too late to learn, for Premier Jayaratne that he speaks for Sri Lanka and all Sri Lankans not merely for himself.
Mind your tongue Mr. Prime Minister
Prime Minister Dee Moo Jayaratne seems to have put his foot in his mouth, though he was forewarned only weeks ago to be careful in speech, one of the tenets to be followed by good Buddhists.
On Wednesday, he told Parliament that there were LTTE training camps in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu only to draw the wrath of the Indian authorities who lost no time in denying the story.
Of course, the Indians had often been denying that their soil was used for LTTE activities when it was public knowledge to all and sundry at the time. That was, however, in the bad old days of yesteryear when the Indians actively supported the Sri Lankan insurgency i.e. until such time as the LTTE killed one of India's former Prime Ministers on Tamil Nadu soil.
Premier Jayaratne has now quickly backtracked from the claim saying that he was merely going by local media reports (local meaning Indian or Sri Lankan was also not clear), but then he cannot get away so lightly because for one thing, he said that he was basing his claim on "intelligence reports", and more importantly, here is the Prime Minister of a country making a claim in no less a place than the National Parliament.
It was even more serious a gaffe than the claim made at the same august assembly by the country's External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris the other day about Nepal wanting President Mahinda Rajapaksa to settle its internal disputes.
These neighbours of ours must be thinking, surely, "why have enemies when we have friends such as this". As for Premier Jayaratne, he was forewarned a few weeks back by no less a persona than then newly appointed Chief Sangha Nayaka of Bharatha (India) Ven. Dr. D. Revatha Thera to prepare his speeches without ohe dodawanawa (rambling). Ven. Dr. Revatha complained to President Rajapaksa before a large gathering that his Prime Minister monawa kiyanawada kiyala danne naa (no one knows what he is saying).
He was referring to a speech he had made at a temple function the previous day where he had spoken about the cost of living and urged the people not to blame the Government for it. The President laughed at first but then realised that decorum and protocol require him not to.
It was also the other day that we reproduced in these pages the Prime Minister's National Day message that was replete with mistakes and was stopped at the last minute by an alert official at the External Affairs Ministry.
It is probably not too late to learn, for Premier Jayaratne that he speaks for Sri Lanka and all Sri Lankans not merely for himself.
Mind your tongue Mr. Prime Minister
in the east 
the same Bangladesh who have fougt deadly civil war to get away from yourself?
