I have been making arrangements for a group of students from Law College to attend a session of Parliament today(I think it is still technically the National Assembly)
I got the list of names along with the ID numbers and double checked from the Secretary who had to type them up so it would be legible. I told him it had to be accurate otherwise a mistake in name or number will prevent the relevant person from gaining entry upon presentation of the ID card.
Then later I had to get the MP to sign a typed letter in Sinhala to formally request the Secretary of Parliament to allow the attached list of people into the complex. It was then taken by one of the MP's staff to the Parliament and handed over personally to the relevant official yesterday. It transpired later that the letter was not handed to the correct official and therefore only given to the correct person today.
Today the leader of the group called saying they are not allowed to take mobile phones into the complex so will not be able to contact me if there is a snafu. Once they got to the checkpoint the list had not been sent there. I had to then check as to why and get the courier yesterday to double check and have it authorized and sent to the checkpoint, due to the mistake referred to earlier.
Once each person is checked off the list they are then put in a bus and then taken to the Parliamentary complex where the MP will host them for lunch at the visitors canteen prior to being taken to the visitors gallery to view today's debate on extension of the Emergency for another month. At the time of writing we do not know if the Govt. wishes to remove the emergency so that we can celebrate a few more freedoms, but I rather suspect my optimism will be shortlived!
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5 comments:
This letter to the MP you were talking about, can it be written in English or tamil? Or is it Sinhala only?
In theory it can be written in English or Tamil, the problem is the lower level staff in the offices who handle the paperwork cannot read either and therefore the action of the said letters get delayed until someone who can read it is given the documents to process. So it is the delay that can be avoided this way.
Sorry chum you are out of luck, the proverbial bear or is it Tiger is still roaming. So the PM used the fear factor yet again, to extend the emergency.
In a country where there had not been a LTTE inspired death in years, but only govt. inspired deaths another canard for public consumption with the govt. killing with impunity under the guise of the emergency.
You are trying to fool all of the people all of the time this time at your peril
However much the MP did to host us, by providing lunch and tea on his account and talking to us on Parliamentary procedure, the fact is that the debates were boring and we do not have good speakers with class and fact behind them, that keep to the point and matters at hand stop trying to make political points.
maybe the next group if better organized will vote for the MP.
there's no such thing as a free lunch, or is there?
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