President Mahinda Rajapaksa has persuaded Chris Nonis, the Sri Lanka High Commissioner in the UK to continue in his post although he got mercilessly assaulted by Sajin Vass Gunawardena, Monitoring MP for the External Affairs Ministry.
He had told Nonis that he will take strong action against Gunawardena but other sources told Colombo Telegraph this was a ploy. “He will not take any action against Sajin Vass because he does all his dirty work,” said an External Affairs Ministry source in Colombo.
With the face swollen from a slap, Nonis has left London for Birmingham to attend the Conservative Party annual conference. Among those he is expected to meet there is Opposition Leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Vass Gunawardena and Kshenuka Seneviratne are now known to be very close friends, earlier enemies now known to be very close friends. That is how he gives orders her to change anyone in the Ministry whom he does not like. Last Tuesday night he was drunk on Blue Label Whisky at Dilan Ariyawansa’s New York residence.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who returned to Colombo from New York, after attending the UN has ordered the state and private media to blackout the news and not report anything on this matter. He personally spoke to everyone concerned.
The incident took place at the house of Dilan Ariyawansa, who is now Director of Sri Lankan Airlines in New York. He has thrown a dinner for many members of Rajapaksa’s team taking part in UN General Assembly. Ariyawansa was originally sent to New York as an employee-manager of Sri Lanka Travel Inc. in 2000 by Lalith Kotelawala and was involved in many controversies.
One of the persons who took part in the dinner told the Colombo Telegraph that among those who took part in the dinner were Nonis, Foreign Secretary Kshenuka Seneviratne and Sajin Vass Gunawardena.
In a highly intoxicated state, Gunawardena MP has got involved in an argument with Nonis. He called him a “bloody pariah” and accused him of using the words “fucking bitch on Kshenuka Seneviratne.” He has raised his hands and given Nonis a thundering slap forcing him to fall on the ground. Thereafter, Gunawardena has continued to kick High Commissioner Nonis. His toe was hurt because of this and he was walking with a bandage.
Nonis did not sit for the string hopper, chicken curry and seeni sambol dinner. He drew to the five star NEW YORK HOTEL Rajapaksa stayed and gave his resignation. The next morning he took a flight from New York to London.
Nonis complained to a member of the Sri Lanka delegation Rajapaksa will not take any action against Gunawardena. He had revealed Rajapaksa told him I will deal with the fellow but nothing will happen, he said.
Former Sri Lankan Diplomat / October 2, 2014
Never in the course of my long career as a diplomat have I experienced, or heard of even in some backward rudimentary State, such a shameless behaviour from a senior government official. If the President has an iota of shame (honestly I don’t think he has) he would have sacked Sajin Vas Gunawardena immediately. It is widely claimed that the reason Rajapakse cannot do that is that he (Sajin) is the collector for Rajapakse and he has been given a Foreign Ministry post to enable him to travel the world under diplomatic cover and bank Rajapakse’s billions in foreign banks.
There is another aspect to this shameless incident. Minister G. L. Pieris and Secretary Kshenuka Seneviratne should also resign – but then they have no shame either!!
There is disturbing news afloat that High Commissioner Nonis may accept an apology and forget the incident.
Let me remind Chris Nonis that Sajin Vas slapped the High Commissioner, Sri Lanka’s foremost diplomat, and not just the person of Chris Nonis. Therefore, if Nonis accepts an apology he is compromising the post he holds in the same way that Sajin Vas defecated on it. Nonis must realise that the post he is holding was held over the years by personalities such as Sir Richard Aluwihare, Sir Claude Corea, Sir Lalitha Rajapakse, Prof. G. P. Malalasekera, Dr.M.V.P. Pieris, and Sajin Vas slapped them all, and if Nonis settles for an apology he is not only betraying all his distinguished predecessors but if also debasing the very post he hold.
What is in issue is not just the conduct of Sajin Vas but the integrity of Chris Nonis as well !!
A former SL diplomat
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Lasantha / October 3, 2014
Former Sri Lankan Diplomat,
You say…….”If the President has an iota of shame (honestly I don’t think he has) he would have sacked Sajin Vas Gunawardena immediately”.
Yes I agree with you Sir. But if this whole drama was initiated, choreographed, well timed and very well executed with the help and instructions of Medamoolana Jokers, comedians and clownon, then whom you are going to blame and going to talking about sacking the culprits.
Remember what happened to Dr.Dayan Jayatilleka, Tamara Kunanayakam, Prof. Rajeeva Wijesinghe and Dr.Jayantha Danapala etc,etc.They were all used and thrown out like Condoms. Luckily they escaped White Vans.
Therefore under these uneducated, uncultured and uncivilized Thugs anything is possible in Sri Lanka. Beware of Dogs.
Good luck to you Sir…….and others.
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Rajash / October 2, 2014
Former dri Lankan diplomat “What is in issue is not just the conduct of Sajin Vas but the integrity of Chris Nonis as well !!”
You don’t sound like one. What is in issue is not the interity of Chris Nonis, but the office he holds.
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C R de Silva / October 2, 2014
In this controversy one aspect has been lost.This is the role of Shenuka the Secretary .Who is she?Shenuka made her way into the Foreign Service through the back door,joining the office of ACS Hameed.Then she wangled her way into the Foreign Service in 1984.As her record would reveal she is mediocre in terms of quality and ability.But she has one extra ordinary talent to survive and to show herself as brilliant.How does she do it?
She some how creeped into the confidence of every minister hameed downward.using every “SKILL” at her disposal( as to what those skills are I leave it to the imagination of readers)The result was she had plum postings all the way through,ending up as High Commissioner to UK at age 40.There she could not hide her mediocrity and left a terrible record.Her dancing escapades are on U tube!
The only minister that escaped her subtle manipulation was Kadirgamar.But here she made use of Suganthi Kadirgamar ,by doing shopping errands for her . The prize she received was the plum posting in UK.
A superb skill of shenuka to climb the ladder was to poison the minds of VIP’s in regard to people she had a grudge..She did this by subtle means, poisoning their minds a little bit at a time so that ultimately their minds ended fully poisoned.It seems she had done it successfully on Vass guan wardens too since the reference to her by nonis triggered the whole incidentof slapping and kicking.
So the moral of the story for now and for future is “Watch Out for Shenuka the snake”She surely must be having the last laugh in this incident in which she succeeded in embarrassing the president as well, besides having !Nonis beaten up.
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Kakka / October 2, 2014
It is interesting to see if, Nonis indeed a paraiah or not! :-)
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