Two top officials given marching orders; who runs the show these days?

The religious ceremonies to unveil "Sanda Hiru Seya," the newly constructed temple in Anuradhapura to mark the victory in the three decade long northern insurgency, was held last week under the patronage of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

From the President's office, a top official was making his way to attend an event. He was accompanied only by his driver.

Somewhere midway he noticed a convoy with a motorcycle escort approaching. Soon, one of the riders signaled that the vehicle needed to be moved to give way to the VIP vehicle approaching. Accordingly, the driver of the Presidential official's vehicle gave way for the other VIP vehicle to pass by.

He realised it was the secretary of a ministry who had just passed by in the second VIP vehicle.

At the ceremony, the Presidential official was joined by a senior officer from the Prime Minister’s office. They took their seats, but soon were told that they could not sit there. They were given marching orders, so to say, by the military personnel in charge of the arrangements who clearly did not recognise them, and were simply following orders as they must do in the military.

The two officials slithered away to the back row seats only to find their seats were taken by the wives of two other officials.

So much for protocol. The two senior civilian officials from the President's office and the Prime Minister's office must surely have got a first hand experience of who runs the show these days.