Gajaba Regiment's senior officer to be Chief of National Intelligence

Retired Major General Jagath de Alwis is to be recalled to service and appointed as the new Chief of National Intelligence ( CNI). The Gajaba regiment's former senior officer has served in several key positions including Security Forces Commander, Jaf fna. He was Commander of the President’s Guard and served a stint as Sri Lanka’s Deputy Ambassador to Israel.

The move comes amid speculation that another Gajaba Regiment senior officer, a Major General, will be brought back from retirement for a top position in the security establishment. He is to be promoted to the rank of a General ahead of the appointment.

Pettah hawkers are well known for their skills in coming up with catchy slogans to attract customers.

In the 1970s, when the transistor radio with a cassette player hit Sri Lankan markets, it was called two-inone and the buffel set with a radio, a cassette player and a record player was called three-in-one.

But our hawkers shouted ‘two-inone, two-in-one’ and ‘three-in-one, three-in-one’ to draw customers' attention to the bras and men’s underwear they were selling.

The latest catchy slogan is ‘JVP, JVP’. The witty hawkers selling apples were rubbing salt into the JVP’s presidential election wound.

Asked to explain, they said JVP got ‘ or three percent at the November 16 presidential election. In Sinhala also means three for one hundred. In this case, three apples for one hundred rupees.

The hawkers, very much from the working class, do not seem to be looking at the JVP as the apple of their eye anymore.