'Acting' President Priyankara on cloud nine

The opening of the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) last Monday made him so ecstatic.

At the nationally televised event, Aviation Minister Priyankara Jayaratne said the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) in Katunayake was not international. It was the MRIA which had all the attributes of an international airport.

He had reason to be so bubbly. It was only the day before the event that he had acted as President at a rehearsal. Minister Geethanjana Gunawardena and several Parliamentarians, including Namal Rajapaksa, were present.

It was Namal who was first invited to stand in as President as the mock ceremony was to get under way. The Hambantota District MP was shy and said that even during a rehearsal he would not want to do that. Perhaps a good trait when Namal the young politician is pursuing a political career in his father's footsteps. He is careful not to give room for misapprehensions.

" Methana inna aya- gen jeyeshtama Priyankara amathithuma. Ey nisa oba thuma Janadipathi boomikawa rangapanna (the most senior politician here is Priyankara Jayaratne. So you can act as the President)," said Namal. Jayaratne blushed but lost no time in playing his role. It is not always that a UPFA politician gets to be the 'acting' President. So, no wonder he was swept off his feet and his head was in the clouds as he spoke the next day.