Former beauty queen complains of witch-hunt

A former Miss World and Unicef special ambassador Rosy Senanayake has complained that her entry into opposition politics has resulted in a government sponsored witch-hunt against her.

The one-time beauty queen has said that both the Presidential Security Division and state run newspapers have targeted her since her nomination to the opposition United National Party (UNP) working committee, the highest decision making body of the party, last month.

A spokesperson for Sena-nayake has said that the PSD has been harassing her, but gave no details of what the harassment was, only saying that giving details would only make matters worse.

State run media has been regularly ridiculing the UNP saying that the party was bankrupt and had to rely on ex-beauty queens to bolster its sagging public image.

In the meantime, the state controlled National Development Bank has filed action against a posh restaurant run by the one-time Miss World, and her hotelier husband for the non-payment of a loan.

The fine-dining hotel, Don Stanley's is situated on the roof top of a high-rise building close to 'Temple Trees', the official residence of the prime minister and is named after the beauty queen's father-in-law Stanley Senanayake, a former police chief.

It was he who had tipped off Sirimavo Bandaranaike when she was prime minister in 1962 of a police-army coup in the offing. All the plotters were arrested. In the late 1970s, Stanley Senanayake was made inspector general of police.

All the kitchen ware and crockery of the restaurant have been advertised for sale in a bid to recover some SLR5.9 million which had not been repaid from the loan. The items include kitchen trolleys, deep freezers, coffee machines, sound systems and flambe equipment.

The former beauty queen who has been appointed a Unicef ambassador walked from the central hill town of Kandy in a protest march to Colombo organised by the UNP recently against government inaction to bring down the cost-of-living. She has also helped the party organise public speaking seminars for its parliamentarians apart from giving classes to them on etiquette.