President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s election campaign was coloured by the blatant abuse of state resources says Sanjana Hattotuwa
A day after Sri Lanka’s presidential elections an army spokesman was quoted claiming that the military had been deployed to provide security for media organisations, ostensibly because their resources were under threat. This was rich, coming from a regime which has fuelled the deterioration of the freedom of expression.
A year ago, the president’s brother and Secretary of Defence, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, laughed on BBC television when questioned over the murder of the Editor of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickremetunge. It was a revealing response from a man condemned for violent insults against the independent media, and with the necessary military clout to give effect to such threats.
A year later on 26 January 2010, his brother the president was elected to a second term in office with a large majority. Mahinda Rajapaksa’s first term in office was coloured by a record of media freedom that put Sri Lanka on par with the likes of Iraq, Sudan and Russia. There is little hope his second term will be any different.
Transparency International has been monitoring the governments misapproation of public resources during the campaign. It estimates propaganda broadcast by the state media was worth hundreds of millions of rupees. Media monitoring conducted by the Centre for Policy Alternatives showed explicit guidelines issued by the Commissioner of Elections on media behaviour were flouted during the campaign. The state print and electronic media showed an overwhelming bias towards the president and government, including the dissemination of outright propaganda as news.
12.6m subscribers were sent an unsolicited partisan SMS by the President on New Year’s day, on the instructions of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), which is a public institution. The transmission of this SMS was illegal, and one mobile operator has admitted it was done free of charge. The TRC also allowed the jamming of Shakthi TV, a private terrestrial television station, by ITN, a channel owned by the state, during the election campaign, denying audiences in the North of Sri Lanka information to make an informed choice at the elections. In yet another bizarre example, banner ads were purchased on leading foreign media websites to promote the President’s re-election campaign. Thus, those from Sri Lanka who chose to read base London tabloids on the web saw the president’s visage cheek by jowl with photos of inebriated British celebrities. It is unclear how these online ads and such unintended juxtapositions helped re-election prospects. A letter by your author to the President’s election campaign to ascertain the exact amount and source of the money spent on online advertising, unprecedented in any election campaign, has yet to elicit a response.
Sri Lanka’s main Internet service provider, state-owned Sri Lanka Telecom, blocked access to the websites of Lanka E News, Lankanewsweb, InfoLanka andSri Lanka Guardian. All these websites publish or aggregate links to news and information that scrutinise policies and practices of the incumbent presidency and government.
More seriously, Prageeth Ekneliyagoda, an independent journalist and contributor to the Lanka E News website, has been missing since 24 January. His abduction is the latest in a spate of verbal and physical attacks made against the independent media under the Rajapaksa regime, and often by members of government and the armed forces. It is frustrating and frightening to recognise that even post-war, the challenges facing independent journalists grow.On a positive note however, under pressure to demonstrate its bona fides towards media freedom, the government has released of imprisoned Tamil journalist JS Tissainayagam on bail, pending the appeal of his conviction under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). Human rights activists had called his case a travesty of justice. Even after his release, Tissanaiyagam’s tragic ordeal reminds us that the PTA and Emergency Rule still remain in our statute books as instruments of fear, censorship and repression. Both have been used to clamp down on the free press. Neither has any place or role in post-war Sri Lanka.
57.88% of voters have re-elected a regime that sadly sees any expression of dissent as unpatriotic and justifies violent suppression as a remedial measure.
Sri Lanka once had rich history of dissent, beyond the partisan bias of traditional print and electronic media. Given the significant growth of web and mobile-based media, it will be much harder to suppress the inevitable growth of independent critiques. If during his second term, the president chooses to do this through repression and violence and emulating the disastrous examples of Myanmar, Iran and China, he risks political capital and condemnation both domestic and international. However, I am confident that the same citizens who re-elected him for a second term will not countenance it.
Sanjana Hattotuwa is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives and Editor of Groundviews, an award winning citizen journalism website
kudos to the author for coming out so strongly but this is only the tip of the iceberg and i do not see the mainstream media carry any article as this anytime soon and that may be the reason behind most people unwilling to accept this as reality.
Well I know nothing about Sri Lanka and its politics…but I can chuck in 2 cents worth. I was facinated to read the figures from previous elections…so I had a look at figures for 2010 at http://www.slelections.gov.lk/presidential2010/province.html
Now I note with interest that the freed Tamils of the North and East seem to be so busy running around looking happy (and free)that generally 80% did not have time to vote…in some cases over 90% did not vote; when they did vote it seems that they were rather more stupid than their southern counterparts since the level of spoilt votes was at least 3 times greater.
Overnight too the new presidential term has grown from 6 to 8 years and there is a prospect of another 19 cross-overs joining the 132 existing ministers so that Rajapakse can secure a 2/3 majority to anahilte parliament..
Its a rum and corrupt free system of course..
Now I do know that all people voted to public office have to show an asset statement on the way in and out of office…but seemingly not the Rajapakses, and in consequence no-one else is asked for theirs…
Its a rum and corrupt free system of course…
You have the 13th and 17th Amendments to the Constituation…both ignored by Rajapakse..
Its a rum……
By reading the artical i can guess for sure this author “Sanjana Hattotuwa” comes from a seperated family. Surely his mother would have left him when he was small or his dad. Poor LAD needs to find a proper job.
all these morons who are commenting for the rogue regime of goonda rajapakshaand his family are just trying to earn some brownie points from this regime, i suppose. their main concern it seems is that the govt finished the war of thirty or so years.
well, folks we are now on the fast lane to self destruction thanks to morons who think that any brown matter coming from the rear orifice of the mr’s are solid gold. they are just blind to a worse thing than the war. that is the unbridled corruption of the present rogue regime.
even mugabes of this world have die hard blind followers likewise mr ang his hooligans too have some stupid blind followers who are ready to kill at the drop of a hat.
IT IS EVIDENT THAT THE GOVERNMET PURPOSELY IGNORED IMPLEMENTAION 00F 17TH AMENDMENT AS THEY THEY WANTED TO RIG THE ELECTION.IF THE ELECTION WAS HELD WITH TEH 27 TH AMENDAMENT GOVERNMENT SURELY WILL LOSE.COMMIISINOER OF ELECTION’S SUMMING UP SPOEECH GIVES ENOUGH EVIDENCE AS TO HOW HE WAS DISGUSTED THEY WAY THE ELECTION WAS DISRUPTED BY THE GOVERNMENT.ןN ADDITION THERE IS A BIG SUSPICION AMONG THE PEOPLE WETHER THE ELECTION WAS MANUPULATED BY THE GOVERNMENT AS THE OPPOSITION ENTHUSIASM IS NOT SHOWN IN THE RESULTS.
The writer refers to Transparency International a foreign funded NGO in SL. This outfit recently claimed that (a) Large amounts of Tsunami Aid is unaccounted for by the Govt(b)that there was no audit of the government expenditure of tsunami funds(c) that the Auditor General has not audited Govt expenditure for the past several years. The Auditor General replied that the Govt’s Audited accounts have been presented to Parliament right up to the present year, and that every cent of foreign aid received by the Govt has been accounted for. However a large amount of money received by NGOs like Transparency International and Centre for Policy Alternatives have not been accounted for as the AG has no juris diction over NGOS. The newly elected Rjapakse Govt should as an immediate priority appoint a Presidential Commission to investigate into all aspects of the operations of foreign funded NGOs and recommened appropriate legislation to ensure that they do not destabilise the work of a democratically elected government.Haththotuwa has much to answer.
This has been written by a paid hack- paid by an NGO to spew unbridled falsehoods and make unsubstantiated allegations against an elected leader of a government. This man talks about Transparency International and Centre for Policy Alternatives, the latter controlled by a Tamil whose boots he licks everyday. TI is a foreign funded NGO which has been trying to subvert the democratic process and introduce covert measures to undermine the will of the people.CPA is a well known apologist for the UNP. The fact that rogue elements like this buffoon can make his outrageous defamatory and provocative claims aagainst a democratically elected government shows that Sri Lanka is a living example of tolerance and democratioc process. Had he been living in any other Asian country his balls will be found floating in the sea. His former employer Lasantha W led the movement to stultify the will of the people and had to face the wrath of a highly provoked poulace who wished him destroyed. This fellow is likely to meet the same fate. still
Jebenco
The word ceylonese gives you away. You are probably one of those who thinks we were better off under the british rule. I am one of those so called “intelligent people” who left the country. But I definitely came from the same “intelligent genes” whom most sri lankans possess.
You think other western countries who you seemed to pledge allegiance to are not corrupt. You got to be joking!!! Do you ever hear the headlines of the western countries?? Show me a country without any corrupted politicians. Perhaps Andeman islands, who never had any connections with the outside world.
I do not even talk about the war crimes. I only mention Afghanistan and Iraq. Whether you like it or not Mahinda is the only president who had the guts not to cave in to the so called international mouth piece and kept the war going for two more generations. It is sad so many people from both sides had to die. But don’t you think all the people including tamils and sinhalese bear the responsibility of this conflict. If we care about the country, it is time to unite all parties and get the country out of this situation. True peace comes with that. Not by fingerpointing. I have heard so many Sinhalese with similar sentiment. If there are any tamils interested in true peace, it is the time to get rid of the petty nationalist divisive thinking and give equal rights to all citizens to live anywhere they choose to live without dividing my motherland into pieces.
Sanjana! I love your beautiful smile,but what is contained 6″ above it seems to be a lot of venom and unsavory stuff. However, you enchant me very much and I can’t keep my eyes off your pretty face.
Jebenco! Who are you to call the people of my country “cretins”? Do you mean to say that all those who left the country for economic reasons or as bogus refugees are the intelligent? Only an idiot could come to such conclusions. Remember that 57% of the population voted for Mahinda. So, if they are the cretins you talk about what about the 40% that voted for your favourite man. Are they too cretins who still live in Sri Lanka? before you write something Think if you have a brain
Dear Sir,
You obviously did not live in Sri Lanka in 1987-1990 JVP unrest times. I did. Do you ever think common people will buy an allaiance between JVP and UNP as a ‘viable opposition’ for the country? Fonseka was used as a pawn by the politically shrewd but intellectually bankrupt Wicremasinghe. He made a deal with Fonseka to dissolve the executive presidency if Fonseka was elected as the president. Do you remember that the mastermind of executive presidency was Mr. J.R. Jayawardene who famosly claimed that his power is so great that only thing he could not do was to transform man to a woman? UNP could have got together with SLFP and dissolved the executive presidency a long time ago if they chose to do so. State media might have been misused by the Rajapakse. But there is plenty of propaganda machines belonging to the UNP. Mr. Fonseka’s alleged claim that he fear for his life is almost funny. I was a University student in 1987-1990 “bhishana samaya”. Although I vehemently opposed JVP, I was afraid to go home. I stayed with my aunty for the entire time. There were so many university students abducted and killed by the UNP regime at a mere suggestion of a JVP connection. I am talking about the same army headed by Gen. Sarath Fonseka. He was not the army chief at the time but very much a member of the same army who killed thousands of Sinhalese youth.
Jebenco don’t call the populations cretins unless you are one of them. Reading your article gives me the satisfied impression that you are an insult even to a cretin. Go and do something useful instead of writing these worthless articles.
Bull s*** Ziggyash, Just read through what Roger wrote above. Where were you when former presidents JRJ, Premadasa,and Chandrika were manipulating state assets and continue to terrorise the media and the opposition when they were ruling the country.
Is it hard to accept a defeat of such magnitude because you have green blood?. Any idiot with an ounce of grey matter will know the problem of COL is a is a world problem. Srilanka somehow managed to survive a recession while fighting a war.This doesn’t mean everything is rosy. The truth is it is worse in developing countries because developing nations of the world keep manipulating and massaging COL for the advantage of their economies. Do not forget MR had to fund a terrorist war while trying to run an economy. because of this we all have a peaceful Srilanka. You may not appreciate it but as soon as the war ended the nation including most average UNP or JVP supporters were relieved and praised MR and SF. It didn’t take too long to find fault , did it? Stop carping about MR and try and help to build a united population.
Lot of you talk of corruption. Neither do I condone it or say Rajapaksa’s are innocent. There is mismanagement of resources and corruption. Have you ever thought who is corrupted most? is it the poor farmer, mudalali or the labourer in rural areas or the rich good for nothing elite? How many of them pay income tax on their true income. Yet these Colombo elite blame the government as if they are whiter than white. It is hypocritical to call it otherwise. Most of the UNP voters are from the Urban areas where corruption is inherent. So before making stupid allegations against others you and they ought to look at yourselves. It is time to swallow your pride and accept defeat. The majority has spoken so accept it. That is Democracy. Finally remember one thing JVP, Prabhakaran and Chandrika tried to kill UNP and failed but a SWAN called Sarath Fonseka did manage that.
The majority of the Ceylonese with common sense have all left the country and now those who are left are cretins (at least the majority are) like DEVONECO. They are absolutely shortsighted and have their brains in the opposite side of their anatomy unlike other human beings.
Any outsider can see that Rajapaksa and his family are extremely corrupt and have plundered the country dry. There is evidence of this. He and his brothers run a police/military state and brook no opposition from anybody. Thirty odd journalists have gone missing or dead with no one apprehended for these murders. The latest missing journalist is Prageeth Ekneliyagoda who is missing since the 24th of this month. The country has no support from the outside world apart from Despotic governments like Burma, Zimbabwe , Libya and Iran! Great company to keep!
He broke all the rules and laws in conducting his Presidential campaign, abused the use of the State Media, put out large cut outs of his image even after it was prohibited, used state machinery and personnel for his campaign and used violence and thuggery against his main opponent.
So this is the man that the “intelligent” people of Sri Lanka came in large numbers to support? From what I heard, this election result was cooked by those who eventually won! Be that as it may, IF as Devoneco says,the intelligent” people turned up in large numbers to endorse him and indeed they did, then you deserve a leader like Rajapaksa who will lead the country to the abyss during the next 8 years! If there is a country left at that time, and Deveneco is still among the living, he could help it along further down to hell, by voting Basil as the next President, and his children or Grand children can vote Namal for the next 12 years.
If the votes were not fudged and if in fact that this is how Sri Lanka voted, then they do deserve everything they get from now on, and all I can say is the wrath of God is upon you.
Tiger Terrorist need to be destroyed, so what did you find so objectionable in that Sanjana when General FOnseka who survived a terrorist attack said it at a temple?
Sanjana, why did you claim General Fonseka wanted to destroy all tamils? He should and the govt should destroy Terrorists without mercy like how the two Christian white nations of USA and UK want to do and are doing; but why did you lie?
Take A TRIP and SEE for yourself. Soldiers and cops laughing and relaxed now. The great N.E monsoon bringing amazing green paddies amongst abandoned bunkers. SEE Muslims in Rotawewa saying they are free now from fear of Tiger terrorists. SEE for yourself the progress; the massive development work. COME COME away from your computers. Roads in Vavuniya city carpeted and with zebra crossings better than Colombo. Railway line reaching North and running to Thandikulam. Massive roadwork. Awesome road from Habaran to Valachchanei junction. Bridges to replace the ferries on the Thiriyaya road. peacocks; Nilaveli Beach hotel and Pasekudah beaches crowded on weekends. People traveling by road to Jaffna. Soon the Jaffna Apura road will be better than any other road. Road to Trinco being done. Amazing work. Chinese Engineers inspecting Roads in Kutchuvely, Brand new sub post office in Kutchuvely. messy road to Batti as the construction goes on in frenetic pace. The manampitiya bridge is replaced with a brand new bridge. People go to Trinco. Yes please by all means COME Here ZIGGYASH and see FACTS on the ground. Yes there are issues but the war ended only 8 months ago. Compare that with Iraq. US white Christian US created 2 million refugees languishing in Jordan and Syria, 1 million IDPs and still having prisoners and black op camps in the interest of security. SRi LAnka has to safeguard its national security and it will take time. Please come and visit Madhu Church, safely liberated by mostly Buddhist soldiers for Tamils and Sinhala alike. Tiger Terrorist landmines still dot the road; the 12 kms from Madhu junct to the church is superbly carpeted and first class. But the land mine teams will have at least 2 years worth of work to clear TAMIL TIGER mines.. COME ON AND SEE; spend a night at the modest Nilaveli Beach hotel. Chat to the workers; even the Sinhala workers who fled are back there now!! Come chat to Muslims in Pulmuddoai like i did. come on Sri Lanka haters you will NEVER see the optimism there is now. The Self-loathing liberal Sinhala Intellectuals hate to discuss this. They sit and write their garbage to satisfy the white man’s negativism all the time. Never will Sanjana or CPA talk about the positive changes, the roads, the bridges, the electricity etc. WE HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO but we know it.. we will get there.
How come the UNP and Ranil and his senior people such as Joseph Michael Perera went on record saying it was General Fonseka’s people who killed Lasantha and attacked Sirasa? Hmmm Queer eh, not in a Thomian kind of way Sanjana but don’t you think it is a bit queer?
And why don’t you tell the people how Lasantha was a spy for the UNP when he worked for Mrs B ?He was a frustrated wannabe politician who ran on the SLFP ticket and barely got any votes. Then he was caught carrying secrets to the UNP . That is where Lasantha developed his hatred for CBK and General RAtwatte. But after CBK was sidelined by MR , he cosyied upto her to attack MR; Lasantha had zero morals when it came to that or came to fornication either. But he had everyright to write whatever he wanted and that was WRONG of them to kill him. Who that “Them” were I don’t know but it was wrong. As Voltaire said it best “I may not agree with what you said, but I defend to death your right to say it”. Sri Lanka has never had that fortune; remember the JVP days?
Well written article Sanjana. Now the demon is back in power after all those abuses unleased on outspoken majority and supressed minority. The election was an eye wash because MR & Co. did everything (murder, rape, fraud, violence) to be back on power. SL is already listed as a member of evil empire with corruptions and human rights abuses. Lasantha wrote the truth and he is gone now, I wonder who will bring justice to those killings since the killers are on power. State terrorism is already unleased in SL and it will continue another 6 years. Let’s see how many will survive end of this atrocious State Terrorism. I wonder why no one is talking about the sky rocketing living cost in SL? Those who sit in front of computer, why don’t you make a trip to SL and see the reality for yourself. Ordinary people with monthly income are on the verge of committing suicide due to higher living cost, and starvation. LTTE is no more, so don’t waste your time sitting here and talking about the past. Look forward people, let’s think in the best interest of SL where everyone can live with autonomy and peace.
1. If this were a a bad election, the Opposition can demand a recount of ballots to see if their claim of I.T manipulation is true. The General’s son in law is an IT person so he can help.
2. Sanjana and his English speaking elite St. Thomas’ boss needs to reveal their sources of funding and their expense reports including Travel; Entertainment; printing etc. Can they tell us if they travel Y class or Business class? Can they tell us if they drink Black Label Scotch or Arrack?
Sanajana can explain to us why in the guise of free speech his paper the S.Leader only and only attacked Mahinda and Chandrika and NEVER even published a letter to editor critical of its columns or critical of Ranil Wickremesinghe. No one needs to die for their views, but to portray Lasantha as an unbiased journalist when his own brother was rewarded by the UNP which made him Chairman of CWE when RAnil won is absurd. CWE was run to the ground under him. But nay Lasantha would always loving look at Ranil and his ideology as perfect; I guess this comes from his born again righteousness.
i am for free speech if it is balanced. When Sirisa and MTV became UNP mouthpieces the smart people turned to Swarnavahini and Derana and NOT to UNP TV or State TV. So they were able to decide a lot on their own. Sure State resources were abused; JR did it; Chandrika Did it; PRemedasa did it. Sanjana must have been hibernating then.
As usual the self-important English speaking Elite Intellectuals will not be able to admit they are wrong. I am making a few comments looking in from the outside now while holding no brief against any of the two respectable candidates and wishing both the winner and losing candidates the best. Both are good examples of patriotic Sri Lankans.
However, there is a big element of truth in what President Rajapakse’s campaign said about ugly Colombo 7 orginated “katakathaa” brigades who love to spread vicious rumours everytime the UNP loses an election. It is their specialty. Now too they are carrying out a story about how the Election Commissioner was under house arrest, how some data pipelines were not properly managed etc. Surely we have all heard it before.
And then comes the other Peace Brigade who will pontificate about why this is not a great election and how this is not good for democracy because unfortunately Tamil people were unable to or refused to participate in significant numbers. So the UNP will say they were intimidated. Given the margin of victory (which took me and a lot of people by surprise) it will be absurd to suggest that this was rigged or that the number of Tamil participants would have changed the outcome.
I will like to remind JVP and UNP members of the ugly history of the 1988 Presidential Election which pitted Mr. Premedasa against Mrs. Bandaranaike. I recall how the campaign manager for Mrs B had to work under a lot more threats of violence than today and how the CID harassed him. The violence unleashed by the JVP murderers and the UNP murderers makes this election runup a boyscouts affair. sure there was some violence but nothing in SRi Lankan history could match the ugly election season and terrorism that was unleashed against innocent people and mostly SLFP supporters by both the JVP and UNP.
To give the pundits of today who will try to steal this moment from President Rajapakse a reminder of voter participation, I have extracted some data(from the Elections Commission website) to remind the bad losers who are shouting now; I want them to think of how that election was declared legitimate even when Sinhala Voter participation was abysmally low in traditional Pro SLFP areas and areas that were tipped to go in Mrs B’s favour. Sure Mr. Premedasa would have possibly still won but given his margin of victory then I will like to encourage UNPers to think a bit hard before spitting their hateful and spiteful venom against a man who is much loved in Sri Lanka. General Fonseka was also much respected for his role and both need to be credited with the military victory but this is not about that.
in 1988 in Hakmana seat, ONLY 4.45% votes were polled! In Kamburupitiya a mere 7.45% and in Matara 47.9% for example. All seats went to Mrs. B
I can go on and on with REAL DATA …Now they say only 20% of tamils voted?
UNP must be reminded of the FACTS about the 1988 election.
Overall Matara district “Declared” a free election with 23% voter participation of Sinhalese,
Hambantota with 29% overall
Polonnaruwa with 29.73%
Anuradhapura with 40%
Matale 30%
Galle with 53%
Those are districts where voter participation has always and since then also been well over 65% .In Galle, Matara and Pnaruwa Mrs B got a
significant higher majority and still lost. So why are the Hate Mahinda people talking about the percentage polled in one area because Tamils refused to vote?
JVP and UNP both bear moral responsibility for what happened in 1988.; TNA forgets the history too of how LTTE terrorised Tamils too
Everyone knows what a murderous bunch there was in the UNP and JVP then. Old timer UNPers have not forgotten who killed their parents, brothers and sisters and their children. In many places such as Galagedera where good upstanding UNP leaders were killed people would have been reminded of the murderous JVP when they went house to house campaigning like how they went house to house terrorising people. Sure a lot of lower level JVP cadre were also killed; but most of their top leaders escaped unpunished only to come back in 1994 to become born again democratic brahmins full of virtue. Someone needs to ask them where all the gold and money they stole is stored when they talk about corruption now.
There is a notion that only Sinhalese are racists or chauvinists but no one discusses Tamil racism which demanded an exclusive state only for Tamils. Tamils should and have the right to live anywhere; but a Sinhalese cannot even buy property in Jaffna.
Let me remind you again, this man writes to the Party paper S.Leader which is always one sided pro UNP like Sirasa and MTV in SRi Lanka. In fact Federica Janz admitted how the Editorial board decided to back General Fonseka once the UNP came on board for his candidacy. That is on record.
So this was the paper which relentlessly attacked the Generals telephone bills on the army, his daughter’s wedding expenses, his alleged comments to a Canadian News station etc while he was commander. They attacked his military policies and suddenly overnight, he became a Saint for them. Sanjana who spread a LIE via email claimed General Fonseka wanted to wipe out Tamils: That was a LIE. He may not know Sinhalese well because like other CPA elitists they come from the Westernized English Speaking Private school snobbish class which will never think an ordinary Sinhalese as good as them. To them we are peasants and “Yakkos”.
On elections, this young man at CPA which gets paid by the US and German Liberal funds is too young to recall the 1988 Presidential Election In Sri Lanka. I will post another story next.
Someone here claims that 2 million Sri Lankans took refuge in other countries. What Bull! Bogus refugees sought asylum for economic reasons. They collected so much from the Diaspora and were able to siphon millions of Dollars per year to fight their war. If 70% more want to leave please let them do so and let the rest of the people of Sri Lanka live in peace. The 70% can flourish in other countries as those who left do now without attempting to ruin that country by resorting to further Terrorist activities. By the way, an army general should learn to accept defeat just the way he celebrates victory.
This article is written by a well known partisan anti Rajpakse man. He is the man who used the one-sided partisan Pro UNP newspaper the Sunday Leader every week to relentlessly attack this government. Then he sent out emails claiming Sarath Fonseka wanted to DESTROY tamils based on a YouTube video clip of the General’s speech at a temple in Washington DC. This was when the General came to the US to renew his Greencard while he was CDS and in uniform but already secretly negotiating with the UNP and JVP to contest. India revealed Satellite data of the General’s convoy going to JVP HQ. This author sent out an email at that time because he thought the General was with the govt. and did not know all this. So he CLAIMED quite clearly that General Fonseka wanted to destroy tamils. He said no such thing. He said there are still thousands of Terrorists who needed to be weeded out. Compare this to the tens of thousands of Iraqi men the US incarcerated for over 5 years. They still hold about 8000 young Iraqi men who are held without due process. Why? Because they were caught in the battle zones. At least in Sri Lanka these men were openly arrested or surrendered Hard Core Tigers. US does not compromise on national security. Predator strikes have quadrupled under Obama’s regime with much higher civilian casualties. CPA is funded by USA liberal money so it will never say anything about the US strategy and war against terrorism. It will also never talk about Tamil Racism as manifested by the separatists and politicians like Mano Ganeshan; they all demand a separate stae for Tamils while more than 55% of tamils live with us Sinhalese and have always continued to live with us. Hence they can only fashionably in the manner of self-loathing liberals in the west, blame Sinhalese. NOW PEOPLE CAN GO FREE anywhere in SRi Lanka. they dont have to go in separate buses to work hoping at least one comes home at night. They can travel FREE. Sanjana is unable to report on such FACTS because white masters will not like to hear the positives. He is the one who sent out that lie about Sarath Fonseka until his party decided to back SF. SO he needs to reveal his politics first and admit his UNP St Thomass elite snobbish pseudo intellectual credentials before trying to be objective.
Independent monitors concluded polls were largely fair to Rajapaksa , but if there was any manipulation of data has occurred, It would be hard to identify thoses manipulations without some specialized skills of IT.
If the Independent monitors didn’t had such knowledge, they were guilty of negligence!
More than 2 million sri lankans took refuge in other countries, and if you let i think 70% of sri lankans will leave the country.
It shows where the country is heading
I was in SL so long time and it was a wonderful place with wonderful people. This article mislead the public.
The just concluded Presidential election results in Sri Lanka showed one thing very clearly – that the Sri Lankan people have matured politically and cannot be fooled by unscruplous and unethical politicians anymore. The common people of Sri Lanka of all ethnic groups have had enough of the terrorist problem that plagued their country for almost three decades and were yearning for peace and stability. After several leaders of the past three decades had been unsuccessful in their bid for peace in this Island nation, the present President Rajapakse was voted into power in 2005 due to his promise to end this conflict once and for all. And end it he did in style – by completely anihilating and routing the Tiger terrorists from the face of Sri Lanka and establishing a peaceful situation in the country. Subsequently, when he went back to the people to give him a second term in continuing his good work, a majority of the population did not bat an eye-lid in voting him back into power because they have confidence in him that he’s a leader who delivers what he promises. As for his opponent – the General Fonseka – clearly showed his immaturity in politics by his mucho behavior and foul language during the election campaigns which was not viewed favorably by the people. Unfortunately, he was also taken for a ride by a bunch of losers in the opposition of totally opposite idelogies and with no clear direction who planted Fonseka on a pedestal to to pit him against President Rajapakse because none of these jokers had the guts nor courage to challenge the President themselves. This was what the intelligent people of Sri Lanka immediately noted and decided to come out in numbers to show their gratitude to President Rajapakse – knowing that he would in his next term in office take the country to higher echelons in economic and social stability for all its citizens irrespective of their race, religion, caste or creed.