A Voice in Colombo

What Akon Understands Well, and Indi (& few others) Will Continue to Fail Understanding

2010-03-24T10:42:00.001+05:30

"I was not aware that the statue was even on the set of the video until now. I would never set out to offend or desecrate anyone's religion or religious beliefs. I myself am a spiritual man, so I can understand why they are offended, but violence is never the answer and I am disheartened to hear about what happened yesterday in Sri Lanka." says Akon, in an official response to the recent incidents in Sri Lanka.

The so called "libereal minded" bloggers who commented on my previous post, must answer the question "is it ok for producers of the music video, to use a Buddha statue in the backdrop of that video?". A clear "Yes or No" answer is admired. Akon himself, admits it was wrong, and he admits it has offended the Buddhists.

As I always said, people are "culturaly programmed" and, we have to interpret things in that sense. We don't have an ideal state of "Buddhism" here (or anywhere in the world for that matters). It's funny how people become Buddhist philosophers, when only they need to justify things they like.

All in all, we must appreciate the fact that Akon responded to this with such a good open minded attitude, without ridiculing the feelings of Sri Lankans who protested. It looks like to me, Akon do respect differences we have in our cultures, than some of our own people who brought up in western cultures.

Response to Indi's "Akon, Buddhism And Chilling Out" Post

2010-03-23T16:20:00.000+05:30

I tried to post the below comment on Indi's blog post about Akon and Buddhism, but it didn't got posted on his blog due to some reason. I may not be able to follow it up, so I thought of leaving a post on my blog here. This is a response to Indi's following posts.

Akon, Buddhism And Chilling Out

Fundamentalism And Superficialism

Did you think about why Madona is hated by many Catholics around the world, and Catholic church go with all guns fired, every time she go for a world tour? Even in Sri Lanka, how many Catholics we find, who hate Madona? Can Madona go to Rome?

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/michaeldeacon/100006555/catholics-call-madonna-satanic-shes-not-shes-too-dull/

You wouldn't say a word about Madona Vs Catholicism debate, as "Catholicism/Christinism" is the idealism in your worldview. You see those as "supreme" and "taken for granted" and look down on Budhism and Islam as "third world, ignorant people's religions". You will say "no I'm not". But, your brain is programmed like that. You see the world, from that point of view only.

Let me ask a question. Did you say a word, when Sri Lanka banned the movie "Da Vinci Code"? No. Cuz, it was banned due to objections from Colombo Catholics. If, Da Vinci Code was allowed to screen in Sri Lanka, we would have seen much more action than the MTV attack.

Dear Indi! This is not a matter about Bhudists, Mulims or Sri Lankans. It's the basic human nature, no matter what religion they belong to or where they live. You take this (The music video in question) lightly, because it's not contradicting the culture in which you are brought up in. You have to look at it from the eye of the people who are involved in it.

UNP's Aim in General Election is to Avoid UPFA taking One Third Majority. - Wajira Abewardane

2010-02-15T22:30:00.001+05:30

According to him, he has already admitted that UNP cannot win this election. I'm watching the 360 Degrees, political talk show on TV Derana now, and few minutes ago he said that UNP decided to contest alone in this election, to avoid UPFA getting the bonus seats in each district, by letting JVP and smaller parties to claim the bonus seats by gaining more than 5% of votes.
He is saying, after the election UNP will come to an alliance with JVP and smaller parties to form a stronger opposition which can challenge the president and UPFA government.
So, don't be surprised and come up with election rigging stories on 9th April morning. Wajira Abewardane already accepted defeat!

Sri Lanka Be Warned! JVP Trying to Take Us Back to 88/89

2010-02-12T17:50:00.003+05:30

Just few days before the presidential election I warned about the bad consequences of a Sarath Fonseka win in that election, and pledged my readers to spread that message as much as possible. I received an overwhelming response to that post, to the extent that I personally received my own article for more than 5 times as a viral email from different senders.

Today also, I’m going to make a similar request from my readers. Repost this, email this to as many as possible, post this link on Facebook and other forums, and pass this message to as many as you can!

The JVP is trying to push back this country to another disastrous era like 1988/89. I’m sure, none of the reasonable citizens of this country would like to see this happens.

There is no doubt that UPFA will record a sweeping victory in upcoming general election. JVP knows that, and UNP knows that. Both these parties now want “excuses” to tell to their supporters, after the election. They have to create evidence for their supporters to believe the false election rigging accusations.

UNP, in contrast to the JVP are less in danger in next election. Even though the UNP is less likely to win the election, they can easily secure the place of main opposition in the parliament. And they know that, the day people (masses) start to dislike UPFA, the only alternative left is UNP. Therefore, for UNP it is a matter of only another 6 years in opposition; but not a problem of total extinction.

On the other hand, the story is different with JVP. They are in the verge of a total extinction from Sri Lanka’s politics. After this election, JVP will become another “Nawa Sama Samaja Party”, where Somawansa and clan will shout out loud but no one is listening. The way JVP has performed in past few elections, it is now very clear that they do not have a strong vote base in Sri Lanka. Likelihood of them getting more than 3 members to next parliament is very little. They know this for sure. And, they are now getting ready for a suicidal mission by “setting fire” on everything that comes in their eye sight.

JVP first tried by contesting as a common opposition with UNP, so that they can be a parasite in UNP vote base to sneak in 20 to 30 MP’s, just like they did with SLFP in 2004. But with the presidential election results, UNP realized that there is no real value for them in forming alliance with JVP. It is highly likely that UNP is going to contest from Elephant symbol this time.

In that case, JVP is now left stranded! “Shall we contest under Elephant? (and give up our clothings)” or “Shall we contest alone (and say welcome to extinction)” are the two options ahead of them.

It is highly unlikely they are going to contest under Elephant. They will try to convince UNP to contest under Swan or under Rabbit. But if UNP don’t agree, they are left with the only choice of contesting under Bell.

If they contest on their own, they will secure three MP’s maximum, looking most optimistically. Therefore, they now have to think of spoiling the whole soup (if I can’t drink enough, let me spoil it!)

The master plan of JVP’s next move is based on igniting violence everywhere. They are best at doing that! They are the masters of violence at universities, at trade unions, at parliament, and everywhere they go. They are arousing people to get into roads and riot against government for different reasons. Latest reason is Fonseka’s arrest. Even if Fonseka wasn’t arrested, JVP would have come up with a different reason to protest. That’s what they are aiming at.

By organizing such a sequence of protest campaigns, they are trying to paint a picture among the international community that there is “public unrest” in Sri Lanka which is not the true case. For example, there were 4.1million people who voted Fonseka in last election. But, are these all 4.1million people approving these riots? No. Only a few hundreds come to roads for these riots. They arouse the police, and make sure a “tear gas treatment” is delivered. Then these pictures will be distributed all over the world, painting a wrong picture about the real situation in Sri Lanka.

When foreigners see these pictures on TV and news, they refuse to come to Sri Lanka as tourists. Ultimately, this affects Sri Lanka’s tourism industry. Isn’t this the same objective of LTTE?

When this type of political unrest is taking place, people get reluctant to invest more in stock exchange. Then the stock exchange figures go down. Isn’t this the same objective of LTTE?

JVP’s politics is totally centered around problems. In a country where there are no problems, they don’t have a reason for existence. So they create problems and make and excuse for their existence. This is the strategy which is JVP is taking now.

JVP did ruined this country in 1971, and in 1989. They are now preparing for the same. Sarath Fonseka has unfortunately become a victim of JVP. The whole master plan is JVP’s.

My pledge to SF Fans

Go by SF's campaign slogan, "Mata Pera Rata" (Country before self)

Think about the country first, and not about your candidate or your ownself, before engaging in any sort of violance encouraged by JVP.

My pledge to those who voted Sarath Fonseka, for reasons other than being a JVP supporter is this. You voted SF for a reason you felt as right. Somehow your candidate lost. I admit, government is overreacting with Fonseka, and I admit that SF should be left alone without any harassment. I personally do not approves the way government arrested SF. It wasn’t transparent. But, I pledge you all to be “calm” an patient. Do not fall into traps laid by JVP. Do not get involved in any of these riots, or protests. It will not do any good for the country or for SF. Supreme Courts will hear the FR petition, and they will give the final verdict if the arrest is legal or not. If SC say it is legal, would you still protest?

Do not get involved in riots and violence. We had enough violence in this country, lead by LTTE and JVP. Now that LTTE is gone, only party to encourage violence in Sri Lanka is JVP. You are free to vote any party in next election. (But UPFA going to win it for sure, and don’t keep high expectations and complain about election rigging after the results are out)

No one will gain by encouraging violence and making Sri Lanka politically unstable. Only the remainder of LTTE and the JVP will benefit! So, if you are a supporter of LTTE or the JVP, please go ahead and join the violence! But, if you are a reasonable citizen, or a supporter of UNP or any other reasonable political party; please try to understand the truth and respect the importance of political stability in this country. Use your vote to speak. Not riots and violence!

Government Should Leave Fonseka Alone!

2010-02-09T17:17:00.002+05:30

If anyone is feeling happy about the arrest of Gen Sarath Fonseka by the military police, I'm sure the majority of such people (if not all) must be LTTE sympothisers who were silenced for last eight months after the death of Prabhakaran. It was just eight months ago we celebrated as a one nation, the glorious victory over the world's most ruthless group of terrorists. We hailed General Fonseka, other comanders of armed forces, president Rajapakshe and secratary of defence as national heroes who did the incredible job of bringing Sri Lanka under a one flag.

But today after eight months, one of the most celebrated heroes in that glorious victory is arrested by the same army he used to lead during war time. Isn't this a tragedy for our nation? Isn't this the last wish of Prabhakaran, to split the forces which lead the war?

It is a real sad feeling I have in my mind about the way things are going forward with this whole "Swan Drama". I thought it is all over, once Fonseka lost the election and realized for himself that politics is not the game for him. But sadly enough, he wasn't allowed to stop at that point. The evil politicians who spoiled him and dragged him into this tragedy should be directly responsible for what has happened to this great soldier.

From the begining of my blogging about the presidential election 2010, I clearly stated that I am against the idea of Sarath Fonseka contesting the election.Even more, I was against the idea of him becoming the president of this country in a government where Mano Ganeshan, R. Sampanthan and Rauf Hakeem (all three are seperatists) holds high degree of power. I clearly stood behind the idea that Mahinda Rajapakshe should get a second term as president, not only because of his achievement in ending the war, but on some other grounds such as being effective as a leader in many other areas.

This is sad! This is really really sad! It sad to see after eight months of a remarkable team work, the same team which achieve the glory is now broken into two pieces by the exact evil forces who pulled from their leg. Never remember that, none of these people; Mano, Hakeem, Mangala, Somawansa supported Sarath Fonseka when he was leading the army in that war. Today, the same evil people have come together and took advantage of personal weaknesses of general Fonseka to convince him to believe that he can be the president. Greed for more power has earned Fonseka this fate.

I'm worried.

What happened to Fonseka, could possibly happen to some others. Most probably in the future, we will see attempts by these people to break up the Rajapakshe brothers. Set one against the others and break their unity. It could happen, who knows?

My View About the Arrest Incident

The government was never fully transparent in the way they dealt with Fonseka after the election. That let more room for opposition to build a bigger fuss among people. In my personal opinion, government should have left Fonseka alone, after the election. They should have left Fonseka to contest the general election too. Because; more he do politics, more he will realize he is not fitting there. Government can easily walk over the next election, without this type of cheap acts of haressing opposition politicians. Opposition is already in enough trouble. They are still not decided whether to contest under Elephant, under Swan or under any other animal. This is far too much! Government had created another chance for opposition to gain public sympathy.

Why Opposition Keep Losing Elections?

2010-02-04T20:50:00.001+05:30

A blind supporter of UNP or JVP wil tell you the reason is that the government cheat in elections. It's a very simplistic explanation by any incapable player in any game, not only in politics. But if you look at today's independence day ceramony, you will see the reason. The opposition boycotted the most prestigous national event of this country, purely for party politics reasons. The day is celebrated by all Sri Lankans without any political barriers, and this time we are celebrating independence in a terror free country after 30 years. Yet, the opposition is so jealous about the achievement made by present government, and demonstrated their jealousy by boycotting such a landmark independence day ceramony.
This is only a one incident. Our opposition all the time thinks, the duty of an opposition is always to oppose the government, no matter it's a good thing or a bad thing. They think their mission always is to do conspiracies to topple government in power. They never think about the national interest. Their interest is in their party. They reject democratically conducted elections.
But the general public of this country, except for few are much more intelligent than there opposition politicians. They know to appreciate good things done by governments and criticize the bad things. They can see the good things done by present government exceeds the bad things done. They further see the opposition is doing nothing good than cursing, complaining, and spreading rumours. In final analysis they don't see a need to change this government.
If the opposition want to get over this vicious cycle, they first need to stop cursing everything. Because the general public of this country now think positive. They are optimistic about future. In such a situation, a political party who do their campaigning with cursing, negativity and pessimism will never win the hearts of masses.
JVP can't do this. The basis of their existance is in pessimism. Negativity is their political slogan. But UNP can rethink about their campaign strategy in next election. Rather than slinging mud at Rajapakshes, and spread pessimism, campaign with positive hope in people's minds. Show people the brighter side of life, as Mahinda did in last election. You don't have to praise Mahinda, but talk about the benefits of ending the war. Don't talk about how this government is wasting opportuniter of peace. Instead talk about how UNP can make better use of the opportunity.
If, UNP can come up with such a positivity driven campaign, i'm sure they can do better in upcoming election.
P.S. This note is punched from my mobile. Apologize for typos.

SF Fans! Stop Acting Like Clowns and Respect Democracy..

2010-01-28T12:39:00.001+05:30

It was so hard for we Sri Lankans to believe that we lost the cricket world cup final 2007 to Australia. It was shocking! We whole heartedly backed up our boys, and we were damn confident that our guys deserved the cup and we must crush the Aussies. But then? We lost!! We lost big!! What did we do? We blamed the toss, blamed the rain, blamed Gilly's squash ball, blamed the umpires, blamed individual players. Did we stop at blaming? No. We speculated! We speculated that ICC will eventually rule Gilly's squash ball was illegal, and a re-play of the match will take place. We as a nation was shocked by that defeat; because we were soooooooooooo close to be crowned as the world champions of cricket.

But for rest of the world?

It was a one horse race from the begining. Aussies were having the best of odds to win the cup from day one, and we were just the underdogs. When Aussies won the cup, for rest of the world it was not a surprise. Because they knew that the most likely outcome of the match, and if Sri Lanka won; that would have been the upset.

Can't you relate the same thing happening with this whole drama of "post-election rumours"??

To all SF supporters!

Grow up and stop complaining! Accept your defeat, and respect democracy. If you know the basics of democracy, you wouldn't say 57% of Sri Lankans are idiots, simply because they voted the candidate you dislike. Sarath Fonseka is comprehensively rejected by a 57% majority of the people in this country. Almost all the election monitring bodies admit that there had not been any mass scale election violance this time. If we discount 5% (very generously) for abusing state media, state proerty, hora chanda here and there, and all the small incidents took place; still it is a 52% majority which is "democratic enough" to appoint Mahinda as the president.

Relax! Have a good sleep. Wake up. Start getting back to your daily life. If the decision of 57% of people is correct or not; we will debate in another 2 years may be. But now, what has happened has happened. Get it sound! Your candidate has lost. El - Oooo - Ess - Teee LOST!

What SF would have done is show the country that he is a real gentleman by accepting the result, blaming Mahinda for abusing state powers to win election, and then swearing to come back stronger in the general election. Instead he started acting like a circus clown in Cinamon Lakeside. All these "assasination attempts" are crap!

JVP must appologise the country for bringing this clown to politics. This cheater did not even have a registered vote in Sri Lanka and he kept on cheating the people until 3.30pm on the election day saying that "I will vote in another one hour".

All UNP supporters! You have a great party with good people. Start rebuilding your party and come back strong in next election. Kick out Mangala, Mano and Hakeem. Those are the idiots who ruined your campaign. Let Sajith to lead from front. Give more room for Dayasiri to speak. They are the future of your party! Don't let JVP parasites to kill you more!

If Fonseka Wins on 26th...

2010-01-24T19:37:00.000+05:30

If by a longest of a shot SF wins on Tuesday's election, what's the message our people communicate to us?
CBK failed to end the war in her first term, she didn't do any mega development projects, she had corrupted ministers and family friends in her administration, but yet our people voted her for a second term. Mahinda finished the war in his first term, started and completed several mega development projects, and saved Sri Lanka from global economic crisis. He may have had some corrupted people in his government. But if, he is not voted for a second term for the sole reason of alleged corruption charges, the message we are giving is "Don't waste your time on solving problems, or doing mega development projects. Just earn as much as you can like CBK did, and happily go home. Because, you are not guaranteed to win elections, no matter how much good you do to the people"
After all, why you should burn your ass when people only worry about their tummy? Give/promise them something to eat today, and they will vote you tomorrow!
Hmmm... If Fonseka Wins, i will most probably delete this blog the day after! Cuz, he's going to get revenge from everyone who talked against him during last few weeks. I don't want to risk my life just for a blog! Happy voting! You may or may not see this blog on 27th. Don't gamble your vote for Simple Fun!
Cheers. VIC out!

When Mahinda Wins on 27th..

2010-01-23T19:39:00.000+05:30

Tissa Attanayake, Anura Dissanayake and Mangala Samaraweera will hold a press conference and tell the country..
1) Election was corrupted and most of their supporters were not allowed to vote. (They won't admit that their supporters are now voting Mahinda)
2) State Media influenced the public opinion. (They will forget that they earlier told no body believes State Media now)
3) Even though Mahinda won, his percentage is less than the aggregated percentage of provincial council elections. (They will forget that they have still lost again, and their own claims that people vote different in national elections)
3) And they will challenge, "Puluwannam maha mathiwaranayakata enna!"
Such a bunch of losers!

So You Have Decided to Vote Sarath Fonseka? Read This To the End, and then Vote!

2010-01-19T17:25:00.006+05:30

So you have decided to vote Sarath Fonseka, haven’t you? It’s all right. I understand. I am not here to sling mud at Sarath Fonseka. I will never ask or beg you to vote Mahinda. You don’t have to. I just want you to read this to the end. I respect Sarath Fonseka, as much as you do. In fact I personally want to vote him, but I can’t. I’ll tell you why. Please read till the end. You have decided to vote Sarath Fonseka for one of these three reasons

1) You are voting Sarath Fonseka simply because your parents keep voting UNP for last 50 years, and you are also inherently a UNP supporter.

2) Or, you are voting Sarath Fonseka because you believe in JVP politics, and your leader Somawansa Amarasinghe wants you to vote Sarath Fonseka this time.

3) If not for these two reasons, you are voting Sarath Fonseka simply because you personally feels that’s the right thing to do. You are not influenced by either the UNP or the JVP

For what ever the reason you are voting Sarath Fonseka, you have already created mental justifications for your decision. It’s the human nature. Once you make a decision, you tend to rationalize your decision. Let me guess some of your rationalizations and ask you few questions back. You have to give answers to your own self, for these questions.

1. Sarath Fonseka was the true leader of our war victory against LTTE. He would have done it even without Mahinda as the president.

Can he? Is SF the sole contributor to the war victory? For sure, Mahinda wasn’t the “sole contributor”. But, Mahinda was the “leader” who managed all aspects of this war; not just a one frontier. The military war in the air (with Roshan Gunathilake), military war in the sea (with Karannagoda) and the military war on land (with Fonseka). How about the political war? Keeping the pressure put by opposition and international community away from the military leaders? Did Sarath Fonseka played any role in these other aspects, than the military war on the ground? Ask from your own common sense. Don’t let your political biasness to fool you.

2. Ok, war victory was just a one thing which Mahinda did right. Did he do anything else for this country? Just take a look at these pictures, and ask from your own common sense whether these were not important to you. Don’t let your political biasness to fool you. Simply question your common sense.

3. Mahinda didn’t do anything for the business sector. Ok, if you believe in this as a reason for voting SF, tell me what you are expecting SF to do good for the business community? What guarantee you have? Remember his economic policy is going to be influenced both by UNP and JVP. Can you expect any “positive sum” in a combination of JVP and UNP economic policies? Isn’t ending the war itself is a good thing done for the business community? Isn’t building the roads a good thing for business?

4. Mahinda taxed the country a lot. Without taxing a country, how can you provide free education, free healthcare, more super highways, more flyovers, ending a 30 year old war? Are you expecting under SF he will remove all these taxes? Then how can he continue to provide us free education, free healthcare, and continue the development projects?

Lord Buddha said, “those who always find faults with others on minor concerns, despite the larger achievements they have made; will always keep on burning inside by their own flames of selfishness”. Stop being selfish. Open your mind. Put away your political jealousy. Think about the truth standing right in front of your eyes. The truth is, Mahinda did a great deal of good to this country which JR, Premadasa or Chandrika failed to do. Do you want to turn this country back by handing it over to a person who doesn’t even know how to speak to another human being? A person who get aggravated so quickly?

Tell me…. Are you ready to vote for a man who is spreading hatred on every stage that he speaks? Are you ready to vote for a person who has already threatening to get revenge the people talking against him? If you are the type of “100% media freedom”; are you ready to vote for a man who threatens the press people to resign from their jobs, even before he get elected as president? Can you expect press freedom from such a man?

I respect SF as a military commander. But I don’t want this country to be ruled by an angry totalitarian dictator, who get aggravated easily with a small provocation. I don’t want to see this country to be ruled by a person who doesn’t know the meaning of the word “patience”, “forgiveness”. I don’t want to see this country be ruled by a person who’s surrounded by people who are willing to kill people, even before their leader gets appointed as president (Just imagine the fate of MR supporters on 27th, if SF gets elected).

I know that you hate Mahinda. I don’t want you to love him. Keep hating him. But don’t cut your nose simply because you hate your face!

If you still want to vote Sarath Fonseka and see this country get ruined, please go ahead and vote him! But if you have a slightest of common sense left with you, and if you are not looking at the world with political colored glasses; see the danger ahead of us. Don't just vote Sarath Fonseka, because that you hate Mahinda. This is not about hating Mahinda. This about the future of this country. Don't play with it. DON’T VOTE SARATH FONSEKA FOR THE SAKE OF THIS COUNTRY!

Just cancel your vote, if you don't like Mahinda!

If you see the danger I am showing you; please pass this message to all people whom you think that care. Simply copy and paste this to an email and send to your contacts. Republish this on forums. Print this and spread! What ever that you can do to open the eyes of politically blinded people of this country...

VIDEO: Muzzamil being given Rs. 30 million by Sarath Fonseka Campaign

2010-01-15T17:25:00.001+05:30

I am yet to see this type of videos or other sources showing MR campaign handing money to SB or Jhonston despite the allegations by SF camp. I'm yet to see any source documents to prove any of those romours about "Basil bought this, Gota bought that".

Source: Ada Derana

Tilvin Silva Promises to Bring Pabha Back, when Fonseka Becomes the President

2010-01-12T11:26:00.001+05:30

The latest election promise from Fonseka camp is "bringing Pabha back" on ITN. Tilvin Silva speaking in a recent election rally appealed the fans of popular tele-drama "Pabha" on ITN to vote Fonseka on 26th Jan, and from 27th Jan onwards "Pabha will be back on!". This makes history as the first time a presidential campaign promise changing the scripts of tele-dramas :-D

This country waits for Pabha to be back! The most critical problem we have in front of our nation!!!

What to Expect in Today’s (Most Awaited) “Rathu Ira” Program on Swarnavahini? (A Preview)

2010-01-08T09:45:00.002+05:30

Much awaited Rathu Ira debate on Swarnavahini will be aired live today from 9.30pm onwards. This program was mentioned in a parliamentary debate, and mentioned in the news casts of several other TV channels as well. This is the debate which Wimal Weerawansa challenged the opposition common candidate Sarath Fonseka, and declined by SF claiming “I’m not ready to debate with ‘katu kana ewun’”. Then this challenge made by Mahinda’s “katu kana balla” was accepted by a “katu kana balla” in Fonseka’s camp. (That’s fair, isn’t it?).

So the ultimate debate will be held between Wimal Weerawansa representing the MR camp, and Dayasiri Jayasekera representing the SF side. The core topic for the program would be “Arm Deals by Sarath Fonseka’s Son in Law”. However, none of these people confirmed their personal participation to the program. So, we still have a chance a totally two different people coming to the program and debating a totally irrelevant topic.

I have gained some information on how the Sarath Fonseka camp is preparing for this debate. They are going to approach with a strategy of attacking Wimal Weerawansa on a personal level, and not answering any of the allegations against Sarath Fonseka. They are gathering all the information about Wimal Weerawansa’s misconducts, both as a close friend of Mahinda Rajapakshe and as a JVP MP few years ago. Throughout the program, Dayasiri Jayasekera will throw allegations against Wimal Weerawansa in a personal level, instead of debating nationally concerned matters. This was the same approach taken by Sujeewa Senasinghe against Hemakumara Nanayakkara, and Ranjan Ramanayake against Mervin Silva. They are believing “attacking the government’s representative to the program at a personal level is the best method to control them”.

Two of the employees of a leading pro-Sarath Fonseka website were planning the whole of the script for today’s program. Actually, the people at this website is going to help Dayasiri Jayasekera for collecting as much as mud against Wimal Weerawansa. These two people were talking on phone to another person at Sarath Fonseka’s office to coordinate the mission (a person with the same first name as a popular army officer killed in a suicide bomb in Colombo, few years ago). As per their conversation, they are going to take few photographs of Wimal Weerawansa’s house being built in Colombo, alone with a sketch plan for another luxury house (not the plan of Weerawansa’s house) with Wimal’s name printed on it. Then these photographs will be published on their website during the day, and Dayasiri Jayasekera is going to take the website as a source to prove Wimal Weerawansa’s 4 billion worth house.

All in all, we can expect Dayasiri Jayasekera coming for the program with a hell of a lot of files filled with personal allegations against Wimal Weerawansa. From the minute 1 of the program, Dayasiri will start attacking Wimal Weerawansa, instead of responding to Wimal’s allegations against Sarath Fonseka.

Few hours more to go for the program, and let’s see what’s going to happen!!!

Fonseka Steals Obama's Campaign Slogan!

2010-01-07T12:38:00.001+05:30

"Vishvasaneeya Wenasak" is the campaign slogan and the title for Sarath Fonseka's election manifesto. Now, translate this into English!!!

It is sad how pathetic the SF campaign is. They don't have anything else to say on stage, other than Rajapakshe family corruption. And, for that topic also they don't have any proof. They take their own "Kata Katha Hamudawa" as the source of these allegations. (Paid Rs.2000/- per spreading one rumor such as "Basil bought Swarnawahini" etc. Lanka eNews and LankaNewsWeb are paid even better). They can't say "this government use the war as a beggar's wound". They can't say "this government couldn't do anything to improve transport system". (Instead SF is complaining about click towers).

Let's talk about some of the allegations. "Basil bought Swarnawahini". The program director of Swarnawahini categorically rejected this allegation in several Rathu Ira programs. None of the UNP participants to the program, challenged that. "Appolo is bought by Gota". In fact, Appolo is a subsidiary of Sri Lanka Insuarance, which is a government entity now. So, in effect Appolo is owned by the government and the government can appoint the CEO of Appolo, through SLIC. Gota being a government official, have the legal right to be appointed there. When the governments change, new government can appoint a new CEO to Appolo.

A friend of mine working closely with Mangala Samaraweera revealed a nice story. In a private gathering of friends in Matara, Mangala has said "What ever we say on stage, Mahinda is the greatest state leader we ever had". This is what Managala and all say inside! I know, a majority of JVP leaders believes this too. But their "ego" prevents them admitting this truth publicly.

Sarath Fonseka has already said he is going to give "enough bones" to the country, once he is elected as president. Can you imagine the hidden meaning of this statement? He has further said, he will take "action" within 24 hours of his appointment as president, against all journalist who went against him during the run up to the election. If these are "legal actions" why can't he take them now? We have to assume SF is planning to ensure "media freedom" the Premadasa way!

After 4 years of Blogging, VIC Gets the First Death Threat

2009-12-28T22:38:00.003+05:30

I have criticized the LTTE on my blog. Their supporters popped in here and commented with counter arguments. We argued, and comment threads went on and on.

I have criticized NGO’s in Sri Lanka. Their supporters sometime read my post and left a comment here and there. They were never emotionally bothered, because it’s just a “business matter” for them.

I have criticized the Free Media Movement. They never even bothered to read my posts, because they believe blogging is not a serious means of mass communication.

I have criticized Mervin Silva. Some people thought I’m all done! But nothing happened.

I have criticized the government when I extremely felt they deserve some criticism (Because, they are getting a hell of a lot of criticism from other bloggers, so I preferred to leave it to them)

I have criticized the UNP, and the JVP. The JHU, SLMC and Mano Ganeshan.

Criticizing all these people and organizations, I have never received a death threat or a threatening comment from any of them or their supporters.

But then! I checked for my emails at voiceincolombo AT gmail DOT com to find this message, sent to me weeks ago! (I never noticed it until today).

Ready to bring “good governance” and “democracy” with the General? He surely got some “Niyama Sri Lankikayo” around him!!!

Here’s the full text of the email from Niyama Sri lankikaya

from Niyama Sirilankan
to voiceincolombo@gmail.com

date Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 5:25 PM
subject Noise in Colombo
mailed-by yahoo.com
signed-by yahoo.com

hide details Dec 15 (13 days ago)
Ado ponna kariyo.. Thoge blog eke Rajapakshalata puka dena post daala kiyak hamba kara gannawa da ara Namal kariyagen? Tho dana ganin ponna huththo thoge olu katta pupurawanawa dana ganinin 26 wenida ta passe. Thopila ge rajjuruwo ta Miyanmar wala ta hari Libiya wa ta hari pana ganna puluwan 26 wenidata passe. Eth thopi inna wenne may rate ne? Parissamen hitapan. Yana ena than wala. Tho hithanne Voice of Colombo kiyala boru namak daa gaththa ta apita tho wa alla ganna behe kiyalada? Tho anith blog wala daapu comment walin thoge IPs api gawa thiyenawa. Tho dana ganin api ewa track karala tho inna thena hoya ganna wa. Tho pahugiya kale dagaluwa wedi. Bala gen hitapan thope rajjuruwan tai raja pawulatai wen de. Umbata ona nam thawa liyapan. Ara Mahinda Abeysekara la Sudarman la Asela Bandaranayake la ta wena sethe ma thamai umba tath wenne 26 weni da ta passe. Un nam danata math passport hada gena Visa apply kara la thiyenne. Tho kariya wa allala hama gahanawa dana ganin pakaya

Somawansa Brothers. Professionals in Pasting Wall Posters! (JVP Advertisement)

2009-12-28T15:34:00.000+05:30

Sarath Fonseka Says Executive Presidency Will Remain in this Country for Next 50 to 100 years.

2009-12-22T23:32:00.000+05:30

Earlier he said he is going to abolish executive presidency in 6 months after election, if he is elected. Later he said he is not going to abolish the executive presidency completely, to become another William Gopallawa (Meaning he wants power!). Now in a meeting today in Mawanella, Sarath Fonseka was saying

“A Tamil or Muslim can become the president of this country in another 50 years or 100 years. Americans voted black man Obama as the president to end racial conflicts between whites and blacks. Just like that, Sri Lankans as a one nation will vote a Tamil or a Muslim as the president of this country, in another 50 years”

What he is saying is good. Tamils or Muslims of this country should get the opportunity to run for presidency from either of the two major parties, and get voted as the president solely based on their policies; not based on their ethnicity. (Now what certain Tamil and Muslim candidates trying to do is attracting some racial votes. That should not be the way a Tamil or Muslim should contest the presidential election, on the day this country totally overcome the racial conflicts).

The problem in Sarath Fonseka’s speech this time is; he is expecting the “presidency” will remain in this country for next 50 to 100 years. We have to believe that he is talking about “executive presidency”, because only executive presidents get elected from public vote. Non-executive presidents doesn’t need to be elected from people’s vote, because it’s a waste of money to conduct national elections to appoint more “Willian Gopallawas”.

All in all; the cat is jumping out of Sarath Fonseka’s sack. He is not having any idea of abolishing the executive presidency if by any chance he get elected. I know for sure, if he wins; he will first appoint Managala Samaraweera as the “commander of Salvation Army”. He is such fond of revenge! Beware Mangi!!!

Lal Kantha and UNP Votes

2009-12-22T23:17:00.000+05:30

JVP MP Lal Kantha speaking in a UNP meeting in Anuradapura was virtually “begging” the UNP supporters to come to the polling booths and vote “Hansaya” instead of “Aliya” on 26th January. Isn’t this funny? JVP extended their support to Sarath Fonseka, with the promise of ensuring Fonseka will receive the most (if not all) JVP votes. Now why the f**** is Lal Kantha urging the UNP supporters to come forward? Isn’t it the job of UNP leaders to make sure all UNP votes will go to Fonseka? Lal Kantha knows well that there are no big vote base left for JVP anymore. That’s why they “jacked” up Fonseka, instead of placing their own candidate. He can’t ask JVP supporters to come forward and vote, because he knows it will not make a difference! Why are we giving this much of importance to a party which cannot make a difference?

Request to Rupavahini & ITN. Please Tell Me Something That I Don’t Know!

2009-12-21T23:13:00.001+05:30

Every time I “accidentally” switch to Rupavahini or ITN news, I smell a Pettah public toilet. It is so filthy with all mudslinging and party promotions. As a blogger, I have stated my stance of the upcoming presidential election that “I support Mahinda Rajapakshe”. But being a MR supporter, I can still feel how filthy the Rupavahini and ITN are. Ever since we can remember, state media had been biased to the government. And I think there was/is no problem in that. State media should be biased towards the government. The key word here is “government”. But present management and media men in Rupavahini & ITN are not actually being biased to the government, but they are actually being biased to the “governing party”. It is totally unacceptable! Using state media to promote the development activities and other “good looking” things done by the government and government ministers is one thing. Covering the electorate organizing campaigns of SLFP as news items and reporting them on prime time news is another thing. The present management of Rupavahini and ITN looks like in the belief that all government supporters in their audience are registered SLFP members, which is bullshit. There are many people like me, who supports the acts of this government, because it is a relatively a better one than the ones we experienced during last 30 years, but never want to be blind party men of SLFP or any collation partners of them. There are many people like me, who believes Mahinda is a great leader, but all his cabinet ministers (may be except 2 or three at most) are just donkeys. Such people will never tolerate, using Rupavahini and ITN as the official promotional agency of SLFP election campaign.

Mahinda doesn’t want exaggerated “wandi batta gatha” from people like Hudson Samarasinghe, Mahinda Abeysundara, or Sudharman Radaliyagoda to win this election. Just covering what Mahinda has done in the four years regime, and his speeches at various meetings will do it. If they stick to “covering what Mahinda has done, and said” as a policy, the opposition cannot criticize state media to be biased. Because, covering what has actually happened is what a media station should do anyway.

None of the political talk shows in these channels allow opposition voices. But we all know, the political talk shows get more convincing, if you allow all voices to be represented.

I don’t think these people are doing a favor for Mahinda’s campaign. To do a favor for Mahinda’s campaign, they should either retain the existing voters for Mahinda and/or convert existing voters from Sarath Fonseka. But the way these two channels and Hudson behave, a vast majority of existing Mahinda supporters who are not die-hard SLFP supporters may change their minds. On the other hand, existing Sarath Fonseka supporters will never even tune their TV into these two channels. They will actively block these channels, because they know these channels operate merely to sling mud at Sarath Fonseka, and do “wandi batta gee” for Mahinda. As a result, no matter how loud Mahinda Abeysundara or Hudson Samarasinghe shout; none of the Sarath Fonseka supporters will hear them. Therefore, even if they are making a valid point on why someone should not vote SF; the SF fans will not get that point.

In the final analysis, the way these two channels are behaving at present, what I can see is they are strengthening the SF campaign, but not MR campaign.

Having said all these, we cannot deny the fact that Sirasa TV too is openly canvassing for Fonseka these days. They are putting their full strengths in supporting Fonseka and ridiculing Mahinda’s camp (not Mahinda as an individual). But compared to how Rupavahini and ITN handle “mud”, Sirasa TV do it in a much professional manner, without getting themselves fall inside the mud basket.

A Look Back at JVP’s Politics after 1989 Failed Revolution

2009-12-15T00:22:00.001+05:30

JVP in 1994 (PE) – We believe Chandrika Bandaranayake is the best leader for this country, and we support her in this presidential election. She has pledged us to abolish executive presidency before XX July 19XX (I can’t remember the date).

JVP in 1999 (PE) – Chandrika cheated us! We made a mistake by supporting in last presidential election. Therefore we are placing our own candidate in this presidential election. We are confident he will win, and we will abolish the executive presidency after his appointment. (and their candidate gathers less than 3% of total votes)

JVP in 2000(GE) – Unuth ekai, Munuth ekai, Meda paara Api Javipe ta! (Both UNP & SLFP are the same, and we will vote JVP this time)

JVP in 2004 (GE) – Chandrika is not a cheater anymore. She is a good girl again. We trust her. Meda paara api “munuth” ekka ekata enawa! (We are contesting this election together with SLFP)

JVP in 2004 (Electing the PM) – Mahinda Rajapakshe is not qualified to be the prime minister. Give it to Lakshman Kadiragamar or keep it with Ratnasiri

JVP in 2005 (PE) – Mahinda Rajapakshe is the best candidate to be the president of Sri Lanka. We whole heartedly support him! He is the saviour of this country.

JVP Today – Mahinda Rajapakshe is the most corrupted dictator we ever had as a leader of this state. He is worse than JR. We did a mistake in supporting him in last presidential election. Let’s elect Sarath Fonskeka to bring good governance and democracy to Sri Lanka

JVP in another 6 years?????????????????????????????????????????

There is a similar profession to what JVP’s role in Sri Lankan politics after 1994. That profession is said to be the world’s oldest profession. And it is said that current JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe’s sister is an expert in that profession. May be he got this ability from his sister.

How Sirikotha Planned the SOS Press Conference for Sarath Fonseka?

2009-12-15T00:06:00.002+05:30

Airtel may well take Gen. Fonseka as one of their brand ambassadors. Because it’s a simple plan for General Sarath Fonseka to revoke statements to media!

1) Just tell a journalist whatever the idiotic thoughts coming to your head.
2) Let the journalist publish it
3) If it gains popularity, enjoy it!
4) If it backfires; call another press conference and tell that the “journalist misquoted me”.

Isn’t it a simple plan? Is this the level of “responsibility” we expect from a main candidate to be the president of this country? Is this the type person whom our friends like Liberal Lanka are believing that will be able to bring prosperity to our country? Is this the best “superior alternative” the UNJVP can put against Mahinda Rajapakshe?

He revoked his statement just after about 3 hours from my earlier blog post in which I mentioned that there is an attempt going on, for revoking the Sunday Leader article with a correction note. Entire this morning, the top people at Sirikotha was discussing how to react on “Fonseka’s stupid statement to Sunday Leader”. They were discussing alternative solutions of negating that blow to their campaign, and several phone calls were made to JVP leaders like Anura Kumara Disanayake and Somawanse Amarasinghe, asking for their advise. Things were worsen, when they heard the news that President Rajapakshe has made a statement saying “As the head of the state, I am ready to take any blame put on the army and its officers”. UNP leaders were worried, that Mahinda has cleverly leveraged Fonseka’s stupid statement for his advantage.

At around 11.00am today (Monday 14th), Gayantha Karunathilake called Sunday Leader editor and asked for a possibility of revoking the story with a correction note. The editor has mentioned, if the General himself make a request they are ready for such a move and immediately advised the journalist Frederica Jansz to come up with a story to put as an apology note. She has reportedly refused to do that but no news yet about what has happened thereafter.

. During next two hours, the story was well fabricated inside a house of another UNP MP, where Anura Kumara Disanayake was also present. Then they have met the General thereafter, and advised him what to tell in the press conference and what not to tell. They have advised not to answer in lengthy sentences for questions from journalists. “make short statements as much as possible. Then they will have to publish it as it is. If they add anything to interpret what you say, and if something goes wrong, we can later claim that your words were misquoted by the journalist”.

Around 2.00pm, the UNP called all media stations and newspapers for a special press conference on behalf of the General, and JVP has extended their support in hosting the press conference too. And what is said in the press conference is widely published everywhere now!

You are now not a traitor Gen.Fonseka. You are just a joker. Even Tenyson Cooray would have done a better job as an opposition common candidate, if he knew that the role of such a candidate is purely to provide jokes to the country.

Sunday Leader is Asked to Publish a “Correction Note” to General’s Comments about Shavindra Silva

2009-12-14T13:48:00.000+05:30

After the infamous “Sunday Mudlinger” article last weekend, the opposition campaigners for Gen. Sarath Fonseka’s presidential bid is in total uncertainty whether to continue backing him up for the election. General Fonseka’s accusation that it was Gotabhaya Rajapakshe who ordered the assassination of LTTE political wing leaders who surrendered with white flags and it was Brigadier Shavindra Silva who executed that order has add more negativity towards his campaigns, following up from his comments about the economic policy.

Several UNP key people have expressed their disagreement on what General Fonseka said. They in the belief that, it was a major blow to their campaign.

Now the opposition is trying to negate this set back, by issuing another statement from General Fonseka to say that “My words were misquoted by Sunday Leader journalist”. This is the exact same way he tackled his earlier remarks of “Sri Lanka is a Sinhala Bhudist only country”.

Sunday Leader, who are working very enthusiastically to support the Fonseka’s campaign, has given their agreement to accommodate a “correction note”. Frederica Jansz is asked by the editor in chief of the paper to issue a self confession to state that she mis-interpreted General’s words and hence a wrong message was communicated on the paper.

@Lanka Liberal and Lanka Cricket. There are Questions Unanswered

2009-12-14T00:06:00.001+05:30

@Lanka Liberal @Lanka Cricket,

I always liked your comments on my blogs. I love to read different opinions and specially aggressive ones at me. But, in the recent posts we’ve been dragged into arguments you have stopped replying at the point where I have invited you to “reveal your alternatives to Mahinda Rajapakshe regime?”. I acknowledged your rights to criticize the government. At the same time, I have clearly mentioned a criticism to be constructive; you have to suggest alternative and have a clear stand/stance of your opinion. Just throwing arguments here and there will not take anything “forward”. I know you don’t like “way forward”. All you want is a country where stagnating at a one place, where you can enjoy “criticizing without alternatives”; the job you are best at.

So, unless you are not part of the UNP “Kata Katha Hamudawa” like the people in Lankaenews.com and Lankanewsweb.com, please come forward and explain us your opinion on “what is best for this country at next presidential election?”. Just to remind you, as I mentioned in my blog “what is best” need not to be a “either with us or against us” stance. You have the freedom of chosing. But give us your opinion on what is best!!!. That’s the decision I want you to make.

The questions are opened to anyone! If you hate Rajapakshe regime, if you are a regular critc of them on blogosphere; you are most welcome to put forward your “way forward plan” in next election. We all know most of the things we discuss on blogs never get implemented anyway. So, it’s not a big deal to give a shot revealing your wildest dreams of becoming the president and eliminating corruption. Invitation open to Indi.ca and Sanjana Hattotuwa as well.

General Fonseka Working Hard to Earn the “Traitor” Badge

2009-12-13T23:30:00.000+05:30

In my very first blog post after General Fonseka’s official declaration of “war against Rajapakshes” I mentioned that no matter what silly decisions he will make in the future, he will remain a hero of this country, and our people (and me) will remember him as a hero for a long time into the future. However, despite my faith that Gen. Fonseka will safeguard his public honour as a national hero, he is fast becoming a victim of the traitorous camp and issuing statements that we can never be expecting from a war hero.

In an interview with the Sunday Mudslinger today, Gen. Fonseka has stated it was Gotabaya Rajapakshe who ordered and Brig. Shavindra Silva who executed the decision to kill LTTE political wing leader Pulithevan and Nadesan, after their surrender to the army with a white flag.

If what Gen. Sarath Fonseka is saying is true and if he is saying that, it was a “wrong decision” by Gota; that adds another reason to why we should not vote Gen. Fonseka in the next election.

As it was mentioned many a times on this blog, I believe the war victory was a collective effort and no one/two people should get a major portion of the credit for the goods, and blame for the bads that happened in the war. (I personally believe killing Pulithevan was a good idea!). This Gen. clearly violating the collective responsibility of the operation, and now putting blame on few individuals on the matters which are sensitive to the international human rights watchdogs. If put in simple language, Gen. Fonseka is trying to betray his former military colleagues and earn some credits from the western countries. Isn’t it just shameful?

I’m sorry General Fonseka… You no longer deserve to be a hero in my books. You worked hard to become a hero, and now you are working even hard to be a traitor.

Wijaya Nandasiri Barred From Sirasa TV’s “Punchi Pahe Mang”. Sirasa Superstars Warned Not to Support Tharunyayata Hetak

2009-12-13T07:37:00.000+05:30

Popular Sri Lankan tele-drama actor Wijaya Nandasiri who used to be the regular host of Sirasa TV’s local version of “Are you Smarter Than a Fifth Grader”; Punchi Pahe Mang was asked by the producers of the program to refrain from hosting the show until the presidential election is over. The reason is not made public, but internal sources at Sirasa TV said that there had been an argument between Mr. Nandasiri and a top producer of the TV channel regarding the actor’s decision to support the “Tharunyayata Hetak” mega campaign backing the president for the next election. Mr. Nandasiri, who appeared in the recent mega campaign supporting the president; was ridiculed by the producers at the set of Punchi Pahe Mang. Being an aggressive character off the screen (even though he normally appear in cool and comedy roles), Mr. Nandasiri has strongly reacted to the producers, citing examples of situations where Sirasa TV had been biased to the UNP and sometimes to the LTTE. Things has gone to a far extent, where the producers has asked him not to take part in any more episodes of the programs. Last 2 productions were hosted by Sirasa TV program director Kingsley Ratnayake himself.

Meanwhile the same internal source from Sirasa TV said that the finalists of first two seasons of Sirasa TV’s most popular reality TV show, Sirasa Superstar were officially advised by the program’s producers Susara Dinal and Nilendra Deshapriya; asking them not to support the Tharunyayata Hetak campaign.

Several other artists who participated in the campaign are inquiring from the TV station, as for the reasons why their songs are mysteriously sliding downwards in all the chart shows aired on Sirasa FM and Sirasa TV.

Why Did UNJVP Wanted to Have a War Hero as Their Presidential Candidate? Here's the Master Plan

2009-12-10T14:28:00.000+05:30

This is an extract from a reply comment I given to Lanka Cricket on my last blog post. I thought it is worth raising this as a separate blog post for discussion.

Lanka Cricket claimed "This election is not about choosing the best war hero; we need to move on."

But I think this election is. In fact the UNP and JVP (hereafter UNJVP) has converted this election into a contest to chose the best war hero. How?

That's why UNJVP wanted to have SF as their candidate. If this is not about choosing a war hero, UNP would have gone with Ranil, Sajith, SB, or Rukman and JVP with Somawansa, or may be even Sarath N Silva as a common candidate. UNJVP has made this election to a contest to select the best war hero by putting a war hero from their end and negating Mahinda's claim that the political credit of war victory should go to him. Now there's an opposition candidate who is claiming that he is the real hero of the war and he is asking for our "political" vote.

Why would the UNJVP wanted to keep a war hero as their candidate?

They wanted to attack on the strongest point of Mahinda, instead of attacking his weak points (corruption, cost of living, family politics, jumbo cabinet etc). Why UNP wanted to attack on Mahinda's strongest point instead of weak points? Because UNP knows that weak points are not significant for the people of this country. UNP tried attacking these weak points in all most all the past elections and they realized, people are not responding to them. They realized people are better responding to the "war victory" claim by Mahinda. UNP knows the level of corruption is not a huge concern for the general public of this country, even though their "Kata Katha Hamudawa" along with the media battalion in Sunday Leader and Lankaenews.com are exaggerating the facts. Corruption is only an issue for few Colombo based journalists (writing to Sunday Leader) and few NGO activists who are worried about they are not allowed to do their own corruption. UNP knows, people don't worry too much about the jumbo cabinet. UNP knows, people don't care much about Rajapakshe family involvement in MR government.

And UNP knows that people seriously value the war victory as a strong case for voting Mahinda. That's why they decided to attack on Mahinda's strongest point by converting this election into a "contest to pick the best war hero".

From a marketing perspective, UNJVP is having an edge in this election. Attacking the strongest point while putting pressure on weak points is a good strategy. I personally believe this is an idea of Mangala Samaraweera whom I used to know very well for a long time. This is a clever plan, and it will make a strong case study for marketers if this succeed.

Let's wait till 26th January and see what's the outcome. Will the public of this country get caught in this superb marketing strategy of UNJVP? Or, will they see the deceived danger in the proposition? I believe our people will not let room for a "post purchase dissonance" after 26th!

My Stance on the Two Main Candidates of Upcoming Presidential Election

2009-12-08T00:48:00.003+05:30

The heat of the presidential election is on, and we can feel it in the blogosphere as well. It’s getting heated! Lots of arguments are being shared, and lots of statements had been made. Sittingnut, Liberal Lanka, and even Lanka Cricket is having and opinion about the election. I have seen even Indi has posted a several posts related to the election. There were many more opinions on Kottu blogroll, which I can't remember now. Aim of writing this post is to get a few facts straight, before we move forward with any “presidential election” related argument on the blogosphere.

The Fact that We Cannot Deny: Are bloggers always needed to be unbiased? (Specially when the election is ahead, and we are given a chance to select a leader who will represent the ideology behind our blog posts?)

This is the funniest myth that I’ve ever seen in entire blogosphere. In fact this myth is believed only by the Sri Lankan bloggers. Bloggers are not media men. They are not journalists or reporters. Instead, bloggers are just individual citizens who voluntarily broadcast their ideas to the internet. In such a situation, isn’t it funny to be appear as “unbiased” just from the outer wrapper? Most of the bloggers commenting on my political blog posts trying themselves to be “non-aligned” to any major political party or for a leader. None of them explicitly tell “I support this candidate, or this party” . But, they are openly accusing certain politicians to be corrupt, cheaters, and not qualified enough to lead this country.

Let’s take for example the case with present president Mahinda Rajapakshe. There are dozens of bloggers on Kottu blogroll alone, who are posting day and night to convince us that “Mahinda is a dictator, Mahinda is a dick, Mahinda only cares his family, Mahinda is this, Mahinda is that, etc etc”. They are not only blogging on their blogs, but also commenting on other places. They say Mahinda’s government doesn’t allow media freedom, and violate human rights. When they are criticizing Mahinda, the implication is that they have in mind a better solution than Mahinda’s government to rule this country. A superior alternative! But how many of these people openly express their views on what is their superior alternative?

Let me guess. There can be two alternatives in broader terms. 1) To vote either UNP or JVP into power, and they will run a btter government. 2) A solution which is not known to us as of now (a military government? Making Sri Lanka a federal state of India or USA??)

So, if you are a blogger; and if you have your own opinion, which is steady like Sigiriya rock, and if you are having a backbone strong enough to stand the odds, why don’t you openly state your “superior alternative”?

We are now given the “democratic right” to elect a leader of our choice to run this country for next 6 years. If you are not happy with Mahinda, you can chose from a selection of minimum 5 other people including the great General, and the one and only Wickramabahu. So why don’t you openly say “this is what is best for this country”. What is best for this country might may be not even choosing a one out of the above-mentioned candidate. It may be another novel solution. But the fact remain, you should have a steady opinion and a strong backbone to tell your opinion.

My Stance on Mahinda Rajapakshe

I blog as a down to earth true Sri Lankan who understand the political realities of this country. Politics in Sri Lanka is not about getting the best that we want. It is about choosing best out of several bad options. That’s the reality. Under that reality, I believe Mahinda Rajapakshe is the best choice we can have in the upcoming presidential election as the leader of our country. I agree his government is corrupted. But as many of his opponents are saying, corruption is limited to few of his close family friends and his close relatives. Isn’t it better than opening the doors of corruption to everyone in the bureaucracy like during Premadasa era?
Many complain his government violates press freedom and assaulted/killed journalists. They compare Mahinda’s regime with 2 years of Ranil’s UNP government from 2002 to 2004. But how about UNP ruling from 1977 to 1994? Was there press freedom? Ok, let’s see how Ranil managed to minimize assaults on media people and killing them. It’s easy! He simply ordered all media stations to stop reporting politically sensitive news. Look back at that era. Every TV station stopped political talk shows during Ranil’s two years. Weekend newspaper columnists were writing about musical shows of UB 40, and Inner Circle. Was that press freedom?
What most people talk about Mahinda is his corruption and family dominance. But, how about the things he has done to this country. Before general Fonseka’s name was forwarded as the opposition (UNJVP) candidate, everyone accepted that the political leadership of Mahinda was the magic behind this war victory. Everybody cited example from Kobbakaduwa & Premadasa, etc, to say that even in the past we had the chance of eliminating the tigers but political leaders didn’t have the will and they didn’t backed up the army. If every one keep aside the “political jealousy” for a moment, it is an undeniable truth that Mahinda & Gota played a huge role in winning this role. Sarath Fonseka too played a massive role. He was capeable of doing that and that is why mahinda appointed him as the commander of the Army. If SF gets a credit for winning this war, Mahinda & Gota should get the credit of “giving the right place to right one”, which wasn’t the case during CBK era or Ranil era.

Apart from winning the war, Mahinda’s government managed to sustain the economy of this country despite the global economic crisis and heavy corruption by the government ministers. My point is, corruption would have been there (and worse) even if Ranil was the president. That’s a fixed fact. If we fix the “corruption” factor and compare, without any doubt Mahinda’s 4 years is the era with most value adding development projects in this country during last 30 years. If not, prove otherwise! (Prove that CBK, Ranil, Premadasa or JR did more development or with less corruption).

Given all these facts and many more (which I will reveal in the future), in the upcoming presidential election my vote will got to Mahinda Rajapakshe, and I expect he will gain a vote count in the range of 53% to 56% all the votes to win this election.

My stance about General Sarath Fonseka

As I’ve mentioned earlier in my blog, he will remain a national hero in my books no matter what. It is sad to see he is getting insuted by the government media and extremist Mahinda supporters, just because he decided to contest against Mahinda.

However, I also believe what happened to him as an “asking for trouble” situation (“Illagena kamak” in Sinhalese). As I’ve mentioned in one of my comments in a previous points, I would have been supporting Sarath Fonseka if he came into power in a military coup and throwing out Mahinda. That would have been the best way for him to come into power, and bring this country into the right track. But the path he took to fight Mahinda’s corruption is a corrupted path as well! Sarath Fonseka has tarnished his image as a potential benevolent dictator for this country, by aligning with people like Mano Ganeshan, Ranil Wickramasinghe, Rauf Hakeem, and Somawansa Amarasinghe. All of these politicians are just opportunists. They have pulled from the leg of Sarath Fonseka and Mahinda, when Mahinda and the government wanted the support of these people. Now SF has become a proxy of these same people to accomplish their dream of throwing out Mahinda and forming a government of their own, where Mano can continue with his LTTE propaganda and Hakeem can keep on arousing Muslim racism in East. Somawansa will remain the “Raja wasala Kawataya” (The role currently played by Wimal Weerawansa).

By looking at these facts, and the fundamental flaws in Fonseka campaign I mentiond in my earlier post I can conclude that Sarath Fonseka never going to be a viable solution as a president of this country in this election. I wish him all the best to gain at least 0.1% more than the votes what Ranil gained in 2005 election. But, my logic says he will be even an worst disaster than Srima Disanayake in 1994 presidential election.

Now that my stance has clearly stated, I expect some of you who read this to do the same if you have the courage.

One fundemental error in Sarath Fonseka's Presidential Campaign

2009-12-02T17:23:00.001+05:30

On one hand....
The retired Army Commander promises that by using the powers of the executive presidency, he will act to change the political culture of this country, end family dominated politics, end Rajapakshe dictatorship, bring economic prosperity to the country, clean up this country as he did with the Army, line up the people of this country towards winning the development war just like he lined up the army to win the war agains Prabhakaran, and many more positive and optimistic hopes for our people. He promises not to use the powers of executive presidency for his own benefit or to the benefit of his family members.Good!

On the other hand...
He is saying he will abolish the executive presidency within 6 months of his appointment as the president, and hand over the government to Ranil Wickramasinghe as a the care-taker prime minister until he get a 2/3 majority in the parliament. He is not mentioning who will be the PM of this 2/3 majority parliament.

Now the question..
If executive presidency is to be abolosihed within 6 months of his appointment, how can he deliver the above promises he makes? Once the executive presidency is abolished, Ranil will be the leader of the country. Then we have to believe that, General Fonseka is expecting to deliver the above promises through Ranil Wickramasinghe as the leader of the state, while Sarath Fonseka oversee what Ranil is doing. If Ranil does a bad job, Sarath Fonseka can't do anything, because he doesn't have executive powers to over rule the PM's decisions. In that sense, even if Sarath Fonseka becomes the president of this country in next election, Ranil will be running the show.

If that is the case, why don't Ranil him self run for the election; win; and abolish executive presidency?

This surface out the bitter turth that most (blindly) Sarath Fonseka fans never understand. Sarath is contesting not because that he loves the country. There's no questioning about his patritism. Sarath Fonseka is a true patriot, and we all must continue respecting him for what he has done for our country. But, in this situation, Sarath Fonseka is only acting as a proxy arm of Ranil Wickramasinghe. Because, Ranil doesn't have the "personality" to contest with Mahinda. Sarath does posses that character! So, what Sarath Fonseka is doing is merely "renting out" his personality ranil, and giving a bait to eat to "blindly patriotic" Sri Lankans. Blindly patriots will eat this bait. Regular UNP voters will also vote SF. Mano Ganeshan's and Hakeem's supporters will also vote SF because they also know the true hidden agenda. As a result, Sarath Fonseka will win with a 50.5% majority (Let's say!). If SF win like that Ranil will be the ultimate winner. Mano and Hakeem will also be winners.

Who will be the losers?
1) Sarath Fonseka himself
2) Of course Mahinda Rajapakshe and his family
3) SLFP
4) JVP (as the usual bunch of losers!)
5) Innocent but "blindly" patriotic Sri Lankans who believe Sarath Fonseka was the one and only "magic" of war victory over LTTE
6) Enitire Sri Lanka! - We will be turning our country back into the hands of people who signed MOU's with Prabhakaran. With the people who delivered speeches at Pongu Thamil with LTTE logo displayed on their chest!

Three Questions to All JVP Supporters Who are Backing Up General Fonseka

2009-12-02T16:41:00.000+05:30

In his speech last Satuday, Gen. Fonseka said that he is still a political novice, and he doesn't have a concrete economic vision to run our economy if he is elected. He further added, he will get the support of UNP and Ranil, because he believes that the UNP is the best political party who added value to the country's economy in the past, and that he believes UNP will be able to bring economic prosperity to Sri Lanka even in the future.

Now, we all know one fundemental point where JVP differs from UNP is the economic policiy. The two parties are in the exact two extremes of managing a country's economy (now, please don't try to justify that it is not the case). JVP blamed the UNP for last 30 years for ruining Sri Lanka's economy with the free market policies.

Now, under these conditions how can JVP support the same presidential candidate as what UNP is supporting? It is perfectly ok for UNP to support Gen. Fonseka, because he clearly accepted UNP's economic vision as a workable solution for Sri Lanka (which I also agree to a greater extent. Point at which I tend to disagree is, the present SLFP's economic vision is not also much different from UNP's. Key ministerial posts related to economic decisions in present government is handled by ex-UNP people. So, there won't be much of a difference there).

Here are the questions to all die-hard JVP supporters.

1) Are you willing to back-up (paste poster, put on cutouts, distribute hand-bills) a presidential candidate who is taking the UNP economic policy as the best solution for this country?
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2) If the answer is "Yes", under what grounds?

3) Do you believe that the economic policies of JVP and UNP can be co-exist in a same government? (UNP-SLFP co-existent: Can. SLFP-JVP co-existent: can. But, JVP-UNP???)

May be the people at lankatruth.com can discuss these three questions over a bottle of Gal Arrack, while "liberalizing the brain" a little bit.

A Reply to the "Indiot" who Writes on "Arm Ball" Blog

2009-11-20T12:48:00.003+05:30

The "Indiot" is blocking comments on his own blog. That's why I'm bothered to give him a link by writing this post.

The problem with "Sam", Chandler or who ever the Indiot writes on Arm Ball is, thinking that India is the center of the universe (at least the cricket universe). He thinks that, other teams should play cricket, with the sole objective of gaining a result from the match, and that result should be a win for India. The Indiot doesn't understand that every team play for win. He doesn't understand that, if you can't win a test match the next best option is NOT letting the other side to win it, but rather trying to draw it. That's the essence of test cricket in it's tueest sense.

This Indiot thinks that after India scoring 436 within first two days, they must go all the way to win the match! The Indiot doesn't understand the fact that, Sri Lanka cannot declare their first innings without putting a decent first innings lead. The Indiot is jelous about the form of Sri Lankan batsmen, and blame that it's boring cricket. Yes, it's boring cricket for a boring Indiot who thinks that the outcome of every cricket match should be an Indian win. For rest of the world, it was plain good test cricket batting.

This Indiot has some attitude problem, or has undergone some personality issue during his early childhood.

Look here Chandler! World is not India! Open your eyes and start growing up. If you are up for a real open debate during rest of the Sri Lanka tour of India, first open up your comments section. We only need to win one test and draw the rest to become the #1. You guys got to win at least 2, and draw the other!!!. Who's with a better chance???

As at now, India is 276/4 with 58 more runs lagging behind. We still got a chance to break into your middle order and win this test match. But, we are not having over ambitious hopes about it. If at all, we could win this; you would have to print your last 4 blog posts, roll them up, stick them on a rock and sit on it with your ass wide opened!!!

How Can an Unemployed Graduate Afford a Bill of Rs. 200,000/- At Ninewells Hospital?

2009-11-15T23:51:00.000+05:30

Last week I posted few words (few??) about the Combined Association of Unemployed Graduates and its present convener Sujith Kuruwita. This blog post received an overwhelming response from undergraduates from different universities, acknowledging the fact that JVP is the fundamental cause of low quality university education in Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, a friend of mine who read this blog post recently updated me with another update about Sujith Kuruwita. My friend got a relation working at the Ninewells Hospital. According to him, Sujith Kuruwita’s wife recently gave birth to a child at Ninewells Hospital. New baby and the mother was greeted well by several JVP MP’s visited the hospital. The total hospital bill was over Rs. 200,000/- and it was paid in cash over the counter.

Now, if the convener of the Combined Association of Unemployed Graduates of Sri Lanka can afford to pay a bill of Rs. 200,000/- at Ninewells Hospitals, we have the question of where did that money came from. May be his wife’s parents are rich, but were dumb enough to give away their daughter to an unemployed graduate. Or may be she is doing a well paid job while Sujith stays at home and cook meals.

[If you still don’t get the underlining idea of this post, here it is in plain English before you make a funny comment. Sujith Kuruwita is not an unemployed graduate. He is employed fulltime by the JVP, to line up the unemployed graduates against the government. Those who come to the protest campaigns will suffer, while these guys and their families enjoy luxury lives with money thrown at them by the party]

What Mahinda Rajapakshe Told General Sarath Fonseka, the Day Before His Resignation

2009-11-15T15:48:00.005+05:30

This was reported in Sunday Lankadeepa on 15th November 2009. None of the internet sites reported this discussion in English language, so I decided to translate it into English and post here.

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President Rajapakshe has invited General Fonseka for lunch on Wednsday (11th November) after the defense council meeting. This was the first such meeting, after the return of general Fonseka from his US tour.

Only the president and the General was having lunch together. They have talked for more than 45 minutes. General Fonseka has stated about some of offensive comments made by government ministers about the General, and he sas complained to the president about Gotabhaya Rajapakshe’s comments in a staff meeting of the SL Army. General Fonseka has told the president that he was deeply concerned and depressed by these facts.

Then the president has told General Fonseka “Sarath, I understand. You might be in great depression of these things. We haven’t done any wrongs to you. We’ve been good friends during the war time. I treated you as one of my own brothers. I still think that you are one of my own brothers. Don’t fall into the traps of those who pulled your leg during the war time. Be careful”.

After some more discussions, the president has asked General Fonseka “Sarath; are you really going to contest for the presidential election?”

The General has replied “Yes sir. I’ve decided to come as the common candidate of the opposition”.

President replied to General Fonseka “Sarath I wish you all the best. But, you will regret of this decision one day. I will definitely win this election Sarath!”.

After this comment president has further told General Fonseka “Sarath, I’ll tell you one thing. If one day you get into trouble because of this decision; only your wife and children will be there for your support. All other admirers who comes after you will never be aside by you. On that day, if I remained the president of this country, I will definitely help you on any thing”.

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This is how it was reported in Lankadeepa, which is NOT labeled as a pro-government media. (In fact the paper is owned by the Wijewardena family, includingRuwan Wijewardena; the western province councilor of UNP).

It is said that, this discussion (in which SF admitted to the president that he is going to contest) was the nearest reason for General Fonseka's resignation decision. UNP has requested Sarath Fonseka, not to resign from the CDS post, until the president declares a presidential election.

I learned from few of my friends in state media (Rupavahini and Lakehouse) that the president has ordered all the state media, not to criticize General Sarath Fonseka or any of his comments to gain political advantage for the president in the up coming election. President has ordered the state media to treat him as a hero of our motherland, who contributed a great deal to rescue our country from terrorism.

[Note: Recent posts on this blog are not getting picked up in Kottu.org home page feed for some strange reason. I have informed the administrator (Indi) about this issue, but haven’t got a reply yet. If you are a Kottu blogger, and if you see that this post is not published on Kottu.org home page feed; I request for a re-post to thispost from your blog]

UPDATE: Thanks S’nut for the update on the Kottu feed bugs. Apparently, I can see my previous post (About Sarath Fonseka’s Resignation) now appearing on the top posts of the week section. I have never seen the post on Kottu home page, but it has got into the top posts of the week section somehow. This means, the posts are getting fed to the Kottu feed but no guarantee of when.

A General's Resignation

2009-11-13T14:38:00.002+05:30

Hmmm... I must try the same template as soon as I get a new job elsewhere. After reading through the entire "resignation letter" by General Sarath Fonseka, I can summarize everything into a one sentence. "I want more power and authority and your Excellency denied them to me. So I'm going on my own to gain more power and authority".

General Fonseka indeed is a hero. He will remain a her throughout the next 2,500 years of our history. No matter how stupid decisions he will make within next few weeks, he will remain a hero for all Sri Lankans and for me.

But one thing was crystal clear from the beginning, ever since the historic war victory against the LTTE. That is, "General Fonseka is the only one who wanted to be THE ONE AND ONLY ONE HERO of the war victor". All the other contributors to this victory were humble enough to share the credit with the other leaders; both political and military. Navy commander, Air Force commander, the defense sectary and the president; they all contributed to this war victory along with Sarath Fonseka. No one can pin point and say "I contributed more". It was a good example of a team effort and a strong leadership coordination. But, from the day one General Fonseka wanted to say "I must get the full credit of this victory. Navy and Air Force played minor roles. Without me, president wouldn't have done this job".

I'm not going to comment further about this historic resignation. Now the question is, will he come under the UNP (or UNF) ticket in which Mangala Samaraweera (salvation army), Lakshman Kiriella (Ona gonekuta yudda karanna puluwan), Mano Ganeshan (who is an LTTE supporter) are key stakeholders? If general Fonseka do that; that will once again prove the "sorry status" of our political scene.

If he competes alone as an independent candidate; then we have to watch what'll be Ranil's move. Will he contest in UNP ticket? Or will he take a step back? My 99% bet is, Ranil will contest for next election no matter what! That man cannot wait another 6 years to get a chance to accomplish his family dreams.

Few Words About Today’s Unemployed Graduates Protest and Its Convener

2009-11-05T00:23:00.003+05:30

The Combined Association of Unemployed Graduates staged a massive protest near presidential secretariat complex in Colombo fort this afternoon which ended up in injuring many of their own members, injuring 3 officers of police anti-riot unit, damaging millions worth of public property and putting thousands of general public trapped in traffic jam for hours. Funny thing is this protest comes as a continuation of a series of similar protests backed by other political hands of the JVP, including the Inter-university Students Association and several other JVP backed trade unions in Ceypetco, CEB, Ports and Water Board. To support this trend; Sirasa TV and MBC network has added a new segment to their News First presentations labeled “Public Protests” (Udgoshana). These are just a few evidence to understand that, these protests are actually well organized by the JVP, lined up one after another, and well supported by anti-government media.

But the point of this post is not to discuss of these growing trend. Point of this post is to talk about the so called Combined Association of Unemployed Graduates in Sri Lanka. Who are they? Who backs them? What are their motives?

From the looks of it, CAUG is an innocent movement of unemployed graduates who seek a collaborative power for their voices. But commonly known truth is, CAUG is yet another JVP arm inside the Sri Lankan university system, just like the IUSA – “Antharay” and “Socialist Students Union”.

By the year 2005, there were about 50,000 members in this CAUG. But the UPFA government offered 42,000 jobs to many of those unemployed graduates. Today, the total membership of CAUG is about 25,000 to 30,000. Many of them had passed out from the University within last 3 years (after the graduate employment scheme). These graduates never voluntarily register with the CAUG. Instead, the authoritative people in the CAUG, takes (steals) the data from the universities and enter them as their membership. In actual statistics, there are about maximum 5,000 volunteers in their membership.

The most powerful figure in the CAUG is it’s convener. Presently this position is held by Sujith Kuruwita (Wait!!! Read on. He got an interesting life story). Convener of CAUG is a transit position in JVP’s career succession plan for their most loyal student union leaders.

Below is the typical career succession path shown to the JVP student leaders inside our university system.

Sujith Kuruwita, Chameera Koswatte, Ravindra Mudalige, Vijitha Herath are few to name who climbed this ladder in the recent past.

When these leaders are building their political careers by organizing protests like the one they did today, the participants become the pawns in their chess board. (remember, JVP do the performance appraisal based on number of hostilities you have organized to the opposing political parties and the private sector business organizations). In another five years, Sujith Kuruwita will be in parliament (if JVP can retain their existing vote base; which I believe they are really struggling to do), and the rest of the “pawns” who took part in today’s protest will keep on protesting under a new convener.

Why Sujith Kuruwita is Unemployed?

I was told by someone today, Sujith Kuruwita is already a member of parliament from the JVP national list. But I couldn’t verify this information by myself (you can add your comments).

Sujith Kuruwita failed to get a job after graduating from the faculty of Management Studies and Commerce in University of Sri Jayawardanapura for a very simple reason. Because everybody knows his name! No one wants to hire a man who is the #1 suspect of the most brutal murder that ever happened inside a local university premises. Sujith Kuriwita is a B.Com graduate from the University of Sri Jayawardenepura. He entered the university in 2000, and passed out in 2007 (while rest of his batch passed out in 2005). At the university, he was a star among the rag leaders. Another young lad called O V Samantha; was leading the complete opposite camp in his department (B.Com) of the faculty. Samantha was the leader of anti-ragging movement. In 2002, Sujith Kuruwita was appointed as the president of General Students Union of University of Sri Jayawardanepura. On 7th November 2002, a mob of JVP students surrounded O V Samantha and a few other supporters of him, and brutally attacked them with rods and rocks. They used computer monitors of the office of department of Marketing Management, to crash Samantha’s head. Sujith Kuruwita was the “commander in chief” of this attack. Ravindra Mudalige; the then convener of the IUSA was also present at the university premises on that day. Eye witnesses said, Sujith Kuruwita himself kicked Samantha on his head, while lying on the floor unconscious. These people blocked the vehicle carrying the injured to the hospital, and delayed proper medical treatment (which ultimately caused Samantha’s death).

After the Samantha incident Sujith Kuruwita first escaped to a hostel of Kelaniya University, and when the police was raiding that place he escaped to a remote village in Matale district, with the support of few JVP MP’s. After about a week of the incident, Sujith surrendered to the police through a lawyer (a lawyer who still is appearing for the JVP cases free of charge).

Sujith was among the locked up suspects of Samantha’s murder, up until 2004 where JVP formed a coalition government with SLFP. The new government ordered the police to dismiss the investigations into Samantha’s murder, and release all the suspects. Sujith Kuruwita came back to the university by which time the JVP student union had regained power, by forcefully removing the VC Epitawatte, and killing one of their own supporters and putting the blame on the anti-ragging camp.

By this time Sujith Kuruwita; the “murderer of the biggest headache for JVP inside Japura University” has become a hero among all JVP supporting students. He didn’t have any inconvenience in getting the position of “convener of Inter University Students Association”, which is directly supervised by Bimal Ratnayake and Anura Kumara Disanayake. Sujith is one of the favorites of Anura Kumara Disanayake.

Today, this same Sujith Kuruwita is the convener of Combined Association of Unemployed Graduates of Sri Lanka. This message is to all the family members of unemployed graduates in Sri Lanka. Never let your beloved relative to be a part of these sinister forces. They are using your brother/sister/son/daughter to gain political advantage. If your graduate brother/sister/son/daughter is an unemployed graduate; asked them for solutions “within”. Ask the question, “why am I unemployed, and some others are employed?” Then they will start to realize their own weaknesses. Externalizing their weaknesses is not a solution. Right thing to do is, correcting their weakness and hunt for suitable jobs. Ask them to be down to earth, and start small. No one will offer them 50,000 a month jobs in a golden platter. Graduation is not a guarantee for a job. It’s only a qualifier.

Give Me a Topic to Blog About!!!

2009-10-29T17:35:00.001+05:30

Seriously! I'm blank when it comes to thinking of blogging again. Any reccomendations? Blog about the "candid candidate"? CPC strike? NGO jokers? Hmmm... I should take a break tonight and think about something.

Groundviews & CPA Offers a Flip Ultra Video Camera for the Best Traitor of Motherland!

2009-08-28T11:56:00.001+05:30

The latest "promotion" by CPA and Groundviews promise you a Flip Ultra Video camera as the first prize for the best citizen journalist who submit a video clips depicting situation in IDP camps and police brutality. Let's just read between the lines and try to understand some mystery points here.

First; this explains how the brains of people like Sanjana Hattotuwa works. The world is all material! Gratifying your material wants is the prime drive of your life!!! You are ready to do any shit work, to earn few more bucks or win a "Flip Ultra Video camera"; aren't you Sanjana?? Worst thing is, you are assuming all Groundview viewers are like you. You are assuming, all groundview viewers now jump over the moon and say "Hooray! I can win this video camera, so I must submit something!". Of course there will be few of your class. They will do lots of creative work, to provide you with video clips of your best imagination. Afterall, your social class is all work on money. You will sell your sister to a brothel house, if it will give you few more bucks in your bank account. Won't you?

Second; look at the business proposition in this offer. I have no idea of how much this camera is priced, but I believe it must be something over at least Rs.50,000/-. Now, after investing Rs.50,000/- in this campaign, surely Groundviews and CPA should get a Return on Investment (ROI) over this much. So, how are they getting that ROI? By selling the video clips to Channel 4 and other western media stations, in alias like "Journalists for Democracy Sri lanka" ???. I want you readers to think of this carefully! Groundviews is collecting these video clips, not only to pick a winner and give a video camera away. They are going to earn lots of money as donations from foreign countries, by showing these clips to them. Wicked, aren't you Sanjana?

See how badly, greed for money can corrupt people. Now that the war is over, these people have lost their main stream of income. They are trying to invent new sources of income, by launching "promotional campaigns" like this. This is call "Crisis Entreprenership". In my view, Sanjana Hattotuwa should be awarded the best "Crisis Entrepreneur of the Millennium" in a big ceremonial way.

Don't be fooled! Identify the "disguised enemies" of our society. These people are evil! They will do anything; just anything to get a few more dollars. I'm sure KP must have told lot about these type of people during police questioning!!!

7 Steps Marketing Plan to Earn Money from Your NGO Even in a Hard Recession!

2009-06-02T14:46:00.003+05:30

I'm sure you have already ordered your copy of "How to Form Your Own NGO and Become a Millionaire in a Week", and put up the initial blue print for your profit making NGO. However the recent global recession has hit the western countries so badly, and the donor organizations are reluctant to throw money at your profit making NGO as they used to be in the past. To add fuel to the fire; the war is over and Prabhakaran is dead. KP decided to pocket all the funds he raised for the LTTE, and you are not likely to get any incentives from them. All in all the NGO industry is in chaos! The revenues are coming down and reasons to request for funds from donors are rapidly declining. How can a profitable NGO survive in such a turbulent economic condition?

The answer lie in marketing! Here's your silver bullet marketing strategy for regaining the cash cow hidden in your NGO.

Step1: Go to the nearest bar with the most confident activists of your NGO, and take a couple of gal arrack shots. Take a piece of paper and a pen. Think of the disgusting dirty work you have done with your NGO, to earn few dollars from western donors. Now imagine that you are a normal citizen of this country. Write a letter to yourself, threatening to shut down your NGO. Here is a sample copy for your letter.

Step 2: Great! Now that you have a masterpiece of a threatening letter, go to your Flower road office (BTW, if you don't have an office in Flower road don't worry. This is the "Silicon Valley of NGO's". You can move to a block there, once you get stable in your profits). Put on the Sinhala Siyabas package on your computer and start typing the threatening letter. Take a print out of A4 size; put it in an envelope, write your own address there, put a 5/- stamp and give it to your office assistance and ask him to go and post it from the other side of the city.

Step 3: Now don't waste your time until you receive the letter back at your office. Start re-designing your website to announce the story of the threatening letter. Here's a usability tested sample layout.

Google eye tracker confirms that this is the area where you can get the highest attention from your website visitors. Upload the new site CSS to the server but don't hit "publish" until you get that letter in the snail mail.

Step 4: Once you get the letter by post, hit the publish button and call for an immediate press conference. (BTW, it is recommended to have the English and French translations of the letter. Most donors can't read Sinhala).

How to get publicity for the threatening letter?

Step 5: Hire some Johnny boy bloggers. Kottu is a great source! You can hire a range of different bloggers from British tax payer drummers to newly elected opposition provincial councilors to school boy bloggers from all over Sri Lanka for as little as five dollars per post! Ask them to give a good blogvertising of the story.

Step 6: Now that you have done the basic ground work, you can invite your donors to visit your website and check the backlinks from thee blogs. This is "Buzz Marketing" at work, for all practical purposes!

Step 7: If you think, the Buzz is not enough; hire few thugs from Wanathamulla. Give them a white van and a target journalist. Ask them to abduct the guy and deliver some "goodies". But leave the guy alive to tell the story! The blindfolded "so called" free media will catch the story and spread it all over. Bankrupted politicians will join the bandwagon and give your "street promotion" a much more publicity.

See how easy it is to make money out of an NGO, even after the war is over? You can design many more of your own marketing plans for your NGO. But remember this basic principle.

"Donors will fund you for a story. If you don't have a story; create a one. As long as you have compelling enough stories to tell, donors will continue funding you. This apply in FMCG industry as well. You sell a "Unique Selling Proposition" to your customers. If you don't have a proposition to sell; create a one!"

How to Regain the Lost 26 Years of Our History?

2009-05-21T11:00:00.001+05:30

Sri Lanka has a history of 61 years after independence, and 42% of those years we've been involved in a brutal war; fighting against one mans dream to divide this country. Can you imagine the damage that has been made to the morale of the people of this country? It is said that we were the strongest economy in Asia, back in 1948 when we gained independence from Brits. We were strategically located in the Indian Ocean, where we would have take a huge advantage compared to the other countries in the region. No regular Earthquakes, or flash floods to destroy everything in a moment. Trincomalee was the second most developed city in the country, and it was developing faster than Colombo. Jaffna was better than Kandy or Galle, to live in. We were damn too sexy to be a heaven! But today, what do we have to live with?

The stolen 26 years of our history has made many damages to the morale of our people. Our people don't trust this country anymore. I've heard many people say 'This is not the place to live". "We can't do any better". "This is a hell". Our media, politicians (when they are in opposition) cultivated this type of pessimism, negativity within the psyche of our people. The picture painted in the mind of our younger generation, born after 1985 is "this is a poor country, and we can't do anything about it". Now that these young generation with the tools to express their ideas freely, they keep on passing the ball to the next generation with thoughts of negativity and pessimism. Even after the war is over; those forces who acted like "guardian angels of peace" are still cultivating pessimism and negativity among our people.

When can we get out of this parasite mentality, and give life to a stronger nation? If you are a blogger; just think about this. What percentage of your blog posts you are using to cultivate positive and optimistic thoughts among the people? If you haven't, isn't this the right time for you to use your writing ability to do something for your motherland?

We have managed to end an war which most people believed that never would end any sooner. Now let's stop accounting for the "profit & loss" of the war, and focus our energy towards the future. It's true that the Sinhalese politicians created Prabhakaran. And power hungry Tamil politicians also had a role to play. It is true that July 1983 was an ugly mark in our history. I agree that Tamil people were strongly appalled when re-thinking about those days. But don't you all think that you have taken enough revenge by killing thousands of Sinhalese in Prabhakaran's war of "liberation"? Is this the time for you to retrospect the past and keep on renewing old wounds?

Now we don't have a barrier in between us. We don't have to look at you as "potential suicide bomber" anymore. But are you ready to SPEAK UP and say; "Let's join hands to rebuild this country"?

Let's put a full stop to all this negativity, pessimism, distrust and cynicism. Let's stop blaming the politicians (whom we elected ourselves) and question ourselves "what have I done to make things better?". Let's stop all this insane, and do something. At least let's make our next generation a one which is optimistic about the true potential of this country. Stop ridiculing your own country!Stop cultivating negativity among our people. I urge you. All of you. You won't gain anything by ridiculing your own country for the sake of political advantage or for financial benefits. We had to go through that 26 years long war; because some people in the past did that same mistake. Would you do it again for your country?

Kill negativity. Let go the past. Unite for a better tomorrow...

I Decided to Pardon Sanjana Hattotuwa, CPA, FMM, and Groundviews.org

2009-05-21T07:07:00.000+05:30

Dear Sanjana, CPA, FMM, and Groundviews.org,

For all the pain you took to spoil our war against terror; I must tell you “Sorry! You have failed”. I will not tell you “try harder next time”. Because there is no “next time” this time. The game is over, and LTTE is clean swept. There won't be any more necessity for “peace talks” for you to facilitate. We have reached peace; but not through the way you wanted to get at it. It's not a half baked peace like we celebrated in 2002. This time it's real; because the “man eater” is dead with all his supporters.

I will not bother you anymore with hard questions. I am not angry with you, for not answering any of these questions. I can understand the difficult situation you faced, after seing those questions. Now that the Prabhakaran is dead, and Ealam is no more is an option for sure; there's no need for any of you to answer my questions. I will not even ask you “Aren't you ashamed of earning money from your international donors, by selling the people of your motherland?”. No.. I don't need an answer for that question either.

Sanjana, haven't I told you once, that we don't share a “personal vision” of bringing peace to this country? I've told you, my personal vision is that, but yours was more of a business vision. Now it's been achieved I'm happy. But you seems to be still not happy! Why? Your GV still deliver hate speech at the President and the armed forces. What's wrong? Why are you acting like a mosquito coil manufacturer, who heard the news of total extinction of mosquitoes? (When after all the supposed vision of a mosquito coil is to get rid of mosquitoes)

I feel sorry about your job security. Your best selling product; WAR is out of stock now. It's a basic concept in marketing. Without a problem, how are you suppose to sell a solution? Without war, how can you sell peace? I'm sure you will be able to find different products to sell, but any of those won't be hot selling among your international donors, like the war did.

Prabhakaran's death has showed us an undeniable truth. That is; no matter how hard you try, the spirit of the people of this country cannot be stopped now. You will continue insulting our heroes; delivering hate speech about our forces, and about the president. But you will not get a chance of turning us back! If, at least a handful of people trusted you and listened to you; I'm sure they will also turn their backside to you in a matter of just few months. I challenge you, there will be no Groundviews.org to celebrate the first anniversary of end of civil war, unless you drastically change yourself by introducing more new contributors like Lalith Gunarathne and Dayan Jayathilake. If Sanjana Hattotuwa, Sunanda Deshapriya, Uvindu Kurukulasooriya and CPA clan continue to write on your site, you will be gone in a matter of just two more months. May be thanks to people like Dayan and Lalith; you will be able to survive a bit longer . But not for so longer. Yes this is a challenge!

Before I leave you with my pardon; let me make just one insult to you. I've designed the book cover for your next publication. Remember the book you've published through me about an year ago? Now here's the latest book. This is in response to this.

One Interesting Fact I Noticed in President’s Speech

2009-05-20T01:01:00.000+05:30

I was watching the repeat (and repeat and repeat) telecast of the President’s address to the nation in parliament today. There was one key thing I noticed; which I couldn’t stop blogging about.

In his speech; the president has never mentioned a word of “hate” against the people who suspected him, or ridiculed the military operations. He never retaliate at those people who said “Any bull can go to war”, or to those “Pamankada-Ali mankada” people. Of course they were “well taken care” by the state media; but I noticed this as a great sign of leadership from the president.

His speech was solely focused on acknowledging those who supported, and motivating the people of this country. Unlike some of the CBK speeches at parliament; he didn’t bashed the UNP or JVP as evil forces that ruin this country. He set a clear example that, this is not the time to point fingers at each other and do the political blame game.

Great example Mr. President! We would be glad, if the UNP and JVP will reciprocate with this gentleness of the president.

The Next Two Biggest Priorities Ahead of Our Nation

2009-05-19T15:07:00.001+05:30

Lot of things had been said about the war victory, and the feeds are coming in from all over the place adding their two cents to the recent developments in the country. I was thinking about writing this post a little bit later; after the clutter is cleared out a bit from the blogosphere. But then again; I thought this would be the ideal time to write this post.

While we celebrate the victory; we have to keep in mind that this is just the beginning. As I've been telling since I first started blogging; Sri Lankan had hundreds of problems to be solved, and at that time terrorism was the first priority. When some other bloggers were bombarding the government with the other problems which had not been addressed by them, I continued to say "let them finish with the war". Now that the war has come to an end; the government of Sri Lanka and the people have to focus on the next immediate priorities.

For me, the most important priorities ahead of us are twofold

1) Taking care of the war affected people in IDP camps
2) Taking care of the injured members of the armed forces, and the families of those who sacrificed their lives in the war

These are the two most important things that we have to focus on next 5 to 6 months. Not about ensuring press freedom, or bringing down petrol prices. There are over 265,000 civilians living in the IDP camps in Vauniya and other places, and they had been taken care well by the relevant institutions. Of course they are not provided with all the luxuries they would have enjoyed in their homes, or what you are enjoying at the moment. But we have guaranteed that they are being sheltered and fed properly. Thousands of people from south, flocked to donate necessary items and medical items to these camps, when ministry of media organized collection programs around the country. Many government and private organizations, individuals did their part by contributing to such programs. In some places, people donated their one day's salary. All these things were done by the people of south, while the pro-Tiger media carrying out propaganda in other countries that thousands of Tamils were being genocide in northern Sri Lanka. Our people never cared about those fabricated stories, and extended their helping hands to the brothers and sisters who were affected by war. This has to be continued! We have to assure, these people get back to their villages soon, and start their usual life. We have to make sure the land mines are removed from their land, and assure security for farming. These people need to be integrated into our economic machinery, very soon. That's the number one priority ahead of us at the moment, and I'm sure we are capable of doing that despite all negative talks being spread around the world. If you want to contribute in this regard; you can contact the Minstry of Mass Media & Information Sri Lanka, Sarvodaya, Rebuild Lanka, ACT Lanka, or contact Indi for other methods on how you can help.

Second most prioritized task ahead of us is to take care of the injured soldiers and not to let them cornered in the society. There are hundreds of injured soldiers who are having minimum of facilities at their homes. No electricity, no water, and no proper toilets. These people need to be taken care of. There are thousands of soldiers, who doesn't have a proper home to live. We need to support building their homes, and pay our tribute. And as a nation; we must look after the mothers and fathers of those soldiers who sacrificed their lives, in the name of this country.

Our people have to come forward and help the soldiers to live in the "post war society". They need our guidance. After being a part of a gigantic war mechanism for years; they might feel bit awkward to get back into the "post war society". We need to help them to get involved in other methods of nation building. We can make them part of many other productive activities towards bringing prosperity to our nation. If you would like to contribute in this regards; you can always contact the Api Wenuwen Api fund.

Can the Pesimists Hold Back a Spirit of a Thriving Nation?

2009-05-19T12:29:00.000+05:30

The war is over and the celebrations are still going around. While it is questionable how ethical it is to party all around the streets, while hundreds of our army men were killed during past few weeks and thousands of civilians are lvining in IDP camps; I still believe the emotion of our public are reasonable. Who can hold back the joy of getting free from a 26 years old curse?

But then again; I can see the pesimists are spreading their cynic thoughts once again. Those people who suspected the war against LTTE, are now spreading pesimism all around the place with questioning this government's ability to take this country forward. For them; "press freedom" is the greatest concern. Let it burn in hell! Who cares about "press freedom" when we have more serious issues to tackle in near future? What the "press" can do best now is to shut their "pesimist mouths" themselves (before someone else do that) and do something constructive. In Sri Lana; the so called journalists think that their job is to report bad news. Most of the papers here are not "Newspapers" but rather "Bad Newspapers". This mentality had been grown in this country for last 50 years by these self proclaimed professional journalists. Let's fight against these pesimists at least now, and keep the hopes alive.

Let's Start Rebuilding...

2009-05-19T11:06:00.001+05:30

President Mahinda Rajapakshe in his address to the nation said "There are no more minority ethnic groups in this country. Sinhala, Muslim, Tamil, Burgher, Malays.. We all are now Sr Lankans. But there are two groups of people still in this country. Those who love the motherland, and those who don't. Reason that we are happy is; the group that don't love the motherland is now a minority".

Well said Mr.President! This was all what we have been telling in plain "black and white". At least at this moment; our people should walk out of the darkness and start "believing". We have answered those non-believers very well. The history has proven our belief, our faith. Those who spread negativity, mistrust, and confusion among our are now silenced. They might be wondering "what's next?". But we always knew "what's next?". Because, we had a clear vision, a clear plan, clear direction We believed in that vision and we followed it in faith. No one need to worry about "what's next". We are very much clear about "what's next". People of this country will decided "what is best for the country next". We are liberated! We will thrive! Those who criticized, didn't believed, predicted our failure, will continue to do so. But we don't care. The economy will no longer be fucked. Let's rebuild this nation; starting from today itself!

New Home Page of a "well known" Website

2009-05-18T16:09:00.002+05:30

It's Confirmed. Fire Crackers are On..

2009-05-18T14:02:00.001+05:30

I can here the fire crackers going around all over Colombo, as the state media "confirmed" the death of Prabhakaran.

Now this is David Milliband...

2009-05-18T13:52:00.003+05:30

Sri Lankan protesters burn an effigy of British Foreign Secretary David Miliband during a protest outside the British Embassy in Colombo Photo: AP

We are glad that the war in Sri Lanka came to an end, before this idiot become the Prime Minister of Great Britain!

Sri Lankan Media Stations in a New War to Be the First to Report Prabhakaran's Death

2009-05-18T13:33:00.001+05:30

This appeared a short while ago on on Lankadeepa website. I trust Lankadeepa and dailyMirror more than some of the other "breaking news" sources in Sri Lanka, and I don't think this will be yet another hoax in the media race to claim the badge "we reported Prabha's death first".

OMG!I really hate these people in the media. Even at this situation, they are not ready to give up their ass saving race to "be the first in reporting". Divayina did a big joke by printing their headline in today's newspaper, claiming that Prabha was dead on last saturday. now if so; how can Lankadeepa report he was shot dead a short while ago?

This is what happen when you too much empower GECE(O/L) guys as "journalists" without proerly training them in the profession.

Game Over!

2009-05-16T23:24:00.001+05:30

It's unconfirmed reports all around! One after another "rumor" coming in that the "Top Cat" and his second ranking fellows have already gone where they belong to; hell. Government officially announced Swarnam's death, but looks like keeping the "best of the news" for tomorrow till the "king" arrive from Jordan. According to these "unconfirmed" reports; "king" is supposed to deliver an official speech announcing the "game over" statement. Chief of military, suppose to hand over a "mission accomplished" notice to the "king" and the king will read it over national TV and radio, to the fellow countrymen. Fellow countrymen are expected to raise the national flags everywhere they go; including the Facebook profiles and personal blogs. (See; I have already done).

Let me finish this small note with my favorite line from Mortal Combat. "Game Over.... Piribha die!"

OMG! I'm Exposed.. I Quit Blogging!

2009-05-15T12:04:00.002+05:30

Been bit busy last couple of days and returned to Kottu and OMG! WTFH going on here! Chillies, Chocolates, Weeds, Funerals, Burrials and what the fuck is not happening. Looks like all hell broken up and Kottusphere gone really insane. Someone pointed it quite correctly; advertising people does all the shit, as they always do with our brands. They eat our marketing budgets with their crap ads, and now ruining the Kottu feed with all their personal attacks, disclosures and exposures. Look here addies... I know how crappy your offices look like, and how badly you guys dress. But, please leave this place clean. We don't wanna see your bullshit arguments on Kottu feed anymore. I'm sad I once said "Give Pationately Patient a voice again and bring back Nibras Bawa". I withdraw those words! Hell Indi... Kick all these admen and women out of here! No offense Blacker! You guys really have a cultural problem in your industry. Go back to finishing school and get things straightened.

The World is Black and White…

2009-05-10T12:14:00.002+05:30

The world is black and white; but only if you look at it very closely. Those who just brush on the surface of it may tell you that there are some gray areas in the world. But in reality, it’s only black and white that exist. Either those people are too lazy to go into details to see the pure division between black and white;and so easily conclude there are gray areas in the middle. Or, they are afraid of something that exists in the extremes of black and white; and that very “something” is a threat to their own existence. Hence they are compelled to pretend as not seeing black as “black” and white as “white” and talk about an illusive gray. They misguide the world about this "non-existing gray" area, like in that old story of the emperor’s new cloak.

Therefore in the final analysis; you are either with us or against us. If you still believe that there’s room for a middle ground, you seriously are confused about your facts and don’t have a gut to make a firm decision. Get a backbone!

An Open Invitation to Indi Samarajeeva and Sanjana Hattotuwa for Answering These Questions

2009-05-06T06:10:00.000+05:30

Dear Indi & Sanjana,

This is not a challenge or a kind of commanding. This is purely an invitation to both of you to respond to some unanswered questions I’ve thrown at both of you in some of my recent posts.

I would like both of you to read on; and I invite other Kottu users as well, to read this from top to bottom first.

I have been blogging on Kottu for last 3 years, and you both know that from the beginning; my opinions and beliefs were totally different from you two. More than that, the way in which I express my ideas were totally different. Some people interpreted the way in which I express my ideas as “rude, abusive, and extremely impolite”. Yet again, some other people thought that my English usage is way below the professional level, and I should quit blogging for that reason. Some said, it is unfair for an anonymous blogger like me to write high tempered posts aimed at two named bloggers like you. Both of you, took these reasons time to time to ignore the points I’ve raised in my blog, and you two always “actively avoided” responding to most of the questions I pin pointed at you. I believe, language and anonymity are not a reason for avoiding a valid point. Anonymity is a primary right on social media internet; and English language weaknesses is a valid excuse for a person who’s first language is not English. Given those two facts; I don’t see any acceptable reason for you to avoid the questions I’ve directly aimed at you. If you believe the claims I make are false; you still have the option of proving that it’s false.

Now here is my invitation.

If you don’t like to comment on my blog (If you are worried I’m tracking your IP to locate you as a sub contract from Rajapakshe brothers); you can respond to the questions I’ve asked, on a 3rd party blog. Anyone of you can name an independent moderator out of the Kottu bloggers. It could be RD, Sam, or someone else. That person will start a new blog post on his blog for us to converse. You two have to start the conversation, by answering to the questions I’ve aimed at you in my recent posts, and on some recent comments. I will respond if necessary; and any of the other Kottu user can join in the discussion at anytime. The moderator blogger, should allow full comment access (No moderation), but without “Anonymous comments”. Those who make comments, need to link to some sort of an online Identity like a Google ID, Open ID, WP ID or a direct personal website to link.

If you are worried about my aggressive language; be assured I will not call you “tiger ass lickers” or “traitors of the motherland” in any of my follow up comments (If required to comment). So; it will be a little less “masculine” than the RD language; but will not go to the extreme of NB language.

Here are the open questions! You can take them or leave them. If you like; you can start the conversation on this post itself. (Say OK; and I will disable anonymous comments option, and we are straight in business). Or else, name a 3rd party to moderate the discussion, and ask him to start a new discussion (by listing these questions)

------------Begining of Questions-----------

@ Indi (Indrajeet) Samarajeeva,

Question #1 - You have remarked MP Mano Ganeshan as an “outspoken Tamil human rights MP” in your blog posts, and you have talked many a times about his “heroic acts” on human right activities. You have raised your voice to defend him, when the CID taken him for questioning related to “supporting terrorism” charges. When me and some bloggers clearly identified him as part of the “Ealam blue print”; you identified him as a freedom fighter. But, I believe you have seen the video in which MP Mano Ganeshan talking in an LTTE rally, wearing the Ealam map in his shirt. According to the Sinhala translation made by Saman Kumara Ramawickrama, he says “People of Tamil Ealam! Take weapons and fight against Sinhala nation”.

a) With all these facts; would you still recognize him as an outspoken Tamil human rights MP? Or do you now agree with us, that Mano Ganeshan is a pro-Ealamist?

b) If you agree with the second option; do you agree that you have made a mistake in projecting an untrue personality of a pro-terrorist who violated the constitution of this country? If so, would you agree to write a public apology on your blog? If you can’t; why?

Question # 2 – This is about “censorship on Kottu”.

Do you believe, that Kottu is your private property (which is true) and because of that matter, you have the sole right of deciding who should have a voice on Kottu, and who should not?

If your answer to above question is “Yes” you don’t have to answer below questions. We will respect your “authority” and we will come to a judgment about your interest in “freedom of speech” and government censorship.

Question # 3 – This is also about “censorship on Kottu”.

Given the fact that you blocked Tamilnet.tv for the reasons as mentioned by the owner of that blog; (Technically it's a blog)

a) Why didn't you blocked “Ranjith Fernando Sucks” and “Prof V K Samaranayake” blogs, when they were directly attacking popularly known public figures of this country?

b) Why are you allowing Jathika Chinthana Pravahaya to be syndicated on Kottu; when they clearly operating as a tool for insult the Buddhist clergy, some Sinhala nationalist leaders, and Sinhalese people in general?

c) Why didn't you de-syndicated Dinidu De Alwis, when he re-written the story of Sinha Bahu, and Prince Vijaya's arrival in Sri Lanka (origin of Sinhala race), in a way which is offensive to the Sinhalese people in general?

@ Sanjana Hattotuwa,

Question #1 – The Mano Ganeshan question is also aimed at you. Please don’t escape from the question by say ng “Groundviews is not me, and I am not Groundviews”. You have actively promoted interviews taken from Mano Ganeshan on several occasions, and you also projected a picture to us that Mano Ganeshan is a true human rights activist. But, now his links to the tigers is obvious. You have still not made any comment on your blogs, about this incident. Why?

a) Are you afraid of, if your donor organizations get to know that you supported a pro-terrorist that they will cut your funds?

b) Do you agree Mano Ganeshan violated the constitution of Sri Lanka, by actively speaking on behalf of a separate state called a “Tamil Ealam”?

c) Let’s make the (b) above bit easier. Do you believe that Tamil Ealam is a reasonable idea, and it should be a “considered solution” in solving the problem in North? If your answer here is “Yes”, you don’t have to answer (b) above.

d) Do you agree that the LTTE is a massive human rights violator of all times? If so, what’s your opinion about “human rights activist” Mano Ganeshan speaking in favor of the LTTE in one of their rallies?

e) o you agree with us, that you made a mistake by promoting Mano Ganeshan as a hero? If so; are you willing to make a public apology on Groundviews? If you can’t; why?

Question # 2 – About your comment on this post.

Going back to your comment about Defence.lk, and Army.lk being “pro-Rajapakshe”; do you believe that being “pro-Rajapakshe” (Or for that matter being pro-Wickramasinghe) is a sin, or a guilt as much as being pro-Prabhakaran? The way you have toned your comment; that's what we feel. You are saying that, being pro-Rajapakshe is not any better than being pro-Prabhakaran. Do you really mean this?

------------End of Questions-----------

Now these are my open questions to Indi Samarajeeva and to Sanjana Hattotuwa. All I expect is clear cut answers to these questions, and point me with follow up questions if you want. I don’t want to hear about your track record in humanitarian missions, or your past activities to benefit mother Lanka, with Sarvodaya or any other organization. These questions are not related to any of those stuff.

We all are part time bloggers; and we somehow find few hours to spend on reading and writing blogs. I’m sure, both of you will not come up with the excuse “due to the lack of time.. blab la bla..”.

To all the other reasonable bloggers on Kottu! I’d appreciate, if you could put pressure on Indi and Sanjana to accept this invitation, and answer these questions. You can re-blog about this on your own blog, and compel them to accept the invitation.

Inside An Elusive Mind – Cross Section of Sanjana Hattotuwas Brain

2009-05-03T11:43:00.002+05:30

Ever wondered what's inside the mind of an NGO businessman, who's inner psychology is largely “pro-LTTE”; but cleverly disguise that identity from the outside world, with a nice smile and a big grown beard in the face?

Here's a comment made by Sanjana Hattotuwa, as a response to a comment I made on his personal blog.

“Defence.lk and Army.lk, to name but two government run websites, have run sustained hate campaigns and are defined by their pro-Rajapakse propaganda, no better in intent, purpose and expression than pro-LTTE sites. Terrorist propaganda gets needless fuel from censorship. “

According to this comment; Sanjana concludes that; Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE are in equal platform, and there's no difference between the objectives and actions of the two sides. He denies, the fact that one is a terrorist organization banned in Sri Lanka and many other civilized countries; and the other is a democratically elected government, and a state represented in the United Nations Organization. And, therefore he concludes; Defence.lk and Army.lk are the government counterparts for LTTE propaganda websites. He purposely hide the fact that; these two websites were started by the government, to counter the false propaganda carried out by pro-LTTE websites. According to Sanjana; the objective of Defence.lk and Army.lk are “no better” than the objective of Tamilnet.com. And he is saying this, while living in Colombo, and running an anti-Government website himself. What Sanjana propose to Defence.lk and Army.lk is to “stop spreading hatred against LTTE; and make love to them”. But he has never preached this to Tamilnet.com. Instead, every once in a while where Tamilnet is influenced by someone; Sanjana goes up and down in the air; asking for “freedom of speech”. He forget the fact that, Tamilnet is the centre of LTTE international propaganda, and being a propaganda tool for a terrorist organization, it need to be hacked; blocked, and shut down at all possible places.

This is yet another “surfacing” of true personality of people like Sanjana Hattotuwa. Those of you who still believes that he is a “passionate peace lover” who try to bring peace to Sri Lanka through ICT; now here's another chance for you to re-look at his true identity. What he has given auth is not to bring peace through ICT. But to brainwash the Sri Lankan youths (Through his blogs), to think that LTTE is a legitimate representative of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, and government only represents the Sinhalese. And; isn't that a pro-LTTE ideology?

We've seen Mano Ganeshan speaking in an LTTE rally. If Prabhakaran escape this time, and if the war drag onto another 5 or 10 years; we will see similar videos featuring our own neighborhood blogger Sanjana.

Army.lk was hacked recently; and the blame was put on the LTTE. My perception is, LTTE need not to worry much about hacking the Army.lk. Because, there are enough ICT experts and tech geeks in Colombo, who have sufficient levels of “motivation” , ability and willingness to do that!

British Bullshit Corporation (BBC) Does it Again!

2009-05-02T23:22:00.001+05:30

If You are Sourcing Sri Lanka News from BBC; Read from Bottom Up, and Cross-Verify It With Non-TamilNet Originated Source!

Ok RD! Here we go again, and you can write another post about my rude, harsh language with profanity and hatred. The f***ing as******s in British Bullshit Corporation has done it again!!

The latest headline in their website is “Hospital 'hit by Sri Lankan army' “ The idiot who ever wrote the article, took the headline from an anonymous “doctor” in an “unknown hospital” in the 5KM2 No Fire Zone. No naming of the hospital where it said to be hit; or no naming of the two doctors who sent them the “pictures”. More of all; there's no mention of a fucking author for the article on their website. Is BBC now doing the job of VIC? Anonymous journalism? WTF??

Who ever the moron who wrote the article on BBC website, later goes on to mention about the government claims about the incident; but the headline has done the damage. Is this the way BBC suppose to report war in Iraq as well? Write the headline based on AlQuiada sources, and then reporting what the British government has to say?

The LTTE ass licking bloggers has already joined the bandwagon, by re-blogging this anonymous article on BBC. The LTTE may have been totally defeated militarily in the war zone, but its propaganda meachine and the ass licking community is still operating freely without any harm. Be aware of these LTTE supporters on the blogosphere, and give them the right answer when the right time comes!

Nibras Bawa, Freedom of Speech, and Kottu Censorship

2009-04-29T14:02:00.001+05:30

The "Nibras Bawa Phenomenon" seems gone too far on Kottusphere, and the resulting outcome seems not only kicking out NB from the Kottu community; but also gone into the extent of deletion of several blogs from Blogger and Wordpress platforms due to organized abuse reports made by supporters of the two extremes. As Shehal pointed out, the whole NB episode is totally childish, but still there are some valuable points for us to take home from these incidents.

First; this expose us to the real face of those "guardians of freedom of speech". These people act like, that they value "freedom of speech" as the second most noble human right, after masterbaration. But, when their ego is challenged by some one else; they react so shamelessly, by using their authority to cut the voices against them and painting a picture to the outside world "he is a threat to Kottu security; so for the benefit of the majority of Kottu users, I had to remove him". Isn't this the same thing the government is doing to the journalists who criticize them? When government react to the journalists with censorship and (sometimes) violence, these people go up and down in the air saying "Look here! Mahinda is violating our freedom of speech!". But, when they do the same thing on a blog aggregator where they have the authority; they justify themselves with lame excuses. Nice work!

I remember Indi once said about Lasantha and Sunday Leader "No matter how much I agree or disagree with his journalism, he has a right to express his view". I can't locate the exact post he mentioned this, but that was the basic idea. Then what's the difference with Nibras Bawa? Reporting NB's blog to Blogger T&C violation is not much different from government using police to interrogate journalists in the 4th flour. In fact, government is better, because it has a vested authority to do so. But, reporting a blog of a person whom you don't agree with, is a cheap tactic to use for someone appearing to be a "matured" and a "reasonable" blogger, to the outside world.

I now can understand that, this whole thing started with this post made by RD; mentioning myself as well. While I respect RD's right to ask that question from the three of us; in real sense it's none of his business, the mannar of language we use in our blogs. And I totally reject the manner in which Nibras Bawa responded to RD. He was childish, too emotional, and immature. No argument. My assertion is, Nibras Bawa holds a "soda bottle" personality, and most of his reactions were instantaneous, without thinking of the consequences. This assertion is justifiable, because NB has taken measures to delete most of his offensive comments later (once the gas of the soda bottle die off). Indi interpreted this as "intentional effort" by NB to annoy other people (You post something "fuck you off son of a whore" and delete it as soon the target person read it). However, Indi would have thought kicking NB off the Kottu feed and painting a "security threat" picture about him on the Kottu feed is the best solution for him. In my personal opinion, Indi reacted emotionally, because Bawa hurt Indi's self esteem so hardly. It's quite understandable, when you blog in your real name, and "social credibility" is your prime motive for blogging.

Another notable thing is, Nibras Bawa is not the only one who got "censored" on Kottu. Why TamilNet.tv is not anymore syndicated on Kottu feed? I tried to find an answer to this question on past posts on Indi's blog, but I can't see anything where he commented about Tamilnet.tv. But the truth is, TamilNet.tv is silently taken off from the Kottu feed. If someone justify the removal of Tamilnet.tv from Kottu feed based on the fact that it actually is a satirical blog; then I ask the question, why not removing Jathika Chinthana Pravahaya blog from Kottu too? Why did Kottu allowed Ranjith Fernando Sucks? JCP is a little bit less obvious than Tamilnet.tv, and many people still believe JCP is a true "pro-Sinhala patriotic blog". But the truth is, it's run by a set of people who's intention is to redicule the concept of "Jathika Chinthanaya" put forward by most supporting forces of the present government. And the "mission" of JCP blog is perfectly matching the value system of Indi, and he is totally ok to host JCP on Kottu, while censoring the anti-LTTE Tamilnet.tv from the Kottu feed.

This again reveal the double standards of people who march behind the caskets of dead journalists, crying for "freedom of speech".

Last; for any online community to be vibrant and interesting; there should be fights between participants. Calling names, insulting, dis agreeing; these all are required for an online community to be vibrant. If the "god" interfere and try to make it "politically correct" based on a "code of speech" he designed by himself; then the whole purpose of having a community will be lost. The task of a good community manager is not to press the "ban" button at every trouble maker based on few complaints by "pet members"; but to bring consensus among the members of the community.

May be writing this blog post could be a great qualification for me to violate the Kottu "code of speech" and be kicked out at anytime. It's a concern for me; because I need the Kottu readership badly. Because, my mission is to provide them with the news on "other side of the coin". If you don't like Kottu readers to be aware of the other side of the story; you can kick me out at anytime. After all, it's your domain and your authority. I personally vote for bringing back Nibras Bawa and Tamilnet.tv to the Kottu feed, and giving back Passionately Patient a voice again. I don't know how the majority of Kottu community feel about them. My faith in freedom of speech is not only limted to Lasantha Wickramatunga and Sirasa News first.

Of Rhythmic Diaspora, Nibras Bawa and Flame Posts on Kottu!

2009-04-28T13:04:00.001+05:30

I found this "relatively old" post on Rhythmic Diaspora's blog, and was surprised how I missed it when it was first published. I've typed a reply, and then decided to post it as a new blog post here.

Dear RD,

First I apologies for late response to this, as I totally lost this one on the Kottu feed, when it appeared and I found this on a post linked in the hottest "Nibras Bawa" debate on Kottu.

Many people has already commented on your original post, and I honestly don't have time to go through each and every comment made above. But I read the entire original post, and would like to comment on the question you pointed at three of us.

First; VIC is totally independent identity from SN and NB. I do not share anything in common with NB (for sure!!), and I do share some ideologies about the war and ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, wth SN. But, I personally don't like categorizing me and SN in a same block (Simply because he writes better than me, and my English sucks and it's really disturbing for me to read my own posts, after few weeks!)

Second; I am not a professional writer. I don't write for live. I don;t blog for pleasure or for leisure. My blog has a clear purpose, and I agree it has evolved a lot over the time. When I first began blogging, I didn't have much understanding on how to handle it. I thought it's a good way to publish any thing which comes to my mind. And honestly, I thought it's a good way to earn some extra bucks with AdSense. Some of my early posts are search engine targeted, for popular keywords. (I'm 100% honest here, and I do not have anything to hide) But over the time, I've learnt that, I can do much better things with blogging, than earning few bucks through AdSense.

So I've questioned myself, "what's the purpose of running A Voice in Colombo?". And I found the answer, and that's my number one "mission" on my blog.

"To debunk any anti-Sri Lankan ideas spread on the Sri Lankan Blogosphere, and on any mass media channel in general"

If you look at the posts I've made during last 5 or 6 months (After my re-launch about 6 months ago), you can clearly see this was my main motive. In the process, I do have my own definition of what is "Pro-Sri Lankan" and what is "Ant-Sri Lankan". Calling our soldiers "Uniform clad brainwashed cronies" is definitely anti-Sri Lankan for me, and I have attacked the person who used that phrase (Dinindu De Alwis) on all fronts I can attack him. My personal belief is, "If it is ok for Dinindu De Alwis to to call our soldiers like that; it is totally ok for me to call him a son of a whore, or an LTTE ass licker". If any of the bloggers on Kottu, can call the democratically elected president of this country as the "Buffalo" or call names on the defence secratary, commander in chief of the army of the country; what is wrong if I call those bloggers traitors, sons of bitches, or any other maximum insult I can "offer" to them? Mr. RD; think about this! Your judgement of morality is biased here! It is not only me, SN and NB are using insultive words on blog posts. May be Indi is clever to insult people with better English than me. But still he does insult people!!!! You get my point???

I guess, now you have an idea why I use such rude language at people, when I write on my blog. This blog now has a "focused mission" and, the mission is to debunk the malicious ideas spread by people like Dinindu, Sanjana and sometimes Indi (All though I respect him much more than the other two people I named)

But if you look carefully at my posts I can claim you that, I've never used such rude insults as I used on Dinindu, towards any of the other people on the blogosphere. If you can point out a single post I called India an "LTTE ass licker" or similar language, I would revert that claim. Of course I've used insults on Indi, and many other people. My belief is, if you don't tell "hard enough" to these people, they will never listens. And I don't care even if they listen. My main objective is to "MAKE AWARE" the general readers on Kottu, about the true face of these bloggers. When Indi hailed Mano Ganeshan as a hero; I used hard language to criticize him. That is to convey a message to the general readership of Kottu "Don't trust every word uttered by Indi. He is not god almighty".

I beleive, now I have answered your question loud and clear enough. I am open to criticism, and I hope I've taken your question in the right spirit as you've expected.

From now onwards, you will never see VIC blog about "AdSense tricks" or any other "fancy" topics; just to get search engine crawlers attract. You will not read anymore about my car, my family, or how I eat, sleep, pee, or fuck. Those are the topics for you guys! Instead, you will see only posts related to current affairs in Sri Lanka, and my STRONG opinions on them. You will see more posts, attacking pathetic LTTE dispora members, NGO dollar hunters, and any propeganda bloggers for bankrupted political parties.

P.S

To add to this; I have never exposed the personally identifiable information of people, on my blog and I have always respected the anonymity and personal lives of people. Indi's Father was dragged in many insults made at him; but I have never gone to that level in any of my posts. In fact, I have blogged about a situation where Sanjana Hattotuwa violated the privacy of people, by publishing the IP address of a commenter, with whom Sanjana disagreed.

Now what's your judgement about that?

Bloggers Who Hailed Mano Ganeshan as a Hero. What do You Say Now?

2009-04-27T09:54:00.004+05:30

Bloggers Who Hailed Mano Ganeshan as a Hero. What do You Say Now?

It is now not a secret that Mano Ganeshan, the so called "freedom fighter for democracy" who was worshipped by NGO parasites and some of the "liberal thinking" bloggers on Kottu, is actually an active player in Prabhakarans Ealam war. The speech he delivered at a LTTE rally in Vanni (Wearing a map of the Tamil Ealam in his chest) has now released to the media, and getting high viewership on Youtube. (But it's yet to appear on Vikalpa and on Indi's blog). If you have still not viewed the Youtube video of the tiger rally where Mano Ganeshan is speaking; I am going to embed it at the end of this post. But before that, let's see a timeline of Sri Lankan blogosphere, to see how some of the Sri Lankan bloggers hailed Mano Ganeshan as a hero.

Indi was so concerned about Mano Ganeshan's security on one of his posts...
"Another Tamil MP (Mano Ganeshan) fled because he feared for his life, and the government reduced his security too."

And here he says..

"Mano Ganesan, an outspoken Tamil human rights MP, had to leave the country because of security threats. So, the government now can offer more than just perks, it can offer to protect your life."

These were not all. I remember more posts made by him, promoting Mano as a hero. These are all I could find, to prove my point here.

Indi was not th only one who hailed Mano Ganeshan as a hero. Dinindu De Alwis used to do it a lot, but the poor guy has deleted his entire blog and moved away!

And Sanjana Hattotuwa and the Groundviews team used to publish many interviews of Mano Ganeshan, making him a hero among the readership of Kottu feed.

Here's one example
Here's another

These people used to attend rallies organized by Mano Ganeshan in Colombo. They walked with Mano, in the same rallies. They sat together in same meetings and promoted Mano in their Flickr photo streams.

Either all these people knew from the begining that Mano Ganeshan was a supporter of Prabhakaran and Tamil Ealam concept. All; Indi, Dinindu, Sanjana actively promoted Mano Ganeshan in their blogs knowing that. Or either, Mano cheated them as well!

My point is this. Mano showed us a different face in Colombo (A humanitarian, freedom fighter etc etc) and had a secret life of being a pr-Ealamist. So can the other people I've mentioned in this post, can be "Mano Ganeshans in making". Beware of them!

Indi used to hail Lasantha Wickramatunga as a hero, when we all knew that Lasantha was the number one blackmailist in the country. When lasantha received an award from UNESCO, indi took it as point to prove that Lasantha was indeed a hero. Not only Lasantha' even Mano Ganeshan recived an award from the UNESCO. But the fact remains, Mano is a pro-ealamist, and hence an enemy of the state of Sri Lanka. UNESCO is no almighty source to label people as heroes. No matter what award UNESCO offered, Mano is a terrorist and Lasantha is a blackmailist. People who hail them as heroes, are shameless traitors or brainless morons!

Here goes the "energetic speech" made by Mano Ganeshan at the LTTE rally. Is still a hero for you?

Is Your Son a Thief? An Interview With Thief's Mother

2009-04-27T07:45:00.000+05:30

Have NGOs failed in peacebuilding? An interview with Jehan Perera

There is an old Sinhala saying “Hora ge amma gen pena ahanawa wage”. This is what came to my mind, when I see the title of this blog post on our “favorite” Tamilnet.com substitute website (Actually, they give a close competition to Tamilnet.TV).

LOL!

Dear Sanjana! Read Sunday Times Appointments supplementary! You and your NGO pests will go jobless very soon. I've pre-ordered the domain name Groundviews.org to start a landscaping tutorial website! LOL LOL LOL!

Congratulations Ajith P Perera for Topping the UNP list in Kalutara District!

2009-04-26T20:25:00.001+05:30

Preferential votes for Kalutara district has announced, and we just got to know our friend Ajith P Perera topped the UNP preferential list with 28,568 votes. That's a great achievement, to top your district in the preferential votes list. Looks like the fake Rs.1000 notes you printed with your face on it; has paid some dividend. May be your party leader could try that trick in next presidential election. Anyway, let me wish you all the best for your political career from this point onwards :-)

In the meantime, the usual old record is played by UNP general secretary Thissa Attanayake, and JVP secretary Tilvin Silva. “Government used the military victories in North, to take undue advantage in the election, and used state media to influence the public opinion”. Oh! I thought no one is taking state media serious, so how can they shape the public opinion of western province? I thought Sunday Leader and Sirasa News First represented the public opinion of Western Province! Losers!

Another funny comment was made by Tilvin Silva. “UPFA recorded over 70% votes in most electorates in North-Western province council; but in the Western province they haven't exceeded 70% in any electorate. That's a sign that the popularity of UPFA has come down in the Western Province election”. LOL! Isn't it funny, the secretary of a political party who couldn't even secure 4% of the total votes in this election, comment about UPFA's failure to record a 70% take?

Can Times of India Decide If Prabhakaran a Terrorist or Not, by Conducting an Opinion Poll?

2009-04-24T17:03:00.000+05:30

I get hundreds of requests to vote "Yes" for an opinion poll on Times of India website for "Do you see LTTE chief V Prabhakaran as a terrorist?".

Is this a question to be surveyed? It's ok to TOI to conduct an opinion poll "Who's going to win Indian General Election 2009?" but, there are much more credible ways to figure out an answer to the question if VPP is a terrorist or not.

All you have to do is define who is a "terrorist" and list down the criteria. And then, how much of those criteria are satisfied by VPP during last 30 years. Killing Doraiappa, Preamadasa, Rajiv Ghandi, blowing up International Airports, targeting Pakistani high commissioner of Sri Lanka, killing thousands of civillians, setting up bombs in public transport (and the list goes on) are definitely actions of "terrorism". We all know it was Prabhakaran who masterminded all these things. Now, who wants to put an opinion poll to decide this?

Population of Tamil Nadu is way bigger than the entire population of Sri Lanka, and add the LTTE Die-Ass_Pora to that. It's going to be obvious that the outcome of this poll will be "NO". Then what is Times of India going to do with that result? Convince their government to withdraw charges against Prabhakaran for killing their ex-PM?

Oh come on! Stop kidding yourself, and get on to reality Mr. Editor!

What Can an Abortionist Tell you About Genocide?

2009-04-23T14:39:00.001+05:30

There is this Mervyn J.Samuel M.D, from Colombus, Ohio who keep on spamming me with his pathetic chain emails calling for world attention on a "Genocide" going on in Sri Lanka. One of his email contained the pictures of Tamil people killed in LTTE sucide attacks and artiliary firing in the no fire zone recently, and claimed those to be brutal attacks on Tamils by the Sri Lankan Army. In one of the mails, this Mervyn J.Samuel M.D add a personal note "The world is keeping silent while the Genicide is going on."

I've done my own research to know who this Mervyn J.Samuel M.D really is, and got to know that he is an abortionist running an illegal abortion clinic in Colombus, Ohio. LOL! An illegal abortionist talking about Genocide? LOL LOL!!! He is part of the LTTE Diaspora (Note, I'm not using the word Tamil Diaspora. Ratnapala's and Seneviratne's can't belong to Tamil Diaspora), and very much threatened by the present situation in Sri Lanka. If the war comes to an end, and LTTE lose it; this abortionist will lose his "political refugee" license to live in the states. To end this post, here is an interesting comment he made on one of the emails he forwarded.

I hope you are recovering from the long trip.I hardly see any infighting
among the Tamil diaspora now.This is good.Please take care. We have so much of
talent and people are doing their best from the senior leaders to the
young ones.I hope the Lord will give deliverence to our people just like the
Jewish people had from the Egyptians.The Jews are still waitng for peace for
over 2000 yrs.I hope the Tamil People do not have to wait this long.

Mervyn J.Samuel M.D.
Columbus, Ohio

You are spot on this note Dr. Mervyn J.Samuel! Tamil people (in Sri Lanka) do not have to wait for 2000 years for peace. They have already earned it! Ask from any of the 95,000 people who came to government controlled areas during last 72 hours. Oh! I forgot! You live in Columbus, Ohio!!! How can you talk to people in Sri Lanka!

Best of Luck Mr. Ajith P Perera! Keep Moderating My Comments until You Finish your PC Poll Campaign

2009-03-13T09:50:00.003+05:30

I wrote this post on my blog as a response to Ajith Perera's blog post titled "Only Tamils are terrorists; not Pakistanis?" on Wednsday 11th March. Then I left a comment on his blog post, refering to my reply post. I mentioned in my note that, "this post is now congested with comments by many other readers, so I decided to leave my comment as a new post on my own blog". Then I invited Mr. Ajith P Perera, to leave any responses on my blog post (if necasary). For my surprise, the comment wasn't published on Ajith's blog. Then I tried again. Wordpress said "Whoops! Looks like you've already said that". Meaning, my comment was saved in the WP database, but wasn't published on Ajith's blog.

Earlier I have posted a comment on Ajith's blog post about S B Dissanayake, and it was published properly. Liberal Lanka replied to my comment on Ajith's blog a little while later.

Voice in Colombo said
March 11, 2009 at 7:37 am
The hard core UNP’ers will never let SB to be the party leader. If at all there’s any hope for the UNP; that got to be Sajith. But then again, he’s being cornered to a desert district.
Why UNP never appoint newly popular characters to Colombo district? Why Karu was moved to Gampaha district, where as he started his political career from Colombo MC? Why Milinda Moragoda had to leave UNP?
And who is this new funny “Ruwan Wijewardene” pushed so hard by the UNP, for upcoming Western provincial council?
Ajith! I know you love your party. My father did love it too. He never voted any other party, ever since independence. he voted Ranil in last presidential election. But you know what? He now regrets for voting Ranil, against Mahinda. No matter how much you dislike to believe, that’s the common mentality of most of the long standing UNP supporters. You people blame SLFP to be dominated by Rajapakshe’s. But undeneath the radar, there’s a “Wijewardene” saga going inside the UNP. Innocent voters doesn’t see this. The party is dominated by only a certain family blocks. They won’t let some one from common public to climb into the leadership. Not SB. Nor Sajith.
It’ll be “Wijewardene” family tree all alone for ever!!!
BTW, we must congratulate SLFP’ers for “liberating” it from Bandaranayake’s. Now Ajith, it’s your turn to liberate UNP from Wijewardene’s.

Liberal Lanka said
March 11, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Ajith
So you seem to be tired of Ranil as well don’t you? can’t blame you.I agree Ranil is not marketable anymore. Sri Lanka doesn’t deserve someone like Ranil, what it deserves is crooks in the caliber of JR, RP and MR.
@VIC
As for sajith, he chose Hambantota no one pushed him there, it is always easier to fool the rural folk.
Milinda had to leave because of the COPE report.
Whats is so good about Bandaranayakes been replaced by Rajapakshes? Why can’t we get rid of these family politics?
As for Ruwan I agree, Ranil is trying to bring in him and it is sad.

Then I went and posted a reply to Liberal Lanka on the same post. Surprise! The comment doesn't appear on Ajith's blog!!!

Looks like Ajith is really "not dare to be different". What he is doing is just what would any other cheap politician would do. Simply "turning off" opposing voices. That's what his party leader is doing. And the funny thing is, people like Ajith are talking about freedom of speech and threat to that freedom by Mahinda Rajapakshe government! Ajith P Perera is not alone. The so called guardians of freedom of speech; Groundviews does this. Dinindu De Alwis does this! (We must appreciate Indi's policy in this regards. He never moderate comments. Instead he simply ignore tough comments)

Is this what you are going to do, if you manage to bring a UNP government to power, Mr. Ajith P Perera? Wish you all the best for upcoming PC polls.

Tamils Are Not Terrorists. Pakistanis Aren't Either!

2009-03-11T16:11:00.003+05:30

I accidentally came across with this blog post on Ajith P Perera's blog, and found that he has made some comments about me in his post. The post was already crowded with too many comments, and my response is too lengthy to be posted there. So I decided to post it as a new entry in my blog, and post a reference his original article.

@ Ajith P Perera,

//Voice in Colombo has reported the incident but yet to offer his opinion and/or condemn the attack. So are so many other bloggers, Sinhala and English.\\

Firstly, I admit the fact that I failed to post my personal opinion about the incident on my own blog, due to time constraints I had to manage during the week this incident took place. Yes, I would have definitely made a blog entry regarding this incident, because it wasn't such a simple case to be ignored. On the same time, I'd like to remind you that I have posted my personal opinion about the incident, on Indi's blog (On his post "WTF Pakistan!").

For your benefit, I'll sum up my personal view about the incident.

About your title; I have never said anywhere on the blogosphere that "Tamils are terrorists". I have never said that "Pakistanis are terrorists" either. But you are making an assertion here, that Pakistanis can easily be generalized as "terrorists" just because our cricket team went under attack in their soil. How clever you are!

Quote: It is more than 48 hours Sri Lankan cricketers were attacked horribly by Pakistani terrorists in Lahore.

If you believe that Pakistanis are terrorists in general; what's your say about these people? About these? and These?

In almost every blog post I talked about terrorism in Sri Lanka, I used the terms, LTTE / LTTE Terrorists / Tigers / Tiger Terrorists or Terrorists in general when referring to the "Terrorists". I have never used the term "Tamil Terrorists" in my blog, because I don't believe that "Tamils are terrorists". My assertion is, LTTE is a terror group, and they consist largely with Tamils. So, when fighting against a terror group who are largely consist of Tamils; it is natural that some of the innocent Tamils also get affected. But, it's not fair to say "stop all security measures against LTTE, because it cause some disturmances to innocent Tamils".

When it comes to the attack in Lahore, I have categorically condemned the attack on Indi's blog. I have never tried to justify the attack for any reason, as you try to imply here. My argument was, it is not fair for us (Sri Lankans) to blame the Pakistani people, Pakistan state, or their government for this attack. Of course their security forces failed. But, as a nation state Pakistan never intended to hurt our cricketers. It was a completely ruthless bunch of terrorists who carried out that attack. And as I asserted in my comment on Indi's blog, the objective of that terror group would have been simply to humiliate Pakistan as a nation state. And I argued that, blog posts like this would serve exactly the same objective. In other words, when Indi blogged "WTF Pakistan!", the terrorists achieved their mission of degrading Pakistan as a nation state.

So, if you are truly against terrorism, what you have to do is just stopping "indirectly supporting them". That was the core point I made on Indi's blog.

Further, I don't believe the allegation that the LTTE was behind the attack in Lahore. It was carried out by some Islamic extremist group. Would an Islamic extremist group co-ordinate with an organization which carry out suicide attacks inside mosques on Holy Prophet's birthday? If that is so; the Islam world will have to take a serious re-look at the concept of "Islamic Fundementalism". Are they really fighting for safeguarding the holy Koran, or are they fighting for something else?

It is a shame how some Sri Lankan politicians behaved, after the Lahore shoot out. Instead of condemning the attack and extending gratitude to Pakistani people and their security forces for sending our cricketers back home all alive; our politicians tried to get some political mileage. The Kotte Ravi, Ex-Sports minister Laxman Kiriella, and Hashan Tillakeratne are few to name.

There had been a big mistake down the line somewhere, in arranging the security for that particular test match. It would have end up in a much dangerous tragedy. It's true that somebody should get the blame. But, would a "Blame Game" serve any purpose?

What's next? Is it fair for us to say "Pakistan should not get any home cricket series for next few years"?
Is it fair for us to say "Pakistan should not be a part of 2011 World Cup?"
Is it fair for us to say "Pakistan is a Terrorist nation"?
(If so; what if Pakistan and India said "it is not safe to play in Sri Lanka, back in 1996?". Would we stiil have some sweet memories of our glorious finale in Lahore, back in 1996??)

Our own coach Trevor Baileys now says "It's not safe to do any sport in entire South Asia". See how far this has gone? Now they'll say it's not safe to hold the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. Is it fair for Indians?

What Trevor Baileys, Indrajith Samarajeeva, and Ajith P Perera should understand is "It's not safe anywhere on this Earth!" If you didn't know up to now, "It's not even safe to be in Alabama - USA". Did some one say, "WTF Alabama?"

A Picture Which Speaks Thousand Words

2009-03-11T09:35:00.001+05:30

This is one of the most "informative" photographs I've seen recently, which describe the status of LTTE brutality. Look at the faces of the innocent people in the front rows of this parade. They would never have expected the disasters which was happening from their back. For Allah's sake it was a religious ceremony, although it was over crowded by a lot of politicians. This is the type of terrorism that some "peace merchants" wants our government to negotiate with. This is the type of terrorism that so called "liberal thinkers" in this country, try to cover up from the western world.

Photograph courtesy Janith Wipulaguna of Lankadeepa.

Terror attack near Gaddafi Stadium - Sri Lankan Cricketers Injured

2009-03-03T10:19:00.001+05:30

A terrorist attack near the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore has put a
question mark over the second Test being played there between Pakistan
and Sri Lanka. A top security official told reporters five armed
terrorists attacked the convoy surrounding the Sri Lankan team bus and
five policemen were killed.

The shoot out occured at Lahore's Liberty market as the team was on
it's way to the stadium. According to television reports, Sri Lanka's
security team was targeted. The third day of the Lahore Test is
scheduled to begin at 10.00 am. (Via Cricinfo)

It is reported that Thilan Samaraweera was injured in his chest.
Tharanga Paranawitharana in his leg. Kumar Sangakkara and Ajantha
Mendis was also reportedly injured. Others sustained minor injuries.

After the incident, the second test between Sri lanka and Pakistan was
called off. No decision has been made regarding the future of the
tour. Most probably, Sri Lankans would call off th tour and return
home immediately. ICC is yet to issue an official announcement of the
incident, and their view point.

Meanwhile, a recorded video footage of the incident shows a gunman
running on the street shooting towards the Sri Lankan team convoy. Few
other men had grenades in their hands. Gunmen escaped safely, after
the shooting.

Shiral Lakthilake in UNP Colombo District List? Excuse me? Did I Read it Correct?

2009-02-27T06:40:00.000+05:30

Isn’t he supposed to be an “independent election observer”? Or, a “watchdog of political corruption”? Oh come-on! I start to doubt the word “Independent” now a days. Who’s next? May be Sanjana Hattotuwa. Or Dinindu De Alwis? How about Uvindu Kurukulasooriya?

When we pointed that CAFÉ and Corruption Watch are primarily motivated by the UNP’s political agenda, some people turned those claims down as “mud slinging at independent election observers”. Now we see who’s Café was Shiran Lakthilake running all these years! We can imagine how “independently” they reported the election violence in the past elections. These morons start all these “independent” agencies backed by someone else’s political will and funded by some other party’s money. I’m more and more inquisitive to know who’s actually paying the server bills of groundviews.org :-) If we dig deeper; the routes may now go down to depths no one would ever imagine.

And I feel sorry about those of you, who still can’t see this same pattern with people like Dinindu De Alwis or Sanjana Hattotuwa. Some half baked kimbula banis heads preach us that “there’s no point of bowling at the fielding side”. They think if the UNP comes to power someday, Groundviews will still continue to be critical about their government. They believe that papers like Sunday Leader will continue to probe into government corruption. And they further believe that NGO’s like FMM, CPA, or CAFÉ will continue to watch out for the rights of the civil society “independently” (Independent; according to their judgments).

But they never realize that; actually these NGO’s and Newspapers like Sunday Leader are just “tools” of bringing back a UNP government. Let us see why. Did we have any of these NGO’s before 1994? No. We never had this type of NGO’s in our history; not to mention about the 17 years regime of the UNP from 1977-1994. Then why these NGO’s and News Papers like Sunday Leader started only after 1994? Why are they very much more motivated after 2005? Why don’t Groundviews dedicate a special space on their home page to remember the innocent Sri Lankan civilians died with LTTE attachs? Why do they only remember the “ant-Tamil riots” from 1956 to 1983? It is understandable, if TamilNet remembered the “anti-Tamil riots from 1956-1983, and forget about the people who were killed by the LTTE. Why only Lasantha Wickramatunge on their home page? What about the other prominent figures in the society, who were killed by the LTTE?

You see the pattern? You see how blindly some people believe in the things published by these traitors. Surely they are aiming at the funding money of donor organizations. But they tell the world something else. That’s why I say, the prostitutes standing alongside the Colombo streets have much more dignity than people like Sanjana Hattotuwa or Sunanda Deshapriya.

Now that with Shiral Lakthilake’s nomination in the UNP Colombo District list, the cat has been jumped out of the bag. We know who are the next candidates waiting in the line.

Re: Test Cricket ki yahi kahani....

2009-02-23T09:32:00.002+05:30

A comment I made on this post on Indian Cricket Blog "Arm Ball". Just re-posting for my own reference.

----------------------------------------------------

Dude! You seems to be having a great time for a sweet revenge!! Go on.. Enjoy your life, while you can.

Cuz it's never going to last forever, so that's why you need to tone down. These things might come down on your "so called" great Indian team, at any moment! Most probably by around 2011!!

Remember, apart from 1983; in all other world cups, India was an utter failure!!!! Now don't tell me World cup doesn't matter!!!

Talking about minnow bashing? India was the first test playing nation to be defeated by a non-test playing nation in an ODI . Bashed by minnows!!!

Then you guys were on cloud number nine, prior to World Cup 96. Huge haaaa hooooo for Azar's "unbeatable super power". Shattered dreams in Calcutta and/or Kolkatta! (Or have you changed the name of it once more???). I still remember Gawa-skar's boasting prior to the world cup. He wasn't even there inside the commentary box, after the match was won by SL.

Then you pathetic guys watched your neighbors celebrating the 50th anniversary of your own independence!

Largest score in a test match ever, is scored against India's name; scored by SL. Ya! you are right; we are good at minnow bashing!!!!

Oh! how can we forget the 2007 WC so soon?? The great cricketing nation in the sub-continent, thrown out of the world cup in the first round itself.

See a clear pattern in the above milestones of your cricket saga? In most of these agony to Indians, Sri Lanka was involved! We gave you the most powerful heart attacks in the history. Not Pakistan!!

Now don't tell me you were not upset by any of the above things!!!

Read this

how about this?

It's in the pyschy of the Indian cricket fans like you, that Sri Lanka is the greatest threat to your dominance in Sub-Continent cricket. So, I am not surprised to see a pathetic Indian sucker like you, enjoying a bit of pleasurable moments!!!!

How to Identify Traitors?

2009-02-23T07:49:00.001+05:30

A traitor will never scream “I am a traitor!”. Instead, they will tell you “I am one of you”. There’s a clear difference between a traitor and an enemy. An enemy will attack you fro m front. Easy to spot. But a traitor will never attack you from front. Difficult to spot. But then, how possibly can we identify the traitors within us, in this war against LTTE?

It’s difficult; but we can simplify it without much trouble. Here’s my formula for “how to identify a traitor, in this war against the LTTE”

A traitor will put the LTTE and the GOSL on the same platform, when expressing their views about the war. They will start talking against the brutality of LTTE. Then they will extend their criticism towards the GOSL. At the end, they will slowly try to build a case that the GOSL and LTTE are the two sides of same coin!

They will weep aloud, for the civilians trapped in the LTTE held area. Good! As humans we all should weep about those innocent people. But these traitors will keep their mouths locked about the innocent civilians killed by the LTTE, in government controlled areas.

LTTE attack in Eastern province? A traitor will say “East is suppose to be fully liberated. How can LTTE carry out any attacks in a fully liberated area?”. This question sounds reasonable and logical enough. But, the underlying psychology is fishy! They intend to enjoy the LTTE attacks in liberated areas. This is a one way their psychology gets exposed in their words.

They will advice you “don’t get carried out by the military victories”. And will further say, “we have to be mindful to identify the far reaching consequences”. And they will tell you “even if the LTTE it fully eliminated, the problems will remains”. This is not true. LTTE is a one problem, and there are certain other problems in this country. Eliminating LTTE is the only solution for the “terrorism” problem, and we all know that’s the #1 problem that we have to solve at the moment.

And this is an easy one. When LTTE do some suicidal adventures before their permanent extinction; if some one post a blog like this; you know which category they belong, out of the three categories of patriots, enemies, and traitors.

Here's a bonus entry...

A traitor will do/tell one of more of the above mentioned things, and then will follow up by saying "When we say these things, the extremists label us as traitors". That's their true identity speaking! They know they are doing traitorous things, and they know others can easily spot them. So they have a nice cover up line to hide behind; .... "There's no such rule as 'you are either with us or against us'"

Any other methods you can think of? Add as a comment!

LTTE gives the last opportunity for Masterbation. Dinidu De Alwis reaches the climax too quick!

2009-02-21T07:23:00.000+05:30

When the news of LTTE Air Attack in Colombo spread out; this is what Dinidu De Alwis had to blog about.

Quote:

Wait, so I thought the whole LTTE outfit is close to being defeated, and that they’re running like something that runs when they’re losing the war?

And inspite of all of this, two planes can come out of nowhere (and don’t tell me you know, cos you you don’t know jack), supposedly drop a bomb, and then disappear?

Ade, you’re fucking kidding me, right?

Do you hear the “tone” of a sucking LTTE ass licker who is fed by all the rich NGO’s headquartered in Colombo? A tone of a real traitor, who’s enjoying a tiniest of a victory to the tigers?

I wanted to see his eyes glowing in joy. Not even those Prabhakaran’s “off shot” sons in Wanni, will be jubilant to a level as this one did!

LTTE Air Attack in Colombo - Both Air Crafts Shot Down Succesfully!

2009-02-20T23:56:00.000+05:30

There had been a LTTE air attack in Colombo and surrounding areas. Two Air Crafts believed to be used in the attack, and a bomb had been disposed near Inland Revenue Department building in Fort. Reports from Colombo National Hospital say, a large number of casualties were admitted to the hospital, a short while ago.

Meanwhile a shortwhile ago, it was reported that one of the air crafts was shot down by Sri Lanka forces, near Katunayake. The other air craft is missing from the radar tracking, according to a military spokesperson. I was passing Thummulla area a short while ago, and witnessed the lighting of the air defence system, and the shootings. As at this moment, the air defence system over Colombo skies is inactivated, and we don’t hear any shootings. But the electricity is still disabled inside the City.

Just now I got to know that around 40 people were admitted to CNH, after the air bombing near Inland Revenue department.

Update: 11.27pm
1 dead from the blast near Inland Revenue Department. 43 admitted to CNH. The other air craft had been escaped to North. But where in North????

Updatee: 11.41pm

It wan't the bomb which did the damaged near Inland Revenue building. Air Defence system has managed to shoot down the air craft while it was flying over Colombo, and it was grounded near Inland Revenue building. Lakshman Hulugalle was reveling this information a short while ago.

Now both the LTTE air crafts are destroyed.

Update: 12.11am
I've changed the title of this blog post. LTTE no more possess air power.

Update: 12.44am

National TV (Rupavahini) just now released some videos of LTTE air crafts shot down this evening. Video footage of both air craft wrecks were shown. Below is few of still shots which I managed to get with my Cybershot. Not clear enough photos! I'm sure more clear photos of these LTTE air crafts will be released to media, very soon.

The body of the LTTE air craft pilot lieng on ground after shooting the air craft down, in Katunayake.

The wreckage of the shot down LTTE air crafts.

Photos of the LTTE air craft wreck courtesy of Rupavahini

Update: 1.03am

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakshe and Commander of Air Force visited the LTTE Air Craft wreckage site at Inland Revenue Department building, a short while ago.

There is a suspicion that the pilot of the LTTE Air Craft shot down in Colombo, is a foriegner. Police and the Air Force conduct investigations to figure this out. It is not a secret that LTTE had support from some foriegn country, for these air crafts and technology.

Update: 1.10
The two planes were tracked down all the way from north, as soon they were taken to the air. How ever, SLAF couldn't fire at them until they reach to Colombo. Aire defence system nera Colombo Harbour succesfully shot the first air craft, and it was grounded near the inland revenue department.

Reply to Groundviews by His Excellency the President of Sri Lanka and the leadership of the LTTE

2009-02-13T10:28:00.000+05:30

I found this hilarious "Dear Santa" type of "open letter" on Sanjana's Groundviews blog, and still can't stop laughing :-) Since, groundviews does not publish most of my comments on their blog (Freedom of speech!), I decided to publish this one on my own blog.

It is funny to see that they have purposely ignored the fact that, GOSL has already given all necessary facilities for the hostage civilians to flee to safe zones, while the LTTE is deliberately holding the civilians as a human shield. Their plea to the president is hilarious! I wonder if at least one of the authors of this "combined open letter" read the recent news reports. They have not gone into talk about specific incidents where LTTE carried out suicide attacks on civilians who try to leave the LTTE controlled areas. But, in the past we noticed how groundviews reacted to specific incidents where the civilians were affected by GOSL security operations.

All in all, we see the signs of a frustrated bunch of NGO businessmen, who are worried about their future revenue sources. Without the war in North, they can't re-sell their fuel quota to the LTTE! Without the war stories, they can't cheat the funding organizations to get their monthly remuneration packages.

BTW, I'm just curious what would be the reply letters would look like, if Mahinda and Prabha decide to respond to this letter :-)

Mahinda will read this and shiver in fear! "Oh my god! Sanjana's going to wreck our ship! Dallaaaas! Quickly reply to him saying I'll do what ever he wants me to do"

On the other side; Prabha will read the letter and smile. And will pick up the phone and dial the direct number of their Swiss headquarters. And will mutter to the phone "Hey, look here! Send few more bucks to those chaps in Colombo.... Looks like they haven't got enough these few days. Make sure they are paid well, or otherwise they'll write against us more seriously"

AP kills Sri Lanka-Civil War story

2009-01-29T12:53:00.001+05:30

Next time when you "worship" Western Media as the "holly truth" of the ongoing situation in Northern terrortories of Sri Lanka; please keep this one in mind!

http://www.topix.com/forum/source/newsday/TJ1GID3PIPT2AUO14

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20090129_01

At last!

2009-01-27T16:24:00.001+05:30

Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe today praised the President, Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers for the success of the military operations. - Daily Mirror

Now that the "first move" had been made by the person who "matters" most; shall we see some of the "locked mouths" to be opened? :-)

BTW, there were some funny comments on DM thread here.

S.B. Black Army of 100 Men and the Mysterious Attacks on Media in the South

2009-01-26T09:50:00.000+05:30

Today's newspapers reports a statement by Mr. S.B Dissanayake, saying that he is backed up for this election by a 100 men of a "black army", and his personal army is protecting him against any violence from the SLFP side. This is an interesting statement, because this is the first time I heard a politician openly admit that they have underworld gangs to support their election campaigns (Even though it had not been a secret for the general public).

If this is a true claim by S.B.Dissanayake, this adds another evidence to the suspicion of a possible opposition involvement in recent violent activities against media personnel in the south.

The present government is going to win this war, and there's nothing seems to be able to stop that at the moment. Of course the economy is screwed. Mahinda will face serious problems, after the war to bring back the economy on track. For that purpose, he will have to rely on lots of foreign aids for reconstruction activities in recently cleared areas in the north. If Mahinda could access to those foreign aids, the government will be in quite a relieved position, against possible economic meltdown in the country. Meanwhile from the opposition (and from the LTTE's) point of view; economy is the only and best trump card against the Mahinda's government. If the international community align with Mahinda's government; in reconstruction process after the war; both the opposition and the LTTE will lose their last hopes of toppling Mahinda's government. In that sense, it makes perfect sense for the LTTE and to the opposition, to carryout propaganda in the international scene, to degrade the present government and label Mahinda as a human rights violations. Attacks on medial personnel is a perfect way to do that, because as a norm, when you hit a media man, you can get an enormous publicity very easily. Because, fellow media men comes in for talk on behalf of the attacked individual, and that creates a huge buzz in the media across the world.

And the present situation has given the perfect condition for some of the Free Media Mudalali's to spend their annual vacations abroad. And they get the maximum usage of their vacation trips, by claiming that they have left the country because of death threats. One stone... many birds!

If you look at a few years into the future, two things are obvious. LTTE will never get a chance to raise their heads again, under this government or under Gen. Fonseka's leadership to the military. And the UNP will never going to win a general election, in at least another 10 years. Therefore, a strategically driven guerrilla organization like the LTTE, and a strategically driven political party like UNP will do their best to fight for their survival. It's not necessary for them to work together. But, the objective seems to be common. That common objective is, to damage the international reputation of Mahinda's government and block the foreign aids for reconstruction works after the war. If they achieve that objective, the government will be in a huge financial crisis after the war, and that will prompt the government to collapse.

People like Sunanda Deshapriya, who took part in similar conspiracies against Premadasa government in the past, are repeating their historical duties. Poor media men in this country, are blindly falling into this trap.

If You Are Not Feeling Guilty, Come and Join the Party!

2009-01-26T00:00:00.000+05:30

I am not feeling guilty...
Because I believed in this cause of action; right throughout the day it was started..
I further believed that, this is the only way forward to see an end to this cruel terrorism..
I am not guilty because I never let my faith die..

I'm not guilty, because I paid my heartiest respect to the soldiers who risked their lives; to make our lives better one's than theirs..

I am not guilty; because I never been traitorous enough to call our forces as “uniform clad brainwashed cronies”.

You might feel that, it's the “morons who light fire crackers to celebrate war victories”. But, the average Sri Lankan citizen who suffered this war for more than 30 years, are not educated geeks like you guys. They all are not graduates or MBAs. They were living in more terror than any of you who criticize their acts ; because they were the one's who were traveling in buses, and trains; the main targets of these ruthless terrorists. They have a right to light fire crackers! They have a right to celebrate it their own way! (I personally believe this fire cracker thing is good for the morale of the people. It brings people together)

Looking back on how this war progressed; there were “active supporters” of this war. And there were other “believers” who kept their hopes alive, despite all the resistance they had to face, from “talks will work” camp. I know these supporters and believers are not feeling guilty too! I know that they also are celebrating the victory today..

And there were those non-believers. Now they are forced by the situation, to believe in this. The impossible has become a reality. I don't know how guilty or not guilty they feel from inside; if they listen to their own hearts. I wish that they can surrender their egoistic feelings (which is quite a hard thing to do for their breed), and accept the fact that this was the right cause of action to deal with terrorists and the present administration “dealt it right”. If you can; come and join the party!

Of course there were “middle of the roaders” (A gender problem?). They now have to realize, there's no middle path in dealing with terrorism. Welcome to the party!

And there were some frustrated politicians . They feared that their party leader will lose the next 10 elections as well; if this government could end the war. They wished if this war could continue to few more years, until such time their leader comes into power and solve this “their way”. Typical thoughts of a politician; but not of a true leader. But inside their hearts, I know the true Sri Lankan spirit is still alive. No matter what party you support, you are truly qualified to celebrate this victory. Forget about your party politics for a moment. Let your true Sri Lankan spirit to speak to your heart. Would you join rest of the Sri Lankans for the celebrations?

Finally there were “Active Spoilers” of this humanitarian war. They played their all cards, to degrade the army, the political leadership, and the entire nation, just to earn a few more dollars (precisely; Euros) from their donor organizations. You did all your best; to get the attention of international community and paint a negative picture of our motherland. Even after the tigers lost their last stronghold in Mullaitivu, you are still trying it hard to turn it back for the tigers. Of course your name will NOT go to the history as “traitors”. Because, no one will remember you as a part of the history. To all you spoilers of Sri Lanka's war against terror; what I have to say is “you are not welcome to the party”!

If you tint your hair, not to look it like a Sri Lankan's hair...

2009-01-22T16:26:00.000+05:30

Well; you might probably be a Sri Lankan!

May Be I Was Wrong about National Identity...

2009-01-22T15:34:00.002+05:30

I am humbly delighted to see that I have inspired this many blog posts on kottu on the topic "You might be a Sri Lankan when..." with my last blog post. But I think I have made a big mistake in my original post! I have omitted out a one big value that we all Sri Lankans share in common! A unique Sri Lankan value which is being encrypted into our genes, for more than a few centuries. We Sri Lankans simply don't like to letting things go! We want to hold on to things that we possessed at a certain past time of our life, and we'll fight, defend, and argue for keeping that thing with us forever. It doesn't matter if we need it now, like it now, or don't use it anymore. But we just want to keep it with us! We don't want to lose it, and we will not let it go away from us. In some extreme cases, we might want to sit on it! (So that no one else can take it away from you).This is why we've been fighting this war against LTTE for 30 years now. Even though we don't have any plans for go and live in Killinochchi or Mullaitivu; we don't want to let it go to Prabhakaran. We want to hold on to it. Unitary state, resistance to power devolution! All of these things are in our genes. We don't want to let things go! Not an inch!Even though some people are labeling me as a Sinhala Buddhist Chauvinist; about an year ago I argued that Sri Lanka is not a Buddhist fundamentalist country, (And we have to make it happen!) and Sinhalese are actually not Buddhists (Or rather, there's no such race called "Sinhala Buddhists"). Now I can relate that post to this little concept of "letting go". Lord Buddha taught us to "let go" things, and asked us not to hold on to things, if we want to attain Nibbana. In fact, the path to Nibbana starts with killing your desires to hold onto things that you posses in your present life. Get rid of Thanha and Asha. But we Sri Lankans, has failed to live with that teaching. Forget about burning desires; we don't want to let go even an empty biscuit tin in our kitchen.We collect everything that comes into our eye site. We believe that these thing will become useful to us on one future day! Even if that day never arrives, we will keep these empty tins, and card board boxes by allocating enough space in our kitchen cabinets. Not very hard to understand, why Sri Lankan kitchens are bigger than the living room of the house. We are programmed to think like that. that's coded into the software of our mind.

Plastic water bottles had become a symbol of convenience across the world, during last two decades. For many countries, this is becoming a huge environmental threat, as millions of water bottles are thrown out as garbage. But we don't see mountains of plastic water bottles alongside Sri Lankan roads. Because they are safely stored in our kitchen pantries.

If we lend a weekend newspaper to a neighbor; we make sure that the neighbor will return it to us, no matter even after 1 month. We forget that the "news" in that newspaper is no longer "news" by that time. But we don't want to surrender "our newspaper" to the neighbor!

We might work hard to earn the PR of a developed country. Let it be UK, Canada or Australia. We spend all our wealth, time and effort to move to the land where the grass is greener. But, once we get it; we don't want to let our Sri Lankan citizenship go! No matter how much it cost, or how unlikely that we plan to return; we will hold onto our Sri Lankan citizenship, just because we "possessed" that identity on a one sweet day in the past. We just don't want to let our "Sri Lankan Identity" go!

We will embrace all sophisticated modern values of Brits, and Americans and try to imitate their accent and behaviors. We will do what ever they do. Halloween, Valentines day, Secretaries day, this day that day and some other day. Among Americans, we would do our best to show that "I am more American than you". We just "wannabe" like them! But,we get extremely annoyed when someone say "look here, you have lost your Sri Lankan Identity". And we try to justify our actions by saying, "This is the modern Sri Lankan Identity".

Yes I was wrong. All the people who commented on my last blog post and disagreed with me; were 100% correct. They all had a true Sri Lankan Identity, because they just wanted it to be with them. They just don't want to let go that identity. No matter how empty that identity is or how vague it is, no matter how much distant they are from that identity, they just want to hold on to that Sri Lankan identity which they possessed on a one sweet day in the past. Just like my grand mother didn't want to let go those empty biscuit tins in her kitchen. No matter how empty they are. No matter how useless they are. And no matter how unlikely that she's going to use those empty tins someday, she wanted those things to be inside her kitchen. Weldone everyone! You've earned your National Identity!

Confused About Your National Identity?

2009-01-19T23:37:00.004+05:30

Puzzled about your National Identity? Want to know what makes a real Sri Lankan? Take this test. This test is designed for those “lost souls” of mother Sri Lanka.

Talking about Malays, Muslims, Sinhalese, Tamils, and Chetties??? Have you ever been to any of their cultural festivals lately? Eaten together with them? At least inside Colombo, this very own city?

Or have you ever been to the remote towns and villages of Sri Lanka? Been to the famous Church fiest in Matara? A small town with less than a 1% catholic population? Have you seen how Bhudist girls and boys work together with catholic brothers and sisters of their town hood convent and church, day and night along, to make the church fiest a colorful one? How they welcome thousands of Catholics coming into their home town, from more catholic populated areas like Chilaw, and Moratuwa? Did you know that a Budhist rescued the sacred statue of Mother Mary of that church, on the Tsunami day? (If Sinhalese Budhists are so chauvinist as some of you believe; that person would have thrown away that 300 years old statue to the sea, without any second thoughts)

Have you been to Hambantota during Ramazan season? Is it only the Muslims who celebrate? Have you been to Kalutara during Vesak season? Is it only the Bhudists who walk around in street, watching pandols?

Have you been to Badulla or Nuwara Eliya? (Not to the Grand Hotel or the Golf Course). Have you seen Sinhalese and Tamils living in same line houses? Sinhalese married to Tamils?

Have you been to a funeral house of a soldier who killed in action? Have you heard what their families talk about? They want this war to be stopped. But not temporarily through a Norwegian brokered CFA. They are ready to give away another son to the Army; just to see an end to this separatism. Not to see their favorite political leader win the upcoming election.

Still don’t get what National Identity is?

Why did Sri Lankans consider Sir Arthur C Clarke as a Sri Lankan? A British born scientist, came to Sri Lanka and settled in Unawatuna, down South (Later moved to Colombo of course).

If you complaint, Sinhala Bhudist chauvinists are controlling the definition of “Sri Lankan National Identity”; tell me why Sinhala Bhudists love Jackson Anthony; a catholic, as an artist?

Why do people consider Tibetan monk S. Mahinda as Sri Lankan? American missionary, Henry Steel Olcott a Sri Lankan?

If examples from Sri Lanka doesn’t ring any bells, how about these?

Why do Americans consider Obama; a son of a Kenyan migrant as, American? (BTW, why don’t Obama consider himself as a Kenyan?)
Why do Indians honor Sonia Ghandi; a biologically Italian woman, as Indian?
Why do Indians honor Mahathma Ghandi; an Indian expat in South Africa for a long time, as a true icon of India?

Still confused? Let me explain you. National Identity is not in your language. Not in your blood either. It’s not in your religion. It’s not about where you’ve born or where you live. It’s not about who your father is or who your mother is.

It’s about something else. It’s about how well you “understand” and “respect” the collective programming of the mind, of people living in a certain nation. To understand, and connect with that collective understanding of the mind; first you have to be with them.

And obviously! You won’t find the signs of collective programming of the mind of Sri Lankan people, at Barefoot or at Barista outlets. Or at any of those night clubs, for that matter.

You won’t see that collective programming of the mind, on CNN or on Fashion TV. You won’t feel that collective programming of the mind in Beyonce music or Brad Pitt movies (Of course they are good entertainment. I enjoy them too).

To understand and, connect with that collective programming of the mind; you have to be in at least few of the places I’ve described above. Nuweara Eliya, Badulla, Matara, Anuradhapura, Kalutara, etc etc. You have to listen to Amaradeva Music, Sunil Perera Baila, Nalin Perera, Sun Flowers Salade, B&S’ music, and of course, Iraj’s hip hops!!. You have to have that “element” inside your body, to do a little bit of “Baila” to a Papara band playing in a Cricket ground. You have to watch local TV. Sirasa, TNL, Derana, Rupavahini. Chiththi, Maha Gedara, Praveena, Kaavya, Super Star, Dancing Star (Name few more!). Even if you don’t like them; you should know about them. Of course, this does not mean you shouldn’t watch American Idol or Bold and the Beautiful. I miss Baywatch a lot! (Can someone bring it back?)

Knowing who is David Cook or Jordin Spark, and where they were born, will add up to your general Knowledge. But, knowing who is Pradeep Rangana or Udesh Indula will make you Sri Lankan. It’s not just general knowledge.

A collective programming of the mind? Of course it’s about being “brain washed”. But, if you reject to be brain washed with the identity of rest of the nation; you are unsubscribing from the National Identity of that nation. Sad. But that’s how it works. It’s not VIC says so. Geert Hofstede says so.

This is what National Identity is all about. After all, this is how Sri Lankans are differentiated from Americans or Canadians. You don’t have to qualify all these tests, to identify as a Sri Lankan. But, qualifying only a “few” won’t do the job. I know how you feel now. But nothing else to do. You cannot change a country’s national identity, to match your identity. You have to change your identity, to match the identity of the country you live in. Like Sonia Ghandi did. Like Barack Obama did.

If you dare to take the challenge; be a Fidel Castro or a Mao Zedong, and try to change the National Identity of this country, to a one which match your ideology.

Prabhakaran's Horoscope

2009-01-19T10:40:00.002+05:30

Good job by Daily Mirror graphic guys! Prabhakaran's horoscope and health certificate. I think, someone should draw the horoscope of some NGO peace merchants as well. Their fate is going to be as bad as Prabhakaran's as soon the war comes to an end. The market for peace talksis zero when the war is over!

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How Significant Was Lasantha's Death to the Sri Lankan Society?

2009-01-17T23:57:00.003+05:30

I was trying to get an idea of the magnitude of effect of recent developments in the country, on some of the people I meet “offline” the blogosphere (rather Kottusphere). Specially the two incidents of “Sirasa Attack” and Lasantha's assassination. And also the liberation of Killinochchi and other military victories in the north.

Surprisingly, there was a clear “imbalance” of general opinion among these people, and the people I encounter on some of the Kottu blogs. The imbalance is; these people have not been “touched” by Lasantha's death at all. For them it was yet another “shooting” which happened in Colombo outskirt, and that's it! Rarely someone made any remarks that “88/89 terror era is back!” or “await for more Tyre Seya's next!” or anything close to that. They were much more concerned about “Sirasa Attack”, than Lasantha's death, but the most important topic among these people were “When will Mulaitivu fall to Army?”

I was thinking to myself, “why is it the reason these people not taking much account on Lasantha's death?” And it didn't take me much time to realize the reason. Lasantha was not a “household name” among these people. In fact Lasantha is not a household name in most of Sri Lankan houses. He was an editor of an English medium newspaper published from Colombo. And in Sri Lanka, English newspapers have a very limited circulation, outside Colombo. Thank's to it's classfied and job vacancies section, Sunday Observer sell a fair bit of share outside Colombo. But Sunday Leader was never been a newspaper popular among masses in Sri Lanka. (Of course it did sell better than some fictional bullshit written by some self proclaimed war heroes of the past)

In contrast; the profile of an average Kottu blogger is different (bias) than the people I encounter in my "offline" life. Foreign educated, never exposed to Sri Lankan masses, listen to American music, watch Hollywood movies (and write reviews), read only English news papers, hang out in upmarket places. Exactly the same profile of Lasantha Wickramatunga!

It is no wonder, why Lasantha was such a hero, and an idol among (some) Kottu bloggers. Lasantha was a hero among a limited social circuit; who read English newspapers, and out of that again a limited share of people who actually read Sunday Leader. For the masses of this country, Lasantha's death was not; and will never be a loss, as some people were deliberately trying to point out. It is insane, someone to compare Lasantha's death with likes of Premakeerthi De Alwis, or Vijaya Kumaratunga. I would rather compare Lasantha with Rohana Kumara; who was assassinated during CBK's regime (And as usual she was the one who were accused by so called free media activists). Both were editors popular among only a limited social circuit.

In essence, Lasantha wasn't doing a significant enough job to threaten the stability of Mahinda's government, which was going strengths to strengths in popularity among common public in this country, with the “unexpected” success in the war against LTTE terrorism. Lasantha's Sunday Leader was so insignificant publication, because no one really cared about what was written there for two reasons. 1) It wan't read by masses of this country 2) Even among the people who were reading it; majority knew it was yet another political propaganda paper (And it is totally ok, for someone to run a propaganda paper in a democratic country).

This brings us to a very important point, which most of the blind faithed followers of “anti-Rajapakshe” ideology (Now it has developed into an “anti-Fonseka” ideology in some cases) don't like to believe. That is; even if the Mahinda government is so ruthless and undemocratic as some people try to label it; there was no logical enough reason to kill an insignificant character like Lasntha Wickramatunga at all. Specially at a time, where the government is gaining it's lost popularty (due to cost of living and petrol prices) with the help of recent military victories.

And, this is where we have to raise the question “if it wasn't Mahinda's government, then who else badly wanted a dead body to do their politics?”. Someone on Indi's blog raised the point that “this assassination itself is a politically motivated act. I honestly think it was a MUST to make his funeral a political platform to fight against this anti-democratic tendency. ” As a reply to this argument, I posted below comment.

“What you are trying to prove here is; “someone” (as you propose us to do) can
make a “funeral” of some prominent figure in the society,into a political
platform to fight against the existing political power (Mahinda government), if
they “think” or “believe” that the government is anti-democratic. Then, if that
is possible to do (turining funerals into political platforms against existing
government), isn’t it possible some anti-government hands to “create a funeral”
and make it a political platform against the government?. And if you endorese
the idea that it is a good tendency that people turn funerals into political
platforms, then the type of people I am talking about are more motivated to
create more funerals like this one in the future. Because, such funerals will
continue to create them good platforms to carry out the politics they want. if
you look at this development; it is very dangerous for all of us. So, what we
have to do is not to burn dummies of Mahinda. But to be logical, and probe for
the facts. This is the “core point” of my post “politics over dead bodies”.

Now that the fall of Mulaitivu has become so obvious, we could expect some more mockeries like this, if above theory is held true (and I believe this is not only my theory, and it has been expressed as a theory by some more significant figures of the society as well)

In essence; Lasatha's death was sad, and it was totally unacceptable the way in he was assassinated. No one should deserve such a fate, jut because involved politics (or journalism backed by a political ideology). We will all miss he articles on many Sunday's to come.
But..
Lasantha's death was not a major blow to Sri Lanka's well being, as many people trying to highlight.
It will not make any major bad impact in the international scene; despite the desperate efforts of few pathetic email chain letter writers based in Colombo.
People will forget his name; as soon as the mass media come up with a “better selling” topic.
His name will be written in the history, alongside Rohana Kumara's name; not with Richard De Soyza's or Premakeerthi De Alwis's name.
As for the question “who killed Lasantha?”, I will not have an answer. I am still open to the theory of, it would have been the government, or someone backed by the government was behind this. But, because of the facts I've pointed in this post; I have a high degree of doubt about that theory....

Going Retro With “Jack-Point” Comments

2009-01-13T23:42:00.003+05:30

When going back on “retro mode” on my own blog, I found this interesting comment made by JackPoint on one of my blog posts published on 12th July 2007 (More than a year ago). Jack Point is a popular figure in Kottu commentsphere in particular, so I guess he might have told this same thing on more than one blog. In most of the time, he holds totally different ideas than me on the topics we discuss on Kottu, but I respect him as someone who comments with a clear logic (of his own), and not with mere emotions like some of the other people who are in the same opinions as he is. And I know, unlike some of the other bloggers with opponent ideas to me; Jack Point will take this in the right spirit.

Here is the interesting comment I wanted to flash back. Points in bold, are formatting by me, to emphasize some important areas of his comment.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“………..Coming back to the original point that war is being fought honestly, my father who retired from the army about 30 years ago, is of teh view that to eliminate the LTTE one must go after the "strong base" or the head. In his day, this was in India and out of reach but today it is in Killinochichi and the Wanni.

Fightingf in the East will not eliminate the lTTE they will lose ground but the problem will remain. HOWEVER fighting in the East does make good political propaganda - fo rthe government - bringing the aforementioned benefits to the parties involved. True- it does bring more land under government control but holding it is difficult and costly.

This is going to be a long drawn out campaign, which needs to be funded - and the tax base is not wide enough to support this level of conflict for any length of time (in my opinion).”

(In another comment on the same post he says)
“Basically, in a yearor two the government is going to run out of money to fight a war. If they continue, we go bankrupt.”

[MY COMMENT: It didn’t happen in an year and a half, so I don’t see it’ll happen in next 6 months]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This whole comment reminds me a small advice given to me by my mother. “Don’t cry until the soup is being finished cooking”. If you cry “hungry” before the soup is being totally cooked, you won’t get anything.

It is so funny to see how the history has responded to above belief held by people like Jack Point. Read once again the words in bold! The connection between those words! And then think what has really happened today.

It was more than an year ago, I sensed that “this government is doing the war RIGHT, despite their fucked up economic policies”. And I had the faith that they will some how fund this war, without letting the whole economy collapse as Jack Point predicted above. Now that it self is another credit to the government. They some how “muddled through” the economy, while making it a reality the “impossible war missions”

Once again! To all people who are pessimistic about our Army ending this war. Wait until the soup is being cooked. And, to those people who are worried about losing their NGO projects after the war; Hmmmmm… Look for some other lucrative markets. May be the Gaza region is a good place for you to start your “Ground(ed)Views!

After the War is Over: A Prophecy by Voice in Colombo!

2009-01-13T12:41:00.000+05:30

I'm in front of my Crystal Ball. I see the future. Probably! I see the war is ending soon, in another 2 months time. Prabha’s call for international intervention and other conspiracies are not coming to success. But, after the war, Sri Lanka is never going to become a heaven overnight. Terrorism is only a one problem, and we will solve that problem pretty soon with Prabhakaran’s death. I can see it in the crystal ball. But there are more challenges. Here are some of my prophecies on, what would be the “post-war situation” be. (I'd like you to read my post on topic "Let the Economy be fucked" before reading this one)

Positives

1) The entire North and East provinces will join into the Sri Lankan economy. There will be more demand for consumer goods, making all the companies more profitable, selling to the new markets.

2) Addition of Trincomalee port to Sri Lanka’s commercial shipping network, would boost export oriented industries in those areas. That will increase employment opportunities for the youth in those areas.

3) Tourism (Local) would be the first industry to boom rapidly. Local tourists from south, will start to travel to attractive locations in North and East. This will open new business opportunities for the locals in those areas (Guest houses, restaurants etc) and that will create new wealth within the provinces.

4) Mobile telecommunications will be the next most attractive industry to boom. There will be fierce competition among the mobile operators, to grab shares of North-East market, and Airtel will be in an advantage, because their intended strategy here in Sri Lanka is to “un tap virgin markets”.

5) Two-wheel and three-wheel vehicles will get an expanded demand.

6) When the competition among companies to “tap the Northern markets”, get increased’ more and more job opportunities will be created at all levels. Those who can speak both languages, will get the advantage of getting high perks.

7) Government will be able to cut the defense budget considerably, and invest in infrastructure development.

8) When the level of violence goes down inside the country, more foreign investments will come into the country. Not only to North-East. But for rest of the country as well.

9) When the confident of local tourists re-established; the tourism industry will start to market the new destinations to the international source markets.

10) Overall, people will have more money. They will forget other problems, when they have more money to spend.

Negatives (We have to watch out!)

1) When the opportunities are opening up, after the war more of the "half Canadians" and "Half Sri Lankans” will come back to Sri Lanka. Those cowards who left the country during war time, and criticsed the military actions of the government, will use their family connections to grab the booming opportunities. Those cowards who called our Army "Uniform Clad Brainwashed Cronies" during the time they've sacrificed their lives to end the war; will come back to Sri Lanka, and will re-establish themselves in this country.

2) This will create frustration among the true Sri Lankans, who kept their hopes alive, sacrificing their blood and relatives, to end the war.

3) As usual; the “privileged” society in Colombo, will grab the most attractive opportunities, making the locals in those areas and people who gave their lives to end the war, frustrated.

4) There will be a social crisis of excess voluntary soldiers of war. Soldiers coming back home from war, might be starting to involve in unlawful activities, mis-using their newly granted social and political powers. There need to be a proper management of dissolving the voluntary forces.

Challenges

1) We have to make sure the Tamil people will never opt for an armed struggled once again. We cannot do it by force, or by weapons. We have to give them “more” equal opportunities. They should get bulk of the new employment and entrepreneurship opportunities creating after the war. If they have money, most of the other problems will be minor issues!

2) There must be more Tamil speaking administrative officers in those areas. People should be able to do their work, in their own language.

3) Power devolution! Hmm… I believe, present provincial council system has it all. It’s only a matter of execution properly. But, this area is highly open for debate.

Things That Won’t Change after the War

1) Never expect government corruption to go down. Corruption will continue, no matter if it is a SLFP government or a UNP government.

2) Never expect our politicians to make “wise decisions” after the war. Idiots will be idiots.

3) Don’t expect a perfect media freedom. Government media will continue their white washing campaigns, while private media will continue to go shopping for their favorite political leaders.

4) And the last on! Ranil will never be the president of Sri Lanka! Even after the war!!

Uniform Clad Brainwashed Crony Grabs Another World Record!!

2009-01-13T02:04:00.001+05:30

Yes. That’s how some humanitarian “Colombuwans” call our army men! Ajantha Mendis, being an Army man; these “humanitarian peace lovers” might call Ajantha with that “title of honor”. But for us, Ajantha represents our country, in the sport which made this country “at least” a little bit proud in the international stage. The star of our Army men is at the highest point of all time! No one seems to be able to let our army men down, with their insults and offensive. Well-done Ajjaaa! Keep it up. You make our country proud. You make our Army proud. You make us proud. Here’s the full story on Cricinfo

OMG!! Who Designed www.citizens.lk??

2009-01-12T15:34:00.001+05:30

It's too bad a web design, to begin with! Loads of technical issues. I typed citizens.lk on my firefox browser, and found a "Page Error". The domain is not configured without the www sub-domain (Same issue with Sri Lanka's most visited news website www.dailymirror.lk). I quickly realized the issue, and re-typed the URL www.citizens.lk and landed on the below message. Is that all? Do you think, all I want to know about this program is your "mission" and then simply "continue" ? Where are the links to "More Info", and "Why I should Register?" etc??? Where are the contact information, of the organization which conduct this site? Where is the "mutual trust" that you need to build, before you request some one's sensitive information on a website? This will give a perfect smart idea to some "phishers", if there are any of them in Sri Lanka. Simply register few domains with misspellings of citizens.lk and you can collect all the personal information of people, without any trouble. And what can the phishers do with that information? I have read somewhere on the internet that organized gangs of robbers, rob houses in UK, based on a customer data base they stolen from a bank website!!!! What else can happen in Sri Lanka, if some set of robbers get these information? When I click on "Continue" I am taken to the registration form at http://www.citizens.lk/register.php Now this is an insecure page. A secured web page, to collect sensitive customer information should have a 128 encription, with a URL begining with https:// Above registration form is not https:// It's basic http://. Meaning, any "smart geek" can steal my personal information, while it's been transmitted from my computer to the defence ministry server! Basic security issues in web design. Needless to say; I decided not to register myself, due to this simple factor. There's no gurantee that my data is only accesible by the people who are intended to get it. There are no privacy policy stated. How about a guy working in this website project, decide to sell all the information to some direct marketing firm?? There are no any help menus for the information to be filled. For example, as some one living on rent; I am clueless whether I have to fill my temporary address or the permanent address (where I am no longer living at) as my location. In summary, this clearly appears to be something done in a hurry. No proper planning has gone into this project. For the people involved, it might be a simple thing. But for the people who are suppose to be register on this site; there are major security threats of losing their privacy. I am confident enough to register my self in the Defence ministry. But not through this website. This is losely designed, and highly insecured!!!

Let’s Raise Funds to Buy a CCTV System for Sirasa TV and Maharaja….

2009-01-12T10:41:00.001+05:30

Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage (One of the worst mouths out of 100 odd ministers we have), after a long time has said something meaningful!

He asks “Why the attackers of Sirasa Studios, were not captured on the CCTV system inside the complex?”

Actually this was a question came to my mind; the first time I heard the story of the attack. MTV/MBC claim that their facility at Depanama is one of the well equipped, state of the art TV studios in whole South Asia. Now, a CCTV system should be a basic requirement to have; to be qualified as such a state of the art facility. Even small pawn shops these days have CCTV. In the entire news coverage about this incident so far; Sirasa has never mentioned that the CCTV system was attacked, or disabled by the thugs, before they enter the studio complex. From my experience, a CCTV systems are manufactured to bare even a massive fire or a blast. The CCTV system at Minister Douglas Devananda’s office, captured the footage of the suicide bomber who blasted herself inside his office.

Now these are the questions!

1) Wasn’t there a CCTV system fixed at Depanama studio complex?
2) If there were CCTV; then where are the footages of that night?
3) If it was disabled or damaged by the thugs; why wasn’t it mentioned in the news?

I think lot of mysteries and blame games would be solved if, Sirasa can release these CCTV footages to police (and later to media).

Another question is; know that there are security threats for their facility complex in Depanama, why didn’t they kept a “hidden cameraman” (Not CCTV. A News crew) around the studio complex? I remember, they have sent secret cameramen to capture footages of Minister Alavi Maulana visiting some under world thug’s house, and to cover the recent incidents at Blood Bank. Why didn’t they keep a similar camera crew to cover themselves up, if they were expecting a security threat?

Minister Mervin Silva’s drama at Rupavahini was well captured on camera. Wasn’t there a single person inside that entire studio, to capture at least 1 thug out of these 20 came that night, at least on a camera phone? Not as motion. A snap shot???? Shame on the so called “News FIRTST” team!!!!

A Response to Dinindu De Alwis

2009-01-12T10:35:00.002+05:30

This is in response to the original post by Dinindu De Alwis on his blog. I would have posted this as a comment on his blog. But then again I thought, since he posted his original article as a response to one of my earlier posts; it's better to go as a new post.

My dear Dinidu; the 3 years old small kid,

Your blog posts, and anger against Rajapakshe's reminds me nothing, but my own "childhood" where I was fallen to the traps laid by people like Sunanda Deshapriya, Victor Ivon and Sunil Madava Premathilake, during early 90's where Premadasa was ruling. The people I mentioned above, used their pens to project a "dictator" profile over Premadasa, and we as little kids those days fallen to their traps. We lighted fire crackers, when we heard the news of Premadasa's death. But today, we know premadasa wasn't involved in Kobbekaduwa killing. He wasn't involved in Ethulathmudali killing. He wasn't involved in Clancy Fernendo killing. And of course he was not involved in his own assassination. We now know what was the invisible hand behind these killings, and who supported it.

Today, I don't blame you. You think this country was a heavan, before you were born 3 years ago. You are just a little kid (3 years old! Born in 2005), who is just blindly following the death traps laid by people like Sunanda Deshapriya, Kumar Rupasinghe, Pakayasoththi Saravanamuttu, and of course the invisible hand V P Prabhakaran. I don't blame you for your stupidity. You inherit your stupidity, from the social class you were born in. The class which believed the independence in 1948 was the worst thing ever happened to Sri Lanka. The class that still believe, it is a shamed to be ruled under a "sarong man" president coming from a southern rural village (Likes of Premadasa and Mahinda). The class which, Kumar Rupasinghe, Ranil Wickramasinghe, Sunanda Deshapriya, and Pakayasoththi Saravanamuththu belongs to. It's all in your ego! You still can't digest the fact that, Sri Lanka's power has shifted out of Colombo 7. You are in a "natural battle" to regain that power. You believe, it's still worth to regain that power, even at the cost of giving a part of this country to Prabhakaran.

I don't blame you. You are still a little kid. 3 years old as I said before.

You people are frustrated now. You can't go to western countries and settle there, because the white men treat you as second class citizens. You don't have a backbone to fight against them, for your fundamental rights there. That's why some "half Canadians" have settled back in Colombo, while still blaming this country as a "cursed land". If this is a cursed land, why don't they use their PR in Canada? Because, in Canada, they are treated as second class citizens. Now, when they come here; their social class has lost the powers they used to enjoy under JRJ and CBK. So they have a right to be frustrated.

For people like you, who never stepped out of Colombo, and catch a public train or a bus to see what's happening around in rest of Sri Lanka, these things cannot be understood. Colombo is not Sri Lanka. I'm just another voice in Colombo. Difference between you and me, is I know the big picture about Sri Lanka. You don't know. Because you are only 3 years old. You were born on 17th November 2005. You haven't had a time learn the history of this country! poor child. God bless you.

P.S.
I don't want to drag this debate any further :-) If you have any follow up comments, you can leave a comment here or write to me at voiceincolombo@gmail.com

Politcs Over Dead Bodies!

2009-01-10T16:13:00.001+05:30

Sri Lanka is popular for doing politics with dead bodies. When a political movement is directly heading down the barrel, due to various reasons starting from weak leadership to ever increasing popularity of the opponents; the best blessing they could have is a dead body to carry around the corners. Ranil’s UNP, at last found the dead body they wanted! Now they can drag their political fate to another few months forward, with the dead body of Lasantha Wickramatunga.

Assassination of Lasantha Wickramatunga is brutal, immoral, and unacceptable and should be condemned without any second thoughts. All though some extremist groups are justifying the killing of Lasantha Wickramatunga, pointing him as a “traitor” and deserved this fate; I don not personally believe and endorese any sort of violence against the people who hold different opinions in the society. Lasantha’s opinions were totally different from mine. His intentions were clearly questionable. In my books, he was never a genuine gentleman or an honest media person as many of his supporters trying to emphasize. His paper was clearly biased, and published with lots of hidden agendas. (Lasantha’s fans might have the most common arguement “It’s fair, because government media do the same for the other side”).

BUT NONE OF THE ABOVE REASONS COULD JUSTYFY THE BRUTALITY IN WHICH, LASANTHA WAS ASSASINATED!

It should not have been happened. It was a clear shame on our country. And now what?

As always is very common pro-UNP bloggers and a regional organizer (who self proclaimed to be “different”. Huh! What’s so different about being a UNP’er??? My grand father also used to be a UNP local government member!!!) has already conducted their part of the investigation, and concluded that “Mahinda Rajapakshe’s government has definitely killed Lasantha!”

They cannot be blamed! They are just blindly following their “backboneless leader”. Ranil Wickramasinghe was so depressed by the recent progress the government is making in the war front, and he saw it is definite that the upcoming elections will add to his “never ending series” of election losses. For a hopeless person like that; the pre-dawn attack on Sirasa Station and the killing of Lasantha was the ideal New Year gift. Now he has something to shout at, to degrade the recent progress in the war front.

The Pro-UNP Blogosphere

The Pro-UNP Blogosphere was completely silent during fast few months, about the progress our forces were making against the terrorists. Indi, Dinidu De Alwis, Ajith, and most others. They were shattered by their prediction that this government will never going to win this war against LTTE.

They first said, government will collapse (due to economic reason) if they continue operations in the East.

Once the East was liberated, they said “What’s in East? Go and attack Killinochchi and Mulativu!”

When the war in North progressed, they predicted “Government can’t afford anymore on the war. LTTE will do everything to defend Killi, so government will run out of funds before Killi falls to Army”.

Once the Killinochchi was captured, the dreams of these pro-UNP bloggers seems to be shattered to pieces. The “dream” of Mahinda Rajapakshe, that most of these people (along with Prabhakaran) thought that would never come tru; has come true!! Now they say “Government will never be able to capture Prabhakaran”

Now they have the concession of Sirasa incident and Lasantha’s killing.

Dinidu De Alwis calls the soldiers of Sri Lanka Army, as “uniform clad brainwashed cronies” He forgets, that it is because of these “uniform clad brainwashed cronies “ that it is possible for him to live his comfortable life in Colombo, without being killed by a Claymore. Or may be he won’t be killed. (LTTE never kill the people who support them!).

And, UNP Bandaragam Organizer has re-done the lyrics of a popular Sinhala Song, praising the efforts by armed forces of this country, as this!

These are the clear signs of frustration, about disadvantage they get politically; by the victories the armed forces are gaining. These traitors are damn enough to disgrace the soldiers of our army, who are fighting a selfless war. Of course for a salary. But, to take the risk of losing your life, just to earn a 5 figure salary is not easy.

Clearly these people are now completely in sane. They see that LTTE will be soon eliminated from this country, and that will create a remarkable point in the history of this country. Clearly, the people will continue to admire the “leader” and his party, who rescued this country from terrorism, and it will make the life difficult for Ranil and his supporters to come to power. This is the psychology working inside the bloggers like Indi and Deane too.

How Does this Link the the Present Situation of the Country?

Prabhakaran’s “Heroes Day” speech this time was “begging” to the international community, to intervene in Sri Lanka and rescue the tigers. The word “International Community” was used over and over again, in his speech. It’s funny that the pro-UNP’ers (Including the above mentioned bloggers) are now saying the similar things. “Sri Lanka need international intervention”.

If International intervention is the objective of tiger leader; attack on Sirasa station and Killing of Lasantha are two good reasons for an international intervention, based on press freedom and fundamental rights.

Now who wanted an international intervention? Clearly the LTTE and UNP.

By killing Lasantha, and attacking on Sirasa, who will get the benefit? The people who wanted an international intervention.

These are the questionable areas! The government is in a clear advantage (politically) for next few elections against the UNP, with the popularity they gained from victories against terrorists. Terrorists are clearly getting defended. So, why should a government with 110 ministers with atleast a brain cell each for one of those, should do a idiotic acts like attacking Sirasa or Killing Lasantha?

The way things are progressing, we can clearly see a connection of Prabhakarans call for “international intervention” and the two recent attacks on Media. We could expect similar things to happen in next few weeks too. And we could expect, people like Ajith, Indi and Dinidu continue to write their “blind faith” blog posts, without knowing what’s really happening around; just cool down their boiling “Green Blood”.

To end this note, I would like to add some more “future events” to the list of 10 events Bandaragama Ajith has posted in his “not so different” blog.

11) Thissa Attanayake will conduct a press conference and say Lasantha was killed by Mahinda

12) On Monday, the funeral organizers will bring the coffin of Lasantha to a high security zone, without prior approval from the authority. When they are refused to enter, they will riot.

13) If possible, they will make sure another few people get killed or injured in those riots

14) Then Thissa Attanayake will provide fake documents saying that “we had the authority to take coffin from that road”.

15) Poor Lasantha’s body will become, yet another “political object” for Ranil to gain a little bit popularity.

Prabhakaran's New Song: It must have been war, but it's over now!

2009-01-05T10:54:00.004+05:30

If you loved "It must have been love" by Roxette, you would loe this one too!

Lay your weapons, on the ground..
Leave the cyanide on the floor..
I wake up suddenly, is there a silence...
In the bunker..... and all around

Shoot me now..... I close my eyes
And run away...

It must have been war, but it's over now
We must have been good, but we lost it somehow
It must have been war, but it's over now
From the moment we lost [Killinochchi], till the cadres run out

Make believing we're together
That I'm sheltered by a civillian sheild
But in and outside I turn to water [In the Indian Ocean]
Like a shitdrop in your arse

And it's a hard winter's day
I run away...

It must have been war, but it's over now
Ealam was all that I wanted, now I'm living without
It must have been war, but it's over now
It's where the pee flows, it's where the fart blows

It must have been war, but it's over now
We must have been good, but we lost it somehow
It must have been war, but it's over now
From the moment we lost [Killinochchi], till the cadres run out

Lyrics of the Original Song is here

Blast in Colombo - Airforce Headquarters

2009-01-02T17:23:00.003+05:30

A massive blast heard in Colombo. unconfirmed reports says a suicide LTTE attack near Airforce Headquarters (Near Trans Asia Hotel)

A suicide blast occurred opposite the Sri Lanka Air force office near Trans Asia Hotel in Colombo a while ago. Several have been injured, says SLAF spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara. - Update Via Ada Derana

Colombo National Hospital is receiving casualties of the suicide blast near Trans Asia Hotel / Airforce Headquarters

More than 30 people admitted to the Colombo National Hospital. A supporter of the suicide bomber said to be captured by the public around (unconfirmed)

Sunanda Deshapriya Exposed!

2008-12-24T17:50:00.001+05:30

Voice in Colombo had been a strong critic of so called "Free Media Activist" Sunanda Deshapriya, for a long time and once again the time have proven VIC was always correct! Lots of critics of me (on Kottu.org and off Kottu), labeled me as a pro-Rajapakshe, and I am a mud slinger at NGO activists like Sunanda Deshapriya. But the truth has now been reveled! Sunanda Deshapriya has been sacked (or resigned) from the NGO "Maha Gedara"; the CPA, on grounds of "Financial Misconduct". What is reported is, a fraud of of Rs.200, 000 belong to the Centre For Policy Alternatives.

I have not seen any response on Groundviews.org on this issue as yet, which is unofficially the official blog of CPA, where Sunanda Deshapriya was a regular contributor.

This must be taken as another great eye-opener for us about the "real faces" of so called "humanitarians" and "peace lovers". There's only one thing motivates these people. It's not "peace" or "marmony". Money Money and More Money.

CPA chief Paikiasothy Sarawanamuttu has come to save Deshapriya's face by covering up the incident as a mere "resignation". Paikiasothy Sarawanamuttu himself is not a saint. At the end of the day, there's no difference between politics in Sri Lanka an NGO activism. You eat the shit together when it is tasty. But when one has to vomit the shit; rest will become saints over night.

Like to know Voice in Colombo's opinions about Sunanda Deshapriya? You should read these old posts as well!

The Lesson Given by Rupavahini Staff, to Sunanda Deshapriya and the FMM

Free Media in Sri Lanka. A Reality or a Myth?

Top 10 Extremist of Sri Lanka

Let the Economy be Fucked!

2008-12-11T10:47:00.001+05:30

Yes. I mean it. Opposition leader Ranil Wickramasinghe has once again called for a "broad national alliance" to come forward to safeguard the economy of this country, and he says only the UNP can guide Sri Lanka towards economic prosperity. May be true enough. But WTF? After 3 decades of fighting, we are almost near the finishing line of the raise against the LTTE, and at this point of time, no body really cares about the economy, except for a few extremely individualist opportunists, who think only of the size of their tummy, and a few NGO and INGO nuts who are scared about to the worst nightmare of their lives; "end to this war".

I'm serious! The selfish NGO and INGO idiots are scared about their "job security" and, they know if the war comes to an end; they will lose all foreign grants for their projects. So, the best option for them is to spoil the military operation, and turn everything back to square one. The UNP, on the other hand; knowing well that they will never be able to come to power for next 10 years, if the war comes to an end during Mahinda regime; trying their best to put the breaks on present government.

The best "buzzword" for all these evil forces to "sell" these days is ECONOMY. The fucking economy is bad these days, everywhere else in the world. If the war continues for another 10 years, what the fucking benefit that you can gain from having just an "average economy" during these recessionary period?? So, the best this country can now do is, to let the economy to be what it has been for last 3 years, and fully focus on getting rid of these blood thirst terrorists from this country. My guess is, just for another 4 months!!! After that, we can think of an "above average economy".

Think of this! Ranil is just an average man. This is not the time to play "average". You have to go for extremes, and get the best results. You can't do "business as usual" at the same time "fighting against terrorism to the maximum".

So let the economy be fucked, for another 4 or 5 months. I remember some people boasted (with comments on this very blog) that this government cannot afford to continue this war for a long, when the Mavil Aru battle started. Many pundits said, Mahinda's government will collapse, just because of they cannot afford for the war. They predicted Sri Lanka's economy will fall to hell, within just few months. But despite all those predictions, we have come to "kissing distance" to tiger HQ in Kilinochchi. Now who want to believe these predictions of "falling economy" anymore? Who want to turn back from here?

I repeat! Let the economy be fucked. Let the fuel prices to rise. Let many more people lose their jobs. At least our next generation will have a better future. They will have better fuel prices. They will have better jobs. They will enjoy a "thundering economy", not just an "average economy" which Ranil and Ravi are talking about. Don't be selfish. Be ready to sacrifice your present, for a better tomorrow. That's how Japan bounced back from World War II.

We waited for nearly 2 years, since Mavil Aru battle. Despite all opposition allegations, our forces has done the "best job ever" in fighting against LTTE. Let's just wait and see for another 5 months! Don't let the evil forces to turn it back. Don't let the vicious circle of party politics, ruin this country any further.

Pass this message on! Re-post it if you want. Forgive me for bad English!! It was written in a hurry.

When Will UNP Learn a Lesson?

2008-12-09T10:57:00.003+05:30

It looks like enough is not still enough for the UNP working committee. They have met yet again, and come up with yet another stupid decision, just to save one man's never ending quest for attain supremacy. WC has appointed, Karu J as deputy leader, and Rukman Senanayake as "Assistant Leader". Poh! WTH? Why do you need so many deputies and assistants to lead your party? Face the simple truth. Leader is not strong enough! So why don't you simply get rid of your weakness, and carry on?

When JR won the election in 1977, he didn't have so many deputies, assistants, or "chairmen", to back him up. When CBK toppled the 17 year old UNP regime in 1994, she was not even the leader of her party. Mahinda won the election in 2005 again, without even being the leader of his party. So, what's the missing ingredient for Ranil's UNP? Nothing else! It's just plain lack of "Charisma". In plain Sinhala language "Pita Konda".

While innocent UNP supporters in rural areas are willing to give away their lives, to form a UNP government again, the stupid monkeys of Sirikotha are providing jokes to the nation. Sajith Premadasa cornered to a desert. Pretty faces like Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, Sujeewa (THE ACTOR), and Sagala Rathnayake, are given un-due authority within the party. Who are they really kidding?

This party, who ruled our country for more than half the years after independence, now is heading straight down the drain. Funny thing is they don't accept it! With all these things happening; Thissa Attanayake boasted yesterday that the budget will be easily defeated. At the end of the day, government won it by 42 votes majority! Now, 42 is a huge difference, in a parliament where there's only 225 MP's! My dear Thissa Atte!!! You are the greatest joker ever born on this earth, after Charlie Chaplain...

Scheduled Posts Testing

2008-12-08T10:30:00.000+05:30

Testing scheduled posts option on Blogger.

If Sirasa TV is Allowed Sending a Reporter to the Northern War Front…

2008-12-04T23:53:00.002+05:30

UNP parliamentarian Lakshman Seneviratne speaking in the parliament today, questioned the government; “why Sirasa TV is not allowed to send a reporter to the war front, for bring

independence reports from the military operation?” He said, Rupavahini and ITN are having reporters working with the forces in action, but the common public do not trust those two channels any more. According to him, Sirasa TV is a better reputed channel among the public, so it is not fair for not allowing to have one of their own reporters in the war frontier.

Listening to his comments, I tried to visualize what could be the situation if Sirasa TV allowed sending their own reporter to the war front, and send back live reports.

Scene # 1

“Await. Next, Sirasa TV War First. March to Killinochchi. Brought to you by Saw kichi kichi bola saban”

[A series of commercials]

Then, the reporter starts to speak, with the war action going on in the backdrop. He go close to a soldier, who lie down on the ground and shooting at the enemy.

Reporter ask “Malli ta me welawe monwada hithenne. Mona wage hengeemak da ethi wenne?”

The soldier turn to the reporter and say “Mata thowa mara gena kanna hithenawa yako!”.

The reporter turn back and go to another soldier, and ask “Malli kemathima sinduwa mokakda? Apita puluwan Diganthaya program eke malli ge illeema pracharaya karanna”

The soldier says “Mage ekama illeema ara kaala kanni Ran Depaya nawaththala daanna kiyana eka”.

Scene # 2

The reporter goes to a camping site, where the army commanders are discussing about their strategy for next few days. They talk about how to approach the enemy terrain, without letting them even sensing and dispose a surprise attack on the enemy front line, and destroy a bunker base where tiger leader is suspected to be hiding in.

Commander notice the Sirasa reporter is also sitting among his troops, and ask “What are you doing here?”.

Reporter replies “I am from Sirasa. I am a reporter”.

Then the commander asks “Who let you to come here? This is suppose to be military secret”.

The reporter says “I am a media person. I have a right to go and be in anywhere in this country, and report anything that happen in this country”.

The army man asks “Who gave you such an authority? God Almighty?”. Reporter says “No. Sunanda Deshapriya gave it to me. He’s the God Father”.

The army commander does not say anything. But he thought to himself “So, why don’t you go to Prabha’s bunker and, report what’s happening there?. Isn’t that a part of this country?”

Scene # 3

Suddenly on the Sirasa TV we see an interruption to the normal Ran Depaya programs. A breaking news is coming in!!!

“Here’s a breaking news on Sirasa News First. 57^th Division of Sri Lanka army and the Sri Lanka Air Force are going to conduct a joint attack targeting the secret bunker base where tiger leader is hiding in. The Air Force will launch an air strike, tomorrow morning at 6.00am, targeting this bunker base. Then, at exactly 7.12am, the army will start marching towards the bunker, before the tiger leader escape from their. Stay tuned to Sirasa News First, to get the latest news from the Killinochchi war front. We are the first to bring you this news, and no one else can beat us! We are the first, and we are the best. All the rest are behind us” [News anchor, continue the usual boasting]

Meanwhile in the secret bunker base; tiger leader is watching Ran Depaya. And we all know, Prabhakaran is a great fan of Mahagedara. He thank his favorite channel for breaking this news, and immediately change his hiding location.

Ok! All these things might not sound real for you, but couldn’t this be the logical reason why the government should not allow Sirasa in the war front? What else funny things could Sirasa do? An SMS contest to win gold chains worth 1 million?

Why worry about the CPC Sri Lanka oil hedge Scam?

2008-12-03T08:40:00.000+05:30

[Re-posting an anonymous chain email circulating around]

Firstly, all patriotic Sri Lankan are shocked by the biggest foreign exchange scam in the history of the country with a lead foreign bank making use of the poor risk management skills of the chairman of CPC.

Nationalistic Sri Lankans are shocked and traumatized due to the following reasons.

What is the impact?

1.My country's foreign reserves will shrink by a massive USD 400 million.

With USD 400 million the government can provide the entire country 100% FREE fuel for 45 days.

2.With USD 400 million, I can fund the war for more than 3 months.

3.With USD 400 million, I can provide the population of 19 million a subsidy of Rs 2,300 each month.

This includes for you and me.

4.My country has never been in need of foreign exchange more than now.

Recently, our foreign exchange position has depleted from USD 3.5Bn to USD 2.5bn due to the intervention by Central Bank to maintain rupee stability.

5.The biggest financial challenge for any Country amidst the on-going global financial crisis is to save the own foreign exchange.

Not to pay for a scam.

6.If we lose USD 400 million, then the US Dollar against rupee will move from 110 to 125.

The country will go into an economic crisis and this will be the starting point.

7.Why not spend the USD 400 million, we can fund the new port or the coal power plant projects.

We do not even get USD 300 million of foreign grants every year.

How Did CPC get exposed?

This was started by Standard Chartered Bank.

SCB operates in more than 65 countries and was awarded with the Global Energy Risk Innovation Award for beginning this transaction in 2007 in Sri Lanka.

This indicates no other country was stupid to buy such hedge products except Sri Lanka.

SCB started selling unfair deals using unethical means (explained later).

Later Citibank and Deutsche and Commercial also followed the party influenced by the greed for profits – "why not we also make money." was the desire also for these banks.

The smart Bank of Ceylon and HSBC refused to enter into such agreements as they understood the unfair structure.

Here are the reasons why it is unfair deal and why we should feel sorry for the Government.

You decide whether you would enter into such a structure or even gamble against such odds.

This is only a financial instrument and not a contract to buy oil.

It is a huge wrong gamble that oil price will only go up up up and never down.

The hedge was one sided in favour of the bank – meaning there was NO floor for CPC to protect the down sided risk but, with a nice cap to protect the banks risks.

Unfair, unfair and this is not even a gamble but a cheat.

2.Any benefits the banks pay only for 2 months but, CPC has to pay banks for 12 months.

Sounds stupid but, it truly happened.

Again, not a gamble but, a cheat structure.

So, if oil prices went up even double, CPC gets peanuts USD 3 Million per contract.

Amazing isn't it?

So, how can CPC say if price went up I would get the blame for not hedging???

3.CPC pays for double the quantity hedged, if price goes down.

Whereas the bank pays only for half the quantity hedged, if price goes up.

Have you heard of such deals before?

4.Banks maximum exposure is USD 3 (THREE) million per transaction and CPC's unlimited, as much as USD 400 million.

You decide if this is a good deal!

5.Finally, the deal is CPC paying for double the quantity, for 12 months with no floor to cover the down risks.

For the bank, its half the quantity, for two months with a cap on the upside payment.

This is not gambling but cheating.

Because, CPC is betting on a card pack where all the cards in there favour are removed from the pack.

6.This structure was called zero cost.

Actually the banks should have paid an up-front premium to CPC for entering into such transactions.

Alternatively, the banks have reported more than US dollar 35 million (3.6 billion rupees) in profits from such transaction and the head offices of these branches have earned more than USD 52 million. (5.4 billion rupees.)

Central Bank and published financial records will indicate that these banks have already repatriated more than 27 million dollars during the past 9 months from the country to their head offices.

And the big payments have not started yet....SLR 40 billion.

How Did CPC get scammed?

Good question and we all wonder why?

You decide, if these are ethical practice and good governance.

1.The Chairman of CPC and a top decision maker travelled to Singapore, Dubai & USA several times on first class.

The tickets were purchased by the foreign bank.

The CEO of the foreign bank also joined them during these visits for entertainment and the travel never related to do with hedge.

Although Mr. Asantha De Mel told recently at a press conference that he travelled globally to learn about hedging.

Dubai and Singapore are the most entertaining places in the world and you can imagine the fun.

It's a shopper's paradise with lots of other activities.

2.The expenses during the travel were millions of rupees for entertainment plus – plus –plus.

These were paid locally and also via the foreign branch offices.

A scrutiny of the local bank records will reveal this.

One of the marketing head responsible for selling this product in a foreign bank is the local pimp to the foreign CEO.

He was given a handsome bonus including a vehicle for Rs 25 million, which he even travels today.

Additionally, he was promoted as Head of the Corporate structure despite his own records for fraud in the bank.

3.Accounts were opened to the local decision makers in Singapore (Orchard Branch) and Dubai (Al Mankhool) which is the usual practice to say thank you for very large deals by international banks..

As a matter of fact government officials were employed by the bank.

4.The bank not only employed government officials but also their family members.

Miss Stephanie De Mel the daughter of the Chairman of CPC was provided employment at the Standard Chartered Bank dealing and Forex room a highly restricted area.

The Petrol hedge product was developed in this room.

Central Bank can verify this.

5.The losses started to build up in July 2008 and we all know that the derivative contracts are mark to mark on a daily basis by the banks and it is also a regulatory requirement.

However, the banks did not inform and advise CPC to exit timely given the greed to grapple extensive profits and bonuses for CEO.

6.It is industry knowledge that a few officers who had patriotic feelings towards the country raised the unethical practice within the bank.

But, these employees were treated un-fairly and terminated without any reasons and justification.

A few of these employees have filed litigation.

More Violations!

1.There are violations to Central Bank directions and guidelines on derivatives.

2.The Sri Lankan cabinet never approved this transaction.

It was also mis sold to the cabinet and the Cabinet never knew about the unfair structure and the exposure to CPC.

3.The Attorney General Approvals were not obtained for signing the any documentation including the ISDA Derivatives Contract..

4.The Board of CPC did not know the facts or approve the transactions.

5.The Central Bank did not know the facts or approve the transactions.

The situation now!

1.The CPC is exposed to payment of USD 400 million.

CPC is defending the banks, see why above.

2.The CEO's of the bank are putting pressure on the government, Central Bank and CPC to pay.

If CPC fails to pay, they will loose their jobs.

No one has interest about the country.

3.The CEO's of the banks are pushing to re-structure the debt claiming this is sovereign risk and willing to provide discounts and hair-cuts.

This is not sovereign risk as the Central Bank & Treasury did not approve the transaction.

It is not like a loan or bond.

It is a speculative instrument that has gone wrong like in the USA.

4.If restructured, it will only serve to regularize the scam and still hundreds of millions of $ will have to be paid.

Central Bank should declare transaction NULL & VOID.

The foreign banks are attempting to tarnish the image of the country by putting fear that this is sovereign default.

It is not.

5.Some patriotic citizens are expected to file a fundamental rights case.

The legal fact!

1.CPC need not pay a single penny since this was miss selling.

2.There is ample evidence for miss selling.

3.There are ample court cases where court never favored mis selling and have pronounced that these transactions are null and void.

There are legislative laws in the UK, USA, Canada, Singapore and various other countries against such acts to protect governments and its citizens.

Can the foreign Banks help the country for future foreign Debt?
The CEO's of foreign banks are putting undue pressure and fear on the government and the Central bank saying that this is a sovereign default and the government will not be able to raise any debts in the future.

1.The current global financial crisis is expected to continue for atleast for the next two years.

In this situation several foreign banks are getting bankrupt and in fact, the governments are helping them with bail out plans.

2.Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank shares have crashed by over 60% and they are looking for help for themselves to survive from governments.

They have no liquidity and risk appetite.

3.The three foreign banks involved in this transaction have no commitment to the soils of Sri Lanka. The proof is that all of them do not have a single branch outside Colombo although they have been milking the country for over 100 years.

4.The recent debts raised by the foreign banks are in fact, international syndicate loans and these banks only acted as brokers and there participation is less than 5%.

The Government can do the same structure with other local banks as well as other foreign banks.

5.In the present global financial crisis and Sri Lanka's low credit rating, it is anyway not possible to borrow more overseas at acceptable rates.

So, better save the reserves you already have.

6.Why should the government pay USD 400 million which had no benefit to the country to repay a new USD 200 or 300 million of debt.

First, save what you have in your hands.

What should the Government Do!

1.Appoint an independent committee to investigate into the mal practices.

2.Central Bank has started investigation but, there is severe external pressure on them to close their eyes.

3.The Bribery and Corruption Department and the CID to investigate.

4.Legally punish for the offense and save the country's foreign exchange.

5.Do not allow the opposition parties with vested interest to take advantage and include the government also a party to this scam.

Government didnt know.

6. Do not allow the foreign banks to take shelter under sovereign risk.

This is not sovereign risk but mis selling and scam.

Standard Chartered was involved in a similar case (Harshad Mehta) in India in March 1992.

The Government of India took a serious stand against unethical practice and Sri Lanka should do the same.

We should communicate to the international world that we cannot be taken for foolish financial rides.

7.Take serious action against any institute, person that try to tarnish the sovereign image of this country to shelter from mis selling. We are a trustworthy honourable country.

8.The Government should not under any circumstance agree to any re-structure or hair-cut thinking this is sovereign default.

The Government has no obligation as per proven case laws to oblige for mis selling and corrupt deals as per international laws and practices.

If you love your country pass this on to put pressure to government not to pay out our precious dollars on this treason scam

THIS IS WRITTEN BY AN INDUSTRY EXPERT WITH EXTENSIVE KNOWLEDGE ON HEDGE PRODUCTS AND EXPERIENCE IN FINANCIAL SERVICES BOTH, LOCALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY WITH THE INTENTION OF SAVING THIS COUNTRY'S FOREIGN RESERVES AND THERE BY BUILD A BETTER FUTURE FOR ALL THE CITIZENS OF THIS COUNTRY AND THE FUTURE GENERATIONS.