Editor of The Sunday Leader, Mr Lasantha Wickrematunge was murdered by unknown assassins a few days ago. We denounce the killing of Lasantha in strongest terms. As any other human being, Lasantha’s life was precious and he has a RIGHT to live.
Having said that, we should look at the post mortem events took place after the death of Lasantha. He was a strong critic of the current government and a very influential member of the inner team of the opposition leader, Mr Ranil Wicramasinghe.
We Sri Lankans have a habit of crediting each and every unsolved killings to the government. More specifically, to the president himself. This trend started with Mr R.Premadasa and continued through the presidency of Mrs Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaranathunge, to date. Therefore just after Lasantha was attacked, every Tom Dick and Harry was pointing fingers at HE The President, Mr Mahinda Rajapakse!
Nobody expected what followed next. Mr Rajapakse came up with a story of how he mended fences with Lasantha and how they became bests of friends AGAIN! Not only that, Mr Rajapakse told the media that Lasantha was his mole in UNP!
Few days later, Lasantha’s new wife, Mrs Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrematunge wrote an article to The Sunday Leader. This is what she wrote:
Immediately after Lasantha's death, Rajapakse went on every possible television channel to demonstrate his close proximity to the Editor - President Mahinda Rajapakse said he had been invited to Lasantha's wedding on December 27, 2008 and had even invited the newly weds to Temple Trees for a meal. An invitation he claimed they had allegedly accepted.
Just last Wednesday (14) President Mahinda Rajapakse at a media heads and publishers meeting especially convened for the purpose was to even accuse The Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge of being an informant.
[http://www.thesundayleader.lk/20090118/POLITICS.HTM]
If you read between the lines, the wife of Lasantha NEVER tells us that they have NOT invited HE the President for their wedding!!! What she says is :
“President Mahinda Rajapakse said he had been invited to Lasantha's wedding on December 27, 2008 and had even invited the newly weds to Temple Trees for a meal. An invitation he claimed they had allegedly accepted”.
Why not Mrs Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrematunge tell us the readers CLEARLY that it was NOT TRUE? Or is HE the President was really invited to the wedding and he is still having his invitation card???
What Mrs Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrematunge tells us after that paragraph is SHOCKING:
“It is true that Lasantha and Mahinda Rajapakse had been friends for over 20 years. But it was only recently that the two had begun meeting again - and that too at the insistence of Rajapakse”.
Hmmmm…. Even until his death, Lasantha was accusing HE the President as the most corrupted President we ever had. Not only that, Lasantha has hinted countless times that Mr President is directly responsible for the murders of Mr Raviraj, Mr T.Maheswaran and numerous others. For ordinary citizens of Sri Lanka, this type of behavior, ie Running with the Rabbits and Hunting with the Wolves is NOT ACCEPTABLE.
Without knowing the damage she is doing, poor Mrs Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrematunge go to the town:
"Lasantha never went for the monthly editors meetings convened by the President's Office but for the last couple of months before his death he had visited the President's House for dinner - in the presence of two friends".
Not bad for the champion of the people eh? In the morning, accuses the President as a thief and a killer in the paper and go and have dinner with him in the evening???
Mrs Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrematunge trying to “rescue” the image of Lasantha by writing the following:
"Lasantha was at first apprehensive about this Presidential call to a rapprochement but later relented".
How do we know? Did Lasantha told Sonali that he did not like to dine with Mr President? If so why did he attend those dinners at Temple Trees? Though our constitution gives jumbo powers to the president, even he could not ORDER any citizen to dine with him!!!
As a reader of The Sunday Leader, I would have been delighted if Mrs Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrematunge came up with an investigative article highlighting how the champion of free media, Lasantha is dining and getting cosy with the President! No, she never did that. Instead of exposing Lasantha for his double dealing, Sonali decided to marry him! What a tragicomedy in investigative journalism???
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