Post mortem of a scribe.

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???

Sunada Saga - Mandale Kachal

The man who was accused of robbing undiscloed sum of rupees from the NGO rollypolly CPA, Sunanda Deshapriya is "vanished" from the scene. Nobody seems to know of his whereabouts. However ture to the media tradition of Sri Lanka, "when you do it it is wrong, but I am doing it all the time" Sunanda's partners of crime have come up with a blogsite to throw mud at their fellow bothal paththara karaya, Namely Uvindu Kurukulasuriya!

For your information, please note that Uvindu Kurukulasuriya is the top man of Free Media Movement (or Fee Media Movement, as it turned out to be)

This is what our "friends"at http://www.colombosnakewrangler.blogspot.com/ write about their collegues:

Uvindu is a power-hungry unscrupulous individual who is now trying to destroy Sunanda simply because he wants to steal Sunanda's job. This exactly what anotherle well known snake, Pradeep Jeganathan did at the ICES. Like Jeganathan, what Uvindu is blind to is the fact that by destroying Sunanda, he is also giving right-wing forces a brilliant opportunity to step in and destroy the FMM and the CPA.

Hmmmm..... please note folks... The big boss of FMM is a power-hungry unscrupulous individual ... That was we were telling you folks from the beggining. However today we are happy that the so called Journalists of Sri Lanka accusing their big boss at FMM!

Not only this Uvindu is a power-hungry unscrupulous individual, he is a RAPIST too. This is waht Uvindu's collegues tell:

This is Uvindu the Snake.He once attempted to rape a coworker, and would have gone through with it had he not been stopped by another coworker...

However few days ago, when Sunanda was cosher in media circles, nobody told us about Uvindu's bad side.

When Karu went back to the UNP again a few days ago, the government members of the parliment refrained from attacking Karu. No government PM called Karu a snake. It is high time our Bothal Paththarakarayo, the so called Media men of Sri Lanka start learning from Politicians :) :) :)

Sunanda is scaked!!!!

Sunanda Deshapriya was chased away from Pakiyasothi Savaranamuththu's NGO. Paki is claming that Sunanda was caught with his fingers in the till.

We wrote this article few months ago, but publish today as it is more timely NOW

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Naked media giants in Sri Lanka

By Kumara Kaluarachchi

They come in hundreds to Lipton circus or Fort Railway station, armed with megaphones, placards and banners. They shout and jump up and down. They take their won photos and video record their own antics. After that all of them go to a nearest bar to discuss their days work. Then they go home. The officials of the Free Media Movement, how organized the whole fiasco may “retire” to five start hotels and embassies to meet their foreign handlers and pay masters to receive the balance of payments due to them. That is what an average media man does these days in Sri Lanka.
Most of them do not write or contribute to any media other than writing placards and jumping up and down in demonstrations. However one time of their lives, they have had worked in a newspaper, a radio station or a television studio. That qualification is enough to get the life membership and earn a better life by “electing” in to offices of Free Media Movement and other media watch dogs!
Naturally, the chaps who are currently working for Sri Lankan media (for a measly sum of course) are not happy. They know their ex-colleagues in Free Media Movement sell them to foreigners for Dollars and Euros. That’s why they have put up another organization “Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association”!!! However when it come to protests and demonstrations, they forget their differences as the “interested parties” are sponsoring some of the notable personalities in the association.
If you examine carefully, you will understand that the education standards of our media people are not that high. Most people in Sri Lanka believe that the only job available for an under-educated person is being a politician. I beg to differ. Having gone through the educational qualifications of the media chaps in Sri Lanka, I think that there are two jobs available for an under-educated but highly ambitious person. They start their career as media people and end that as non other than POLITICIANS, very people they criticize day and night!!!
Ever heard of a media man called Ratna Deshapriya? (No relation of Sunanda Deshapriya of course). Ratna Deshapriya was the news editor of Lankadeepa. He was very popular media man during 60’s and used that popularity to obtain nominations from SLFP to contest in the elections against Hon Dudley Senanayake in Dadigama electorate. Being from a suppressed community, but highly ambitious, Ratna acquired a new surname to face Senanayakes before the contest. It was none other than Senanayake!!! Ratna the media man lost the election and appointed as the chairman of CWE. Later his brother Dharmasiri Senanayake won the seat and became the media minister of CBK’s government!!!!
I think Ratna Deshapriya Senanayake was the first media man who used media credentials as a stepping stone to be a politician in Sri Lanka. He was followed by lorry loads of ambitious media chaps in to the prosperity of the political world.
Take a look at Vimal Weerawanse (pen name Rohana Gamalath) and Dullus Alahapperuma. Both of them were fearlessly battling against the authoritative dictatorship of Premadasa during eighties. They used their media credentials successfully to get elected in to the parliament and gain important political positions.
Let’’s see major media men turned minor politicians. Remember Buddhika Pathirana? The medical student (an educated man, a rare exception) who interviewed politicians in Srirasa TV? Now he is a doctor and a member of the southern provincial council for UNP. Same goes for the anchorman of live at 8, Manusha Nanayakkara, a provincial councilor for the UNP. Producer of the Kinihira and Deshapalana sathiya political programs of Swarnawahini, Didula Bogahakumbra quit his media job to become the organizer of the Badulla district for the UNP.

Lanka Journal

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