Her Story…
By Frederica Jansz
The fraudulent interview
On December 13, 2009 The Sunday Leader’s headline “Gota Ordered Them To Be Shot” – General Sarath Fonseka would become the most explosive story of the year.
The article which, perfectly accurately, quoted the General as saying he had heard that Gotabaya Rajapaksa had given an illegal order asking Brigadier Shavendra Silva (later promoted General) to not accommodate surrendering LTTE cadres, became more than a news story.
It became a political phenomenon and the allegations, denials, retractions and recriminations that followed are history.
However it is a history that has come to be grossly distorted.
As all the various parties caught in the story’s fallout struggled to save face, what began as a piece of journalism accusing the government of a serious war crime would become, through lies and deception, a coup for the Rajapaksa administration. Ultimately the campaign to vilify and distort the article and discredit me has now reached a point where I feel, I must comment and present what I believe to be an accurate version of the events leading to and following its publication.
To start at the beginning
After the presidential election was formally declared The Sunday Leader’s management made a decision that the paper would at an editorial level broadly throw its weight behind Sarath Fonseka’s campaign.
The Rajapaksa administration, by filing multiple law suits against this paper and failing to take real action in the ongoing investigation into Lasantha Wickrematunge’s murder, left The Sunday Leader’s management with no alternative.
Facing devastating court cases The Leader had no option but to back Fonseka and despite my personal reservations I sympathised with the management’s position and agreed to devote a large amount of page space to the General’s campaign.
As part of our effort to give publicity to Sarath Fonseka’s campaign I requested on Monday, December 7 an interview with the General. The interview was intended to both give the reading public a better idea of the General as a person and allow him to put forward his views regarding his campaign and major policy issues.
We requested the interview on December 7, and were told that it could be done on Wednesday December 9 but at extremely short notice we were informed that the General would only be able to see us on Tuesday December 8 at 5.30 p.m.
Even at such short notice The Sunday Leader considered the interview sufficiently important that Lal Wickrematunge, the Leader’s Chairman, Raknish Wijewardene, a journalist, Thusitha Kumara a photographer and myself gathered at the General’s office at Reid Avenue on December 8th a little before 5.30 p.m.
As the General was preoccupied with the important business of managing a campaign we waited over an hour for our appointment but were eventually granted an audience with the man himself.
The interview proceeded as a series of questions and answers on major topics and issues and a transcript of the interview by Raknish Wijewardene appeared in The Sunday Leader of December 13, 2009.
However towards the end of the interview we began to discuss the ethnic conflict and the role Fonseka had played in the war.
I then asked him one final question. In relation to claims made both internationally and locally that LTTE surrendees carrying white flags had, instead of being accommodated, been killed. I asked the General what really happened.
In that context Fonseka made the allegation that would later appear in the newspapers.
He claimed he had heard that Gotabaya Rajapaksa ordered any surrendering LTTE cadres to be shot, and related the story of Pulidevan and Nadesan’s surrender.
When Sarath Fonseka made this allegation I reacted as any journalist would. A presidential candidate and decorated war hero was accusing the incumbent President’s brother of ordering the death of unarmed surrendering LTTE leaders and their families.
That was simply an extraordinary story and I knew immediately that this would be the paper’s headline for the week.
It was at this point that I took the decision to run Fonseka’s allegation as a headline separate from the main interview.
It seemed obvious that an allegation of this magnitude deserved special attention.
As the accusation; the massacre of surrendering cadres and their families was extremely serious, I contacted all of those implicated in the General’s denunciation.
When I spoke with General Shavendra Silva he said he could not comment without permission to do so. I then spoke with Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara who later got back to me saying he had discussed the matter with the current Army Commander Jagath Jayasuriya as well as General Shavendra Silva and collectively taken a decision that they would not issue any comment. When I spoke with Basil Rajapaksa he denied that Norway had got in touch with him regarding this issue. Rajapaksa however did not deny knowledge of the incident. I tried contacting Gotabaya Rajapaksa but was told he had not come into his office on that day, December 11, 2009. I left a message with his office but Gotabaya Rajapaksa holds a personal grudge against this newspaper and refuses to speak to the Leader.
However, having secured an adequate number of responses from the government and the army I was able to compile the story.
Realising the impact such striking allegations would have, at 9.45 a.m. before the paper went to print on Saturday I once gain contacted Sarath Fonseka.
During a twenty minute phone conversation the General reiterated that he stood by the allegation. At that point I asked him who the journalist was who had told him about the supposedly illegal order given by Gotabaya Rajapaksa to Shavendra Silva. Fonseka gave me the journalist’s name but asked that I not name him “for reasons for his own personal security.” A request I obliged.
Fonseka then said that he was willing to go on record with his claim and he assured me he would not back down. Only with that assurance did we go to print.
Fallout
On Saturday the paper went to print and at The Sunday Leader’s premises at Ratmalana extra precautions were taken to guard against possible government reprisals; new lighting was installed, and new private security personnel were hired. Publishing what we thought was a story that would damage the credibility of senior government officials the newspaper naturally feared that the government or those aligned to it would, as they have done in the past, react violently.
And that was our biggest mistake
We assumed the government would react as they have done in the past with threats and violence but the Rajapaksa regime is capable of learning and should never be underestimated.
By contacting Basil Rajapaksa we had already given the government advanced warning; they knew the story was coming and they reacted decisively; not with the violence as we had expected but with spin.
After the story broke, instead of flatly denying the allegation or threatening journalists the government began to portray Fonseka’s allegation as an act of treachery. The story of the massacre was irrelevant. What mattered was that by speaking out Fonseka was betraying Gotabaya, the army and the country.
We believe the outcry that followed the story was to a large extent the result of an orchestrated campaign.
A government backed campaign to publicise particularly in Sinhala, a distorted version of the story, and present the General as a traitor. The objective behind the campaign was to convince the General that his accusations were eroding his popularity and to force him to back down in the interest of winning more votes.
This campaign began immediately after the newspaper went on sale with radio shows denouncing the story as an act of treachery by early Sunday morning.
The Sunday Leader’s message board which usually receives one hundred responses for a lead story was flooded with messages by 2 a.m. on December 13 and received well over one thousand (1000) responses to the story; the vast majority of them being extremely similar comments denouncing Fonseka.
Our analysis indicates that this was an orchestrated campaign with a small number of users using multiple log-in names to post multiple messages on The Sunday Leader website denouncing Fonseka as a traitor.
However the internet was only a small part of the campaign and by Sunday afternoon the state media was in a frenzy already denouncing the General as a traitor and alleging a conspiracy between The Sunday Leader, the General and the usual unpatriotic forces – the Western NGOs, etc.
Despite this pressure it is notable that in the hours after its publication the General stood by the story. In a press conference he gave on Sunday afternoon at the Jaic Hilton, documented by the BBC, he made no effort to deny the story.
It was only as the government’s denunciation campaign intensified with TV, radio, and internet sites declaring the former war hero a traitor that Fonseka’s advisors Mangala Samaraweera, Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Vijitha Herath in particular advised him to retract part of the story.
At a meeting with the Chairman of The Sunday Leader, Lal Wickrematunge on Monday, December 14, senior UNP leaders together with Samaraweera and the JVP insisted that a retraction was necessary as the story had damaged Fonseka’s reputation as a patriot.
It was requested that The Leader retract those parts of the article mentioning Shavendra Silva. The argument being that by criticising the army Fonseka was betraying his own comrades and losing public support.
However as a journalist and as someone who is committed to the truth I refused to publish a fraudulent retraction.
Also as I had contacted Shavendra Silva to get his version of events it was impossible for me to deny that he had been mentioned.
Later that same day, December 14, I met the General at approximately 2.45 p.m. whereupon he reiterated that he could not deny what he had said.
Mangala Samaraweera and Vijitha Herath however remained adamant demanding that The Leader publish a partial retraction. However as a journalist I refused to back down knowing that what I had published was the truth.
Finally, we agreed on a compromise whereby a clarification written by Sarath Fonseka would appear in The Sunday Leader of December 20, 2009 issue. This clarification emphasizes a technical point and is in no way a retraction.
However, The Sunday Leader is of course a weekly paper and during the course of the week pressure continued to mount on Fonseka.
Accused of betraying the army and conspiring to involve the international community in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs, at a hastily convened press conference at his offices at Reid Avenue the General addressed the matter of The Sunday Leader story.
Under immense pressure at this briefing and unable to flatly deny what he knew to be the truth, the General waffled and issued what was neither a clarification nor a retraction.
However over the following days his advisors and supporters would insist that Fonseka had denied the story.
The move from clarification to retraction and denial proved to be a disaster.
By backing down the politically inexperienced Fonseka ultimately played completely into the hands of the government.
He immediately came across as indecisive and weak. No one believed his half-hearted denials and his credibility suffered considerable damage.
The original article was written in part to demonstrate that Fonseka as a true war hero was not scared to confront the government’s bogeymen head-on. By backing down he proved himself to be incapable of tackling the Rajapaksas with the most powerful weapon at his disposal; the truth.
Again the fundamental mistake was the assumption that the government would react clumsily and violently and attempt to intimidate the newspaper into burying the story. By reacting with spin and turning Fonseka’s allegation into a question of patriotism the government was able to deal in its favourite currency of traitors and patriots.
By implying that the General’s comments made him appear a traitor and were losing him support, they put enormous pressure on him to rescind the story and squash any potential investigation into the event.
And Fonseka on the advice of his political advisors walked into the government’s trap; with a partial retraction that turned out to be a triumph for the government.
Fonseka’s garbled and gradual retraction destroyed his credibility, and also squashed any hope of an impartial investigation into the alleged massacre. As an added bonus for the government it also served to discredit that other thorn in the Rajapaksas side — The Sunday Leader.
As usual the government’s opponents — just like the LTTE, UNP and the JVP in the past — were through division, cowardice and petty-mindedness destroying themselves.
The end result has been devastating for Sarath Fonseka who has come across not only as unpatriotic but also as vacillating and indecisive.
To his credit the General never showed any enthusiasm for the denial always admitting that he had said what he had said. It was pressure from his advisors that pushed him to make his various half retractions.
To make matters worse however instead of burying the story after the press conference and clarification in The Leader, the JVP in particular began to circulate absurd rumors; that The Sunday Leader had conspired with President Mahinda Rajapaksa to discredit Fonseka, and that I had begged the General’s forgiveness for misquoting him etc. These hopelessly false allegations only had the effect of keeping an embarrassing story in the public eye.
Finally, the JVP threatened to sue The Sunday Leader for defaming Fonseka.
However, the UNP-side of the opposition alliance assured us that no Letter Of Demand would be forthcoming. In fact Malik Samarawickrema of the UNP finally issued instruction to bury the story and bring an end to a clumsy and bungled chapter in the General’s campaign.
And we at The Leader can only hope that once the story is buried the lies and spin associated with it will disappear as well.
The Red Comrades Bungle Again
The JVP in particular has failed to play a constructive role in containing the damage from the original story and the resulting government spin.
As Fonseka’s patriotic credentials came under threat the patriotic JVP fearing an erosion of support became determined to prove that SF was a true patriot and in doing so did half the government’s work.They first pushed him into the devastating half retraction but having done that they realised that a retraction wasn’t enough and that in order to prove that he never said what he did actually say, he would have to sue.
Understandably the General is reluctant to sue as he is unable to honestly deny he made those comments. The General’s reluctance compelled the JVP to resort to new muckraking tactics, and they began to claim that the article was the result of a conspiracy between The Sunday Leader and the Rajapaksas.
Of course the idea of any collaboration between The Sunday Leader and the Rajapaksas not even a year after Lasantha Wickrematunge’s assassination is offensive and absurd.
Apart from these fraudulent claims, JVP mouthpieces online have published that at some point I began weeping and begging the General for forgiveness.
Personally however I’m not much given to tears and the JVP’s and Sarath Fonseka’s troubles are definitely not going to move me to tears any time soon. I certainly don’t feel I have anything to apologize for other than perhaps underestimating the sheer cunning of the Rajapaksas’ media machine and the JVP’s stupidity in playing into the government’s hands.
Extraordinarily, Lanka-E-News even went so far as to run a completely fabricated interview I was supposed to have conducted with General Shavendra Silva. They composed an entirely fictitious interview including a set of questions and answers with the General.
While this is an unusually creative attempt at defamation, in reality since my one telephone call to General Shavendra Silva on Friday December 11, 2009 to ask for his version of the original allegation I have not spoken with him once nor have I ever met him. I have certainly never conducted an interview with him.
Thereafter Lanka-E-News continued to publish more defamatory and outright lies against me. These claims are as baseless and absurd as the purported interview with Shavendra Silva.
Rajiva’s Letter – Proof Of Government Spin
That the government deliberately spun the reaction surrounding the article to its advantage is clear from the events surrounding Rajiva Wijesinha’s response to UN Special Rapporteur for Extra Judicial Killings, Phillip Alston’s query.
Alston has called for a government response to Fonseka’s allegations. However Wijesinha used Fonseka’s clarification in The Sunday Leader where the General claimed that no white flags were in fact carried to argue that there was no basis for an investigation.
Wijesinha’s response implied that the government accepted Fonseka’s clarification and was using it to clear its name at the UN and that as such there was no story.
Days later however the government withdrew this letter, in order to exacerbate the fall out from the story, which they would continue to spin to their advantage.
By keeping the story in the news they would continue to discredit Fonseka but when it suited them, preferably after the election they would use his clarification to quash any potential war-crimes investigation.
Fonseka’s bungling media camp however failed to see that Wijesinha’s letter and its subsequent withdrawal effectively vindicated their man. And they failed to point out that the letter proved that the government itself had accepted Fonseka’s clarification.
Why are you journalist take ones side and report. cant you be independent. This is a good lesson for you for misleading people.
All these troubles are because of several idiots who try to control UNP. Sarath Ponseka does not know the way in which JVP idiots would destroy him. All these goons will finally destroy UNP and pave way for Mahinda to win.
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මේ ගෑණි ආණ්ඩුවත් එක්ක කුමන්ත්රණය කරල, ජෙනරාල්ව විනාශ කලා.!!!!!!!
අලී කොටි තියා යකෙකූටචත් බය නෙචන
අපි බය චේද හංසයකූට පන අදි න
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I totally agree with your views. JVP wants to win more electoral seats in the forthcoming general elections knowing that if they come alone they will be reduced to less than 3 seats in the next Parliament. At the last Parliamentary election they were able to hoodwinked Chandrika and won 40 odd seats.
We honur your behaviour.You are good women in press feild.You will get full strenth & capacity,WELLDONE LADY”’
The Sunday Leader stripped the General of patriotism only thing that General claimed to have. (The honesty of course has been faded away with Hicop International arms deal.)
Thank you Janz.
—-Mahinda Rajapakse—-
මේ ගෑණි ආණ්ඩුවත් එක්ක කුමන්ත්රණය කරල, ජෙනරාල්ව විනාශ කලා.!!!!!
Hari Shok ne Thoththa Baba Nalawanna gihin una de? god bless
She wrote a double-edged story…
I can’t even imaging how dumb SF,Janz really are.. They couldn’t even guess the reaction from the patriotic people..
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අලි කොටි තියා යකෙකුටවත් බය නොවන
අප රජු බය වේද හන්සයකුට පන අදින
FREDRICA JANZ TRAITOR WHO MUDDLED UP BATALANDA! WE WL NEVER FORGET!
Dear Fedrica,
Although you conclude the article stating the request made by Malik Samarawickrema insisting the burial of the case, you again again excavate the same. Are you actually supporting General? There is a wide spread rumor that you are going to assume duties as chairperson of Rupawahini corporation. Is it true?
Fedrica is a very bad lady. She is do anything for money. She damade our dear Sarath Fonseka.
Do you belive SF and JVP ia good. Read the articles on lankaenews agaist fedrica. How JVP tells lies regarding this. So far no clarification from them. Shame on you SF
FREDRICA / SF ALL THE SAME
මේ ගෑණි ආණ්ඩුවත් එක්ක කුමන්ත්රණය කරල, ජෙනරාල්ව විනාශ කලා.!!
Is General a Baby?
Paw ne General wage thoththa babekwa winasha karapu eka….No one distroyed General…He distroyed him self….
mae gaani,generalui karanna ekathu wela karanna giya kumantharanaya winasha wuna. oya article eke liyala thiyena tika kiyawaganna barida? deshadrohinta wenne mehema thama…
huuuu
Confusion Confounded! Sarath Fonseka, UNF, UNP, LTTE, JVP, Mangala, Ravi, Hakeem, Sunday Leader – all these parties by way of deception of one another have created the biggest political mess in the history of Sri Lanka. They are supposed to be on the same side – but by trying to bring down a popular government that delivered what they promised to the people of Sri Lanka, they have shot themselves in their own feet – and now dancing a “Mara Thovile” to the tune of a “Vaada Baila”! What a bunch of jokers all these factors have made themselves to look like! At least from the point of the Sri Lankan public, this pack of jokers are providing the comic entertainment while the Government makes an easy “Cake-walk” toward winning the Presidential elections!
Well said!!
You thinks MR to winning? Ado, we will won by forse.
26n passe balagamu. Our teem can check you adres. Man carefull.
Hey Idiot,Dont threathen innocent lady.SF traitor to the country.He will never will be able to become president in this country.People are not fool to vote SF who suffering jealous,hate .You have praised this lady when she write MUD stories in this country.
26 vendain passe balaganna SF kenek naha.eya citizen ship illla USA wala,Eya divurum preakasaya deel thiyenwa gotabaya oreder kara kiyala to shoot terorist.
SF will not be here just afer 26th Of January 2010.He has taken green cards for entrire family by giving false affidavit against our country.He will do any dirty thing to take vote.But it will not give any results.He has given promised to TNA to MERGE NORTH & EAST if he win election,
PEOPLE ARE WAITING THSESE DIRTY ACTS OF THSESE TRAITORS,
SF is our hero. do not blame him. We will rivenge. I know your adrass. Man carefull after 26.
I dont need to fight with you in here.You can enjoy your dreams like Ranil Wickramasingha.You can dream till 2023
When all the Peelamist became the biggest SF supporters. Not like JVP,UNP short minded people, Peelamist in their dreams do Chess..
Ado Kamal, get your english corrected my friend!!!! shows you are one DUMB fool!!!! even if you get the address, what are you gonna do??? piss on me???? use your brain you dumb idiot (sorry – forgot you dont have one)
I know english very well, I had work Dubai with british peopal 5 years. We are village peopal. You colombo 7 peopal will be panish after 26. Your big houses take by army and give to poor peopal.
Hilarious stuff!
At least, you must applaud Kamal for getting his opinions across, even though he keeps murdering the Queen over & over again! This is the fault of our education system in Sri Lanka, thanks to SWRD! At least, MR is trying to rectify it by appointing and traning more English teachers to educate the school children. Perhaps, the next generation will see youth who are more fluent in English. Learning English opens a path not only to a wide range of knowledge but also the ability to compete in a global environment.
Kamal why your English is so Kabal? Why don’t you write something for a sinhalese paper to put forward your point of view rather than threatening others with broken English. I hope you are not the Son in law of SF to go so wild. Get some life YFI!
well said dear
Very well said Devoneco.. This is all a conspiracy against MR, and Sunday Leader burnt it’s foot by being part of it. Lets see the last of Fonseka on the 26th and pack him off to the USA. ……..
Very well said Devoneco.. This is all a conspiracy against MR, and Sunday Leader burnt it’s foot by being part of it. Lets see the last of Fonseka on the 26th and pack him off to the USA.
Dear Fredrica, you are a courageous woman who stood by YOUR STORY without going on your knees as alleged by the JVP hoodlums who put words into the General’s mouth. These JVP hoodlums are the worst Character-Assassins in SriLanka politics. Now they have destroyed the General’s reputation by advising him to file a law suit against Leader, only to hoodwink the public and put the blame on you for fabricating that story. Your fellow journalists must be proud of your exemplary stand against the JVP liars and the tongue-twisting General who has no WILL POWER to apologise to you and to his own troops. To prove your innocense, you may consider taking legal action for defamation against Lanka E-news and JVP hoodlum Anura Kumara.
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මේ ගෑණි ආණ්ඩුවත් එක්ක කුමන්ත්රණය කරල, ජෙනරාල්ව විනාශ කලා.
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The fact that you were surprised by the nature of the government’s response shows how out of touch you are with the sentiments of the common people. The stark point in your story for the common people was that Fonseka had betrayed his comrades in arms -Gotabhaya and Shavindra. They were not worried about the massacre of any white flag waving surrendees – many of them would in fact have said “that is the way to deal with the bas—-.” Geneva convention niceties did not bother them. That was for the HR activists, the Western governments and a handful of others who though nationalist anti-terrorists would not have condoned war crimes. Therfore the government did not need any spin. The vast majority of common people spontaneously reacted to renegade Fonseka’s betrayal (whether the story was his concoction or not) To the more perceptive it also showed that he is as out of touch as you are and also that he has absolutely no political sense – a babe in the woods who is well advised to live a quiet retired life without getting involved in things much above him. Your management’s decision to support his candidature makes hilarious reading given some other interest you justfiably have. This is a veritable Alice in Wonderland situation which I suppose can happen only in this resplendant Island.
whoever you are, yours is a very rational explanation.
The retired General also said that his group was now studying the shortcomings in almost all the sectors and would come out with the necessary plans to be implemented to redress them after January 26.
He urged the voters to increase his winning majority to around 80 per cent and send the Rajapaksas home.
Ponseka must be day dreaming….
PONSEKA MUST BE DAY DREAMING… HE WILL LOSE HIS DEPOSIT AND SHOULD BE SENT TO JAIL FOR BEING THE BIGGEST TRAITOR OF OUR MOTHERLAND !!
dreams!!!!!!1
Dear madam,
We the public do not know the truth
what we hear is only the accounts of the event given by various connected parties.
What people normally take as the truth is the most probable scenario judging by the past actions of the characters involved.
if an account given by somebody (or his version of what happened) appears to be inconsistent people don’t buy it.
normally people give consistent stories and we have to choose what’s correct
but Sarath Fonseka didn’t give one.
If Sarath Fonseka is telling the truth now he has said that he heard that a journalist said that gota did a war crime…. (see how vague the no of levels of that
Would he say something like that to a newspaper without thinking of the implications
Would the editor publish such a story without double checking Sarath Foneska that he said that.
changing his word now is…
You have to agree Mahinda has shown a better backbone in these things. The last days of the war, backing mervin in rupawahini incident regardless of the damage to mahinda’s image.
At any rate SF is not fit to be the leader of this country (He took his word back)
Anyway back to my point.
My point on your account of the story.
your account is too good to be true
see, it makes everybody happy(except mahinda whom you obiviously do not wish to entertain :) )
*SF is portrayed as a leader who stood by the truth and his idols but was advised by other practical people to change his stance.
*You being a good journalist.(I agree completely there I’m not being sarcastic commendable work)
*UNP being a noble party as opposed to JVP (who again you have no intention of whitewashing)
*The magt of the newspaper who want gota to be the ultimate villain.
I think the version where “SF being egoistic and wanted to harm Gota at any cost and his action backfired” is true
I ask the question why SF did it than What SF did and all other versions do not show a real motive than this version
In your version the motive of SF was to expose the truth which you have to agree is a bit too idealistic and BS like(Coming from a military general who wanted sinhalese to be the only race in Sri lanka) :P
And madam there are people who don’t buy anything your newspaper says because you are obviously biased. Be biased that’s your decision but please at least try to hide that you guys are biased.
what’s ur point Sir? Be biased and try to hide it? She is biased as everyone else. (including me and u) But she is courage enough to accept it unlike u!
Now do not bark at me. I hate SF and those selfish and anti-SL creatures. I vote for MR. Not becoz he is 100% ok. I have my gratitude towards MR for eliminating LTTE.
[...] The Sunday Leader – Her Story… [...]
I remember Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that he witnessed Fedrica was on her knees to seek forgiveness from SF and she cried. And he was saying that “tears of a women can make a huge change”.
This is how these lairs try to cheat people. He wanted to have a false excuse for not pressing Sunday Leader to withdraw the story. These high-rank JVP morons think that these kind of cheap tactics are enough to answer the increasingly frustrating grass root-level JVP carders who blindly accept whatever the top says.
Hey you HUD
You blindly swallow Janz story, she & Sunday Leader were Anti JVP from their inceptions, dont be a sukker.
Dear Fedrica, Please accept my bunch of ROSES for your courage to tell the real TRUTH of the event. You are a IRON LADY.
May GOD bless you. HE will protect you. Guide you.
Yes and give you an appointment at Rupawahini
1) The General is a hero for nailing the LTTE, however he messed up and should pay the price – defeat at the elections.
2) The Government is cunning and play politics like everyone else – I can’t say I blame them for spinning this blunder to their advantage.
3) The Sunday Leader – They reported what I beleive is a factual account of the interview. They stood by their journalist, and that is a good thing.
Good day.
Good and unbious comment! SL need this type of thinking.
The whole story reflects the immatuarity in your journalism. If you are a matured journalist you would have thought of a consequences of pulishing of such a story before doing so. You should know the weight and gravity of such a story and how it would damage or tarnish the immage of our motherland rather than aiming for your economical gain by selling more number of copies of your so called news paper. Your only aim was to catch the market in the competitive field and win the heart of the readers which in turn bring you more publicity. But as a true Sri Lankan you should be more carefull as a wrter and a publisher as you are not engaged in the world’s most oldest prffession. Think again. are you really in journalism? or some other dealing? In my openion it is SF it is totally your mistake in this whole episode which came out as a mountain of garbage. So lady try to be a Good journalist by the God sake..
hello you are a garbage not our editor. you know she is great , she reveled great news to the world we salute her bravery.
Buman
I vote for MR. I hate what SF does now with those power hungry political gypsies. Having said so, alhough we agree or disagree with the consequences, nobody can say that Fedrica is not a good journalist. She knows what she is doing! But I am sad that we as a country have damaged ourselves through this episode.
Its such a pity that sections of this country are only interested in the ‘truth’ as long as it appeals to them. Journalists are supposed to state facts as they are and not worry about whether it is affecting someone’s campaign or agenda. That’s what the spin doctors and campaign managers are for. The Watergate scandal would never have broken if the journalists concerned were worrying about whose feelings they would be hurting and whose agenda they would be destroying. Similarly – programs like Panorama on BBC bring information to the public that would be normally unavailable, such as the memos issued by the Bush administration ordering water boarding and other forms of torture of Guantanamo Bay prisoners. It is only because of journalists who are interested in uncovering layers of BS to get to the truth, that we the public have an opportunity to know what is really going on. If people are unable to handle reading information that is unpalatable to them, then why not bury their heads in the sand and let the rest of us who are interested continue to read up. It is high time that Sri Lankans grew up and learned to take the bitter with the sweet and make informed judgements instead of taking decisions through some form of emotional hysteria.
I feel i am getting my wires crossed. First u say that ” despite my personal reservations” my management decided to back SF campaign. So, technically u and your management were supporting SF. My question is, you went all the way and took all pains to verify that story with MR regime and knowing that SF is a novice in this political game u did not bother to contact his political advisers knowing the implication that would result of this explosive exposure? And u ,with all the political experience behind ,you were so naive not to realize MR regime would not take advantage of this situ. My dear FJ, who are u trying to fool? -ONLY WAY TO SURVIVE( AS JR SAID :” KAPANNA BARI ATHA IMBINNA”.)
Hei veryfying story is a tredition in journalisim. It is not saying they are doing support that party. It is the way getting leagal protection
Ponnaseka is a trator. He should not be allowed to leave the country once he lost the election on 26 th Jan. He should be hung to death. He betrayed the army and other forces. Soldiers should not give him the protection. What a trator is Ponnaseka?
Keep it up well said!!!!!!!!!
” AT LAST ANANDA HAS READ BETWEEN THE LINES. FJ- IS THIS YOUR PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISM ?????
Dear SF you r the real HERO in Sri Lanka…Go ahead we r with you….
Yes 100%…
you missed one word there…
it should be:
“Yes 100% ignorant”
MR & Gota dealt international pressure nicely & wisely. Western agents came here with so much pomp & fanfare but went away with their tail between the legs.
But, it looks like out new contender (SF), even cannot heed the pressure from local sundry figures like (awa) Mangala & Somawansa.
How can he stand against ….(oh sorry !)
SF doesn’t have stand against – he only have to lick their boots like his so-called political advisers. So, the solution is simple – just a change of posture.
Not stand straight, but knee-down and bend…..
Dear Madam,
I don’t normally agree with the jeournalism of Sunday Leader but you have full authority to take a side. But here you can now understand that how stupid your collegues are. You faces the fate of the king who let a monkey protect him self while he was sleeping. Otherwise do Sri Lankans need the white flag story in this election campaign? It is a past tense and nobody worries about that except LTTE supporters..(You don’t need to be a supporter of any party to understand that truth). People ask that kind of questions from Army soldiers, commander in secret to fulfill their curiosity. But do Sri Lankans need that story be exposed? No….After all this truth explains everything. Why did Mr.Sarath Fonseka want to expose such a thing if it is true or not? As a experienced government officer did he think that people would take story against the government or Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapakse.? No. Evrybody knows if Mr.Gotabhaya Rajapakse has done so people would have appluded him..Again the credit will go to Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapakse because all of my UNP supporting friends have said me that LTTE must have been destroyed anyway. That means most of UNpers, JVPers do not accept any amnesty for LTTE leaders anyway. Then who will get the benefit of this story as the way of Mr.Sarath Fonseka thought?
Fool lady, You may be a UNPer. It is grat to know abou the evil before you eat. Remeber that. You all just try to rob what mahinda did
kamba hora is —— SF with weapon deals with HI-CORP.
Paper proof corruptions….
FJ, We salute you.
FRED! superb well done for not bowing to pressure. Clearly you were under enormous pressure to withdraw your story, save Fonseka’s face and ruin your integrity and reputation. All thos politicians like Ravi Ranil Mangala thought nothing of trying to ruin your reputation. If however you played with them then IF (on the very OFF chance) they got elected you would have been made an ambassador or something like that! So well done Ma’am, great to see that you are true to the UNBOWED and UNAFRAID tag line. Bravo! Encore! Forever Faithful to Media Freedom!
අළුත් ම ආරංචි අනුව සරා තනියම යුද්දෙ කරලා දිනලා තියෙන්නේ..
ගුවන් නාවික පොලිස් තියා ආමි එකේ එක කොල්ලෙක් වත් ගේමට බැහැල නෑ..
රම්බෝ තනියම ගේම දිනලා දීලා අන්තිම දවසේ සුදු කොඩි අරගෙන ආපු අර අහිංසක පූස් පැටවුට තමයි ආමි එකෙන් වෙඩි තියල තියෙන්නේ.
එස් එෆ් පවු ඕයී.. තනි රම්බෝ ගේම දෙනකන් රනිලයි, මංගල , යූරෝපය ඇමෙරිකාව ගැන බලාගත්තා.. රනිල් ලොක්කා කියලා තියනවානේ රම්බෝ ගේම ඉවරකරන කම් ඔබාමට කට හෙලෙව්වොත් වෙඩි තියනවා කියලත්.. ටිල්වියා චීනේ ඉන්දියාව හැඩල් කරා.. අවි ඔක්කොම බලාගත්තේ අනුරයා.. මේ ඔක්කොම මිල්ටරි පිස්සා සෝමෙ අයියගෙ වැඩනේ ඕයි..
කේසර සිංහයෙක් ට හංසයෙක් කජ්ජක් ද ඕයි..
Facing devastating court cases The Leader had no option but to back Fonseka and despite my personal reservations I sympathised with the management’s position and agreed to devote a large amount of page space to the General’s campaign.
Unbowed and unafraid to be unfair to one and bias to another! Shame on Sunday Leader!!
Sorry I forgot to congatulate you in my previous posting although I meant to. I appreciate highly your not bowing to the tremendous presuure that must have been exerted on you, although I don’t share your and your journal’s perceptions on national issues. Well done!
Hi! ladies and Gentlemen,I wish to know the breakdown of the polls trajectory relative to the opinion poll of nearly only 500 people who have internet connections in SL.
P.L.J.B.Palipana, P.Eng
SUUREY,BC,CANADA
Biggest on-line opinion poll….
Feel free to contribute…..
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http://www.nextpresident.webs.com
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Biggest on-line opinion poll….
Feel free to contribute…..
********************************************
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http://www.nextpresident.webs.com
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My dear lady.
You tried to get benefit out of a story which you thought would be sensational. Instead you got yourself into a mess. How can we the readers believe you. What you did was to screw a person who would be doing yeomen service to the country. Now which side are you. Rajapaksha or Sarath Fonseka.
You are now dancing to the tune of the Rajapakshas it is very obvious now. All your readers know about it.
What she does not understand is that most of sri lankans do not care how LTTE leaders were killed. They were terrorists and simply had to be killed regardless of they had white flags or something else. If government still accepts they were killed like that, it does not repair the broken image of SF. . She is like a suddiyek and never feels the heartbeat of the nation. But her courage to stand for her article must be appreciated.
[...] More… [...]
See my credentials of to be the
leader of the country………
009-12-23 18:15:31 ET
40 years of Experience
1 kill…..fire ginibindapaaaaaann..
2 kill…killllllll.!!
3 fire…fire
3 shoot him…..kill..
4 kill….kill…
5 fire…fire…kill
6 kill….
7 kill…
8 fire…fire…kill
9 kill…kill
10 kill…fire
11 kill….ginibindapaaaan.!!
12 shoot….
13 kill…kill
14 shoot…kill..
15 fire…kill
16 kill..kill
17 kill….shoot
18 kill..kill..
19 fire…kill…
20 kill…kill
21 kill…..fire ginibindapaaaaaann..
22 kill…killllllll.!!
23 fire…fire
23 shoot him…..kill..
24 kill….kill…
25 fire…fire…kill
26 kill….
27 kill…
28 fire…fire…kill
29 kill…kill
30 kill…fire
31 kill….ginibindapaaaan.!!
32 shoot….
33 kill…kill
34 shoot…kill..
35 fire…kill
36 kill..kill
37 kill….shoot
38 kill..kill..ambush all ..no matter civilians
39 fire…kill…kill all
40 kill..kill..I want to kill president and the cabinet and become the leader for ever!!
JAYA HE
No wonder, you have all the credentials to become a MR supporter. Good luck after 26th.
OUR ATTENTION HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO CERTAIN ALLEGATIONS MADE IN THE PARLIAMENT OF SRILANKA REGARDING NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS WITH THE SRILANKA ARMY. AS THE PRESIDENT OF THE COMPANY I WISH TO CLARIFY THE ISSUES RELATING TO THE TRANSACTION IN THE FOLLOWING MANNER, FOR THE BENIFIT OF THE GENERAL PUBLIC
Our company, Hicorp International, has followed the proper procedures when bidding for tenders with the Sri Lankan Army, Navy and Air Force. As President of HiCorp International, I take full responsibility for all tenders bid for by us, and our partner companies British Borneo Defense, Satpro Communications and Hitrone LC. We believe that these tenders were granted due to the lower bids we consistently offered to the Sri Lankan forces.
Further, I would like to confirm that although General Fonseka was aware of these bids as Chairman of the Tender Board, his decision to award the tenders to us, were not affected due to my relationship with him or his ownership in the company.
Thank you,
Danuna Tilakaratne
President, HiCorp International & British Borneo Defense
Oklahoma, USA
OUR ATTENTION HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO CERTAIN ALLEGATIONS MADE IN THE PARLIAMENT OF SRILANKA REGARDING NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS WITH THE SRILANKA ARMY. AS THE PRESIDENT OF THE COMPANY I WISH TO CLARIFY THE ISSUES RELATING TO THE TRANSACTION IN THE FOLLOWING MANNER, FOR THE BENIFIT OF THE GENERAL PUBLIC
Our company, Hicorp International, has followed the proper procedures when bidding for tenders with the Sri Lankan Army, Navy and Air Force. As President of HiCorp International, I take full responsibility for all tenders bid for by us, and our partner companies British Borneo Defense, Satpro Communications and Hitrone LC. We believe that these tenders were granted due to the lower bids we consistently offered to the Sri Lankan forces.
Further, I would like to confirm that although General Fonseka was aware of these bids as Chairman of the Tender Board, his decision to award the tenders to us, were not affected due to my relationship with him or his ownership in the company.
Thank you,
Danuna Tilakaratne
President, HiCorp International & British Borneo Defense
Oklahoma, USA
Thank you Danuna for your timely clarification. I think We Sri Lankans should end this MR family and Give Fonseka family a chance. Then you can bid all the future tenders in Sri Lanka and win them very reasonably. Because your Father in-law knows how to offer tenders impartially.
Dear Rama
Are you sure the interegrety about this person? You seem to be foolise enough to clour wash these idiots. Whether it is MR or SF, corruption is corruption. This clarification also explain the extent of corruption.
You’recorrect. SF knows the deal pretty well. He’ll one day kick off all JVPiens and UNPiens and become the one and only hero in Sri Lanka forever and then he’ll handle tenders etc. So, you, me and our children will definitely have a very prosperous future I bet !
I believe Secretary of Defence should be a part of the negotiation team. Possibly he should be the Chairman of the Tender Board. Hence I assume this letter is a bogus one written by a MRs corruption and family favouritism sympathiser.
HARI SHOK MAMA AND BANA.MAMA BID KARANAWA BANA OFFER KARANAWA AYETH MAMA ACCEPT KARANAWA MILTARY PURCHASING.KOCHCHARA HODADA APTATATH NAHANE MEHEMA CHANCE NEDA.APARADE GOTABAYA REJECT KALE ARA NAWA ANEY PAW HONEST DEAL KARANNA BARI UNANE
Nepotism in SF’s world! This is like Dick Cheney giving all the Iraq contracts to Haliburton!
It is very foolish to believe that SF gave the contracts to his own company not because he owned the company but because his company gave the lowest bids. SF had all the information about the other bids, obviously SF provided the information to his son-in-law, so that HiCorp was able to underbid the other companies, thereby getting the sole contracts for the armaments. If this is not corruption, what is it then?
Dear Editor, All the time I have respected you because you appear to be an impartial journalist. However I am very disappointed with you after reading your article. You published on your paper that SF has said to you that Gota has ordered killing. But there were no any electronic or documentary or verbal evidence. (These days even from a mobile phone you can record a conversation). When SF said that he has heard it from a journalist, you confirmed it by this article. ( See on today’s article “He claimed he had heard that Gotabaya Rajapaksa ordered any surrendering LTTE cadres to be shot, and related the story of Pulidevan and Nadesan’s surrender.”) This does not mean that SF has told ” Gota has ordered”. He was saying what he has heard. Do you believe this at the very first place. Being ordinary citizens we do not believe what we hear without any evidence. As a very responsible journalist you had to find the truth first and then publish. I think repeating the original twisted version will be a bonus to the corruption and family favouritism etc.,
Good point by Tilak
Hey janz!
where is ur recordin?
why dont u publish it?
This is like Three Idiots!
mahinda gota janz
You are exactly correct!. MR’s Money can do anything
Thank you Amila,
This bastad woman dont have tape. She lie. She got money from MR. She is talked with Bandula Padmakumara. She get Rupawahini Charman.
Fedrikata Hena Gahapiya!!!!
For the guts you showed in running the story I applaud the Sunday Leader (No doubt there’s already a hit squad awaiting orders from you know who to knock off a few more staffers from your newspaper) for running the Fonseka story. I don’t mean to be critical, but there was a serious problem with the story, which should have been held and investigated further. True it was explosive, but the problem was the accusation against the defence chief was based on what a journalist, or journalists, said. One does not need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the current regime is a murderous one. The regime is quick to kill, it is highly corrupt (I was asked to comit fraud by a presidential secretary in 2007, I left the country shortly afterwards). I think we all know who murdered your editor. Yet to run the Fonseka story with out solid proof was a mistake. I am a former editor of an award-winning newspaper and still working for a leading daily. The story should have been probed thoroughly so that the current regime would have been crippled in the public eye, without being able to respond in a credible manner. My question is how did the journalist find out about the order to kill surrendering tiger cadres and does he or she have any proof. Anyway, I still feel you guys are the best jounalists in sri lanka. Love to have a drink with you guys and gals one day. That’s if i am allowed into the country. Cheers and all the best.
I would also like to salute the editors and journalists of the Sunday Leader for their courageous stand against a government that is famous all over the world for its bloodthirstiness.
I disagree that publishing the story about the massacre of surrendering LTTE leaders was a mistake, or that more confirmatory information needed to be produced by the Sunday Leader in order to verify the story. Fonseka had heard it and apparently believed it. Janusz contacted other military and government leaders who refused to deny the story and reacted as if the story was true. It is Fonseka who needs to stand up and provide the proof of his story, which he had at least 3 opportunities to disavow, but instead told the SL that he would stand by his allegations. The Sunday Leader had a responsibility to publish this story – Fonseka has to come forward with all his evidence. The whole world outside of Sri Lanka knows that the government committed crimes against humanity during their countrinsurgency campaign against the LTTE and their supporters. The real terrorists are the Sri Lankan military (including Fonseka) and the Rajapaksa government.
Varlet
USA
Dear Fedrica Janz,
Three cheers !!! to your courage. You are one of your kind in this island simply none can match you even distantly. Keep up your good work my child.
The people of this country easily forget things and they always want hear only what they want to hear. It really does not matter what the truth is.
Right now these blind people believe Wimal Weerawansa, Karuna & Pilliyan are more patriotic than the General SF.
Least these fellows should be taught to give due respect to this Great Person for what he did to this cursed island. Not necessary to vote for him.
These same crowd were singing hossanna to CBK then and now all know what she gets from the same opprtunists.
History always repeats.
Dear Fedrica you please continue you excellent work anybody insult you thats because they dont have the guts to do what you do.
Again Three Cheers to JANZ
Who believe the fabricated stories against Hon.SF? A fool of the fools could believe. but the probability is almost 1/1000.
please consult for further clarification Dr.Wickramabahu Karunaratne who taught Engineering Mathematics in Peradeniya University.
P.L.J.B.Palipana,P.Eng
SURREY,BC,CANADA
ane we feel sry of thin dreaming UNPers and JVPers. see how they hav shocked by this news. poor sf . sir this is politics . u hav to face dis. bt unfortunately u missed the word. now no 2nd chance 4 u.
The Suday leader is a pathetic newspaper. “Unbowed and Unafraid”? BWHAAHAA!!!!!
One educated man in SL disqualified Hon.SF to become the President of SL because he is not fat like MR(Through a media conversation). Some Buddhist monks too are slinging mud on Hon.SF through various media units.Some parlimentarias behave like monkeys assasinating the charactor of the yesterday’s hero.We are listening those stupid statements via state media and vomiting to the dustbin. This shameless MR regime is wasting inmense quantity of public properties for their only benefit that is called a pre mature presidential elections. Any body who knows “Applied Economics” will judge what may be the Economic Situation in SL following those two forth coming Elections.How many families are in SL with a daily income less that rs.400.In realising those simple economic factors you could analyse the poverty line reative to the other nations in Asia.
TNA එකත් දැන් මටයි සලකන්නෙ.
මම යන පාර දැන් ඔයාලට පැහැදිලිද?
ගෝඨයි මහින්දයි මාව දැක්කුවෙ නැත්නම්, මම තාම දනුන බෑනත් එක්ක ලස්සනට යුද්දෙ කරනවා!!!!!
Hi fool Palipana. I know you ar in moon. Dont know who appoint SF as army commander. Remeber No MR no army commander called SF. Not only the SF but also Gota, MR, Karnnagoda, Roshan and STF, Civil all are heros to us. But you are living with LTTE financiaers and you only see SF after he come as the alternative candidate.
What you know about Sri Lanka. Yes there is jumbo cabinat, it is for the maintaining the parliment power. In the parliment, MR’s marty has less than 50%. So he has to use a jumbo cabinet to maintain the parliment. He was able to continieve with this hand parilmant for 6 years. You idiot dont know that.
If you have small commen sence, not advance applied economic, to have a better parliment, political leadership has to play the biggerst trump. Once he win the precidency (Definitly), the next is the parliment. So he will be able to get clear mojority.
So, no more hang parliment and no need a jumbo cabinet any more.
Idiot, gon palipana you saty in Canada with your LTTE friends for another 30 years. It will be good for our mother Lanka
For us MR, SF, GR, Karanna, Roshan all of them are heros. But one hero died prematuerly
(pl. forgive me for my bad spelling)
Ohh, Mrs FJ niyami ne wede ,thamunta kiyak pay kalada kiyala kiyannko..me wedeta maru ragapemak ne karanne. hithe athi anith minissu modayo kiyala..ne me nican hengenne nethuwa kathawa true nam kelinma medias walata eka explain karana ekane thiyenne…hari oyata Mahindagen Suba Anagathayak lebei….ok
:::::>>>>>>One Shot::::>>>>>
A FRUIT SALAD MADE OF A RAPIST,A CAD,A TERRORIST,A LIAR, A TRAITOR A REBEL and SWEET SUCKER UPS of the WEST prepared by BANIS MAMA aka RANIL.W.YOUR PAPER WAS JUST ADDED TO THE BOWL MADE OF COW DUNG
Janz you let down your management and the Sunday Leader. What an idiot. The Sunday Leader lost its credibility because of your disclosures. Resign as the editor.
newest HOT story….I didn’t believe this..But checked at google, the website is correct.
http://hicorp.us/index.htm
Oh!!! Poor FJ. We all know that you’ve been a good tabloid journalist. i.e. you find out one side of the story and then hypothesize the other side of the story as you think it would have happened according to your own knowledge of the other side (which some times may be the truth) and find evidence to the things you have hypothesized. Write the story as if you were watching on TV and publish it. Boom you’re the heroine!!!! You win awards for being the best journalist. Good for you ha.. So do you finally think if elected SF will give you the freedom of press !!!! good thoughts, but how could you think such a way after knowing everything about the conduct of SF’s military campaign. You’ve been fantasized by the public support commanded by the SF and thought that he’d be a better dictator, Didn’t you?
And finally did you’ll like the fact that Malik at last decided to bury the story!!!! If you did I say that you’ll are just a bunch of selfish people. If u believe that Pulidevan and Nadesan were massacred despite being surrendered so why don’t you go after it. And find any body who did it or gave the orders for it and let the whole world know. So don’t call your selves journalists anymore. Because you have not practiced what you preached. Final word from me if you think that you don’t know the truth don’t publish…………
This effort is an extention of “appi wenuwen appi” campaign.Those who did not listen to the above request has a good oppotunity to realise the true nature of the guys behind the General Fonseka..They want to distroy both SF as well as MR. for few Dollers.
Ms. Jansz:
I was under the impression journalists should stick to reporting a story, rather than taking sides in an election or promoting one candidate over the other. Yours is not to decide who runs, who should be promoted to win, etc. Through the years Sri Lanka has been ill served by extreme ‘political’ journalism, and your own account of what you did is the latest story in this sad state of affairs.
Aside from the above, and purely, on the issue of the murder of surrendering LTTE leaders—clearly against any standard of war, lest someone wilfully misunderstand my letter as support for what is actually murder—it is clear from your account that you sought not to pursue the truth, but to sensationalise an interested party’s perspective. That is you failed to interrogate the general of his interest in the matter, when you had him with you. Regardless of the General’s answer, his allegation of the murder of surrendering LTTE leaders should have warranted a broader based attempt to find out what really happened. It was imperative that you find out who gave the orders, and why. Indeed, it is important to even ask if it really happened, and if did, could it have been the actions of one unit of the forces without knowledge of the surrender and in the heat of battle, as suggested by an internet blogster. In other words, consider all possibilities regardless, as that is your responsibility.
Ms. Jansz, Sri Lanka’s democracy cannot work without an independent journalistic ethic, just as the democracy in the US is to some extent a function of how its journalist write and what they write in terms of topic. Perhaps my call for journalism that is disinterested is an unreasonable demand, coming as does from my refuge in the Ivory Tower; thus an ideal, at best. But there it is: that is what you need to aim for, as we in the Ivory Tower can tell you without an independent press, democracy suffers fatally. I admire brave journalists, but find those who work on one side or the other to be part of the problem, whether in Sri Lanka or elsewhere.
My sense is that you now resign and restart with another Newspaper resolved to never again participate in campaigning for any party.
Sincerely,
Jayantha Jayman
Assistant Professor
St. Lawrence University
New York
Mr.Jayantha Jayman,
Dear Sir,
The media is responsible for the prevailg very sad political drama in this country.Truly speaking we don’t have an independent media in our motherland. In this way it is very difficult to re-build true harmony among Sinhala+tamil+Muslim people.We need not to give the most recent destructive polititical history for our younger generation. We need to change this direction of the country as soon as possible. Thats why I am with Hon.SF to see a drastic change in our all the affairs of the country.
Sir,I accept your valuable comments very respectfuly
P.L.J.B.Palipana,PEng
SURREY,BC,CANADA
Politics in SL has been changed significantly since 60′s. SF to change this poster and mud politics if he wins the election.It is one priority that country needs.
We know that the leaders came out with white flags were shot at. SF conveyed it just after the war while speaking at Matara Rally that the army killed those who surrended. The fact remains however we manipulate the story by using all sort of arguments. Let us not waste the time in talking back and forth, but do some thing to help build the mother land. It is time to act wisely and sit in our foolishness of wasting time.
Many countries have moved on after civil war, and even genocide, as is the case of Rwanda, and let us not forget Germany. The moving on however is enabled when journalists stop playing politics and trust the people. If journalists do no trust the people to make a decision and instead resort to willful support of one candidate or the other then they are by definition anti-democratic. Yes, trusting people is difficult when you have strong political opinions as in Sri Lanka. Yes, people are manipulated often, just look at the work offered by Noam Chomsky. Yet, if do no trust people by straight reporting then there is no hope for recovery, as who tells the facts as they are?
In this election it is crucial the Sri Lanka continue to maintain its elections on even keel; if the system breaks the threat to national security will be grave indeed as outside power will find it in their interests to interfere, given Sri Lanka’s strategic location. The key question for Sri Lankans is not which President is better, rather to ensure the system does not break down.
In this coming election it is clear that political parties are using everything they have to win an election. There is no need for journalists to be involved, except to ensure fair play by reporting on the facts. Newspapers can endorse candidates by careful reason—by weighing the pros and cons and contextualizing the challenge for the next leader and seeing who can deliver best. Newspapers must also offer op ed page features that then are balanced by other op eds. The newspaper must be a forum in this sense, while in all other ways reporting the facts as they are.
To repeat: the murder of surrendering forces under the white flag is a crime in any war. If this happened in Sri Lanka, then everyone down the command chain is responsible. That is to say Gen. Fonseka is as responsible as President Rajapaksa. However, until the facts are disclosed all this is in the realm of allegation. In the fog of war many things happen and it possible that we will never know the truth, as we were not there to witness it. I would encourage the government, the armed forces, civil society organizations such as the UTHR, etc. to investigate the claims using all legal means necessary. Truth and Reconciliation go hand in hand if we can somehow learn from other experiences even if they are imperfect.
Sincerely,
Jayantha Jayman
Assistant Professor
Global Political Economy
St. Lawrence University
New York
Pro.Jayantha Jaymon,
Dear Sir,
I accept fully your comments on behalf of our Motherland.Only thing we need is a Moderate United SriLanka with out any kind of discrimination.
P.L.J.B.Palipana,P.Eng
SURREY,BC,CANADA
Me oya kathakaranne Canada ganada. Pissu kellinne nathuwa inna. Oya gon kathama thamayi ne kiyanne
OK, lets put this behind for now. What about the ‘so called’ Sinhala patriots in the government who blasted the other Sinhalese for not been patriotic when the forces were killing innocent people? The Colombo Travel Agents say that business is very brisk for them. All so called Sinhala patriots are sending their spouses and family abroad – Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Yemen, Dubai and other places. These people cannot go to U.S., Canada and the U.K. due to Visa controls. What a laughable joke. PATRIOTS…simply BS.