UK firm says it wrote MR’s speech
A British Public Relations firm has claimed it wrote President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s speech delivered at the United Nations last year.
Britain’s ‘Independent’ newspaper said that senior executives at the PR firm Bell Pottinger told undercover reporters that it’s speech was given preference to one prepared by the Sri Lankan foreign ministry.
In the speech the President suggested rules governing the humanitarian conduct of war should be re-examined. He also described his troops’ action against Tamil Tiger separatists as humanitarian.
President Rajapaksa also claimed in the speech that a Commission established by the government to look into the last years of the civil war, was giving “full expression to the principles of accountability”. The Commission has been heavily criticised by human rights groups including Amnesty International because it does not have a mandate to hold individuals to account for war crimes.
“We had a team working in the President’s office. We wrote the President’s speech to the UN last year which was very well received… it went a long way to taking the country where it needed to go,” David Wilson, the chairman of Bell Pottinger Public Relations, said during the meeting with undercover reporters.
But during the meeting Mr Wilson seemed to agree with Amnesty, describing the Commission as having a “fundamental flaw in its remit in investigating what has gone on in the past, to try to bury the past”.
The company also attended a meeting of Tamil dissidents in London, the British Tamils Forum (BTF) said. Days before President Rajapaksa’s arrival in London in December 2010, Tim Ryan, the chairman of Bell Pottinger International, and a colleague attended an open political meeting in Harrow organised by the BTF and the Nava Sama Samaja [New Social Equality] Party.
Gobi Ratnam, a Tamil journalist who chaired the event said the pair stood out as the only white people present. They said they were from Bell Pottinger. “They said they wanted to listen to our problems, to learn and help the Sri Lankan people,” Mr Ratnam said. “A lot of people were talking to them.”
Dr Wickremabahu Karunaratne, the Sinhalese general secretary of the NSS Party who ran for president in 2010, gave a speech at the meeting in which he called for Tamil forces to join a new alliance of opposition members and breakaway groups to challenge the government – comments that were widely reported.
There is no suggestion that Bell Pottinger did anything illegal in its dealings with the Sri Lankan government.
Part of Bell Pottinger’s remit was to influence the foreign media in favour of the Sri Lankan government.
The firm sub-contracted its work in the United States to the firm Qorvis, which placed an article by President Rajapaksa in the Philadelphia Inquirer in December 2009 entitled “How Sri Lanka Defeated Terrorism”. In the piece the President suggested Sri Lanka had provided a “workable model” for defeating terrorism, from which the international community could gain “valuable insight”.
In February 2010, the Wall Street Journal published a piece that discussed the “peaceful” election which returned Rajapaksa to power, and prompted several letters complaining of government violence against its critics.
Bell Pottinger has been less successful at placing such articles in the UK press. the government’s opinions. In December 2009 the firm reportedly pitched a piece to The Guardian which it declined to publish.
if Hitler alive today, this firm would have wrote speech for him. Good firm.
It is a low level act to read a speech prepared by UK company while bashing West for ignorant public consumption.
“undercover reporters” — is this for real? Something smells very fishy here.
It has not helped. the war crimes investigations will still continue, so there is no escape.
Sri Lankan President Rajapaksha is spending the wealth of his country on Bell Pottinger, Paton Boggs and the missions in sanitazing the brutality unleashed on the civilians during the most unwitnessed war.
A lot to do to hide how the people were starved, hospitals were repeatedly attacked and the way corpses were abused by smiling soldiers
The true reconciliation will be achieve with honesty, freedom of speech , real improvements for the long-suffering Tamil war victims and with lies upon more lies
Rajiva Silva don’t prostitute the freedom “The Leader” has provided us to write online.
Great stuff, nothing to be ashamed of. Everything is coming to light, one by one!
These are all diaspora stunts to discredit the reputation of sovereign Sri Lanka.
why not a tamil intellectual with idea from a sinhalese collague do the writing honest probably reliable and most likely appreciated by the citizens than a foreigner far away not wellversed by countrys problems but good at fabricating words to please the mind not the soul.
No, It was an attempt to diffuse the international elements who are hell bent on destroying us at the behest of LTTE diaspora. The president apparently had a script from the Foreign Ministry, which obviously must have been written by one or more Sri Lankans. But this was obviously a far better option. Only difference is, unfortunately they don’t come cheap, they cost us.
So many red blooded sort after Sinhalese intellectuals alas have to rely on a Western whitie and according to one Mr Ruwan Ferdinandez who are hell bent on destroying the Mother land to write a speech. Pain increases by ten fold when one realize Sri Lankan taxpayers are paying the Whitie. Is the word hypocrites sound a bell patriots?
Can you suggest any self-respecting Tamil intellectual who will write for the President? Especially on that subject?
Has to be. Mahinda can’t think for himself can he?? By the way how much of the tax payers money was paid to Bell Pottinger for this speech may we ask? We are all suffering under the heavy load of the cost of living .
So we don’t have a proper person in the government who can prepare a speech to deliver at the UN. What a shame. i thought our government have lot of learned people. I wonder how much we paid to the UK based PR firm. We all have big mouth but nothing in our head.
So what, all speeches of leaders are either written or edited by an expert in PR, in this case this was a crucial speech and so it needed the level of craftsmenship
Surely we have better people to write speeches in Sri-lanka especially in the FM. Anyway it does not matter when we saw the audience when the speech was delivered
So even for speach MR relies on Sudhas.Howver in public forum he is dead against to these western people. Who is the biggest fool here?
Right on, Saman!
Have you seen/heard the English that these geniuses write or speak? Whether it was Bell Pottinger or Bell in the Potty, they wouldn’t know the difference. They might, just as well, have Sanath Jayasuriya, that great English scholar of the cricket field, write the presentation for all the difference it made. What no one seems to notice that the “respectability” that they were looking for by hiring Lord Bell’s outfit was completely lost when the anonymity of the true authors was exposed!
But the Ruwan Ferdinanduz’s of the world don’t have the basic intelligence to realise this, do they?
So, we don’t have anyone who could have written that speech in SL? May be MR feared grammatical mistakes since we don’t have any English trained teachers to teach English in the country. For presidents speeches are being written by professionals. We knew in the case of George Bush he had a half a dozen of them but they all Americans and not foreign nationals. How many of the sixty odd ministers can write or speak proper English. What harm had MR made the speech in Sinhala like few leaders do in the UN in their own languages?
.. and with all these ‘American’ script writers, still GWB still managed to introduce so many new ‘Bushisms’ into the English language that no one understood…
What is your point ?
MR’s speech was well-crafted and understandable. The material and points to be made would have been provided by GOSL and the PR guys would have simply packaged it for presentation..
What’s the problem with that ?
Had it been written by a SL author, you guys would be on that in the same manner., like the proverbial flies on s..t, pointing out grammatical errors and the like..
MR’s Govt has delivered more than other leaders who were the so called ELE (English Speaking Elite), what matters is results.
Our President can deliver his speech in any language, not necessarily in English, but
in Sinhala or even in lately learnt broken Tamil or even Gibberish, who cares or who listened to his historical lecture at UN ? There were hardly any people, most of the chairs were empty. So much for Bell Pottinger & so are the waste.
So what is the bigg Fuss. Speech writing is an art and not every one can do it. All leaders big and small depend on others to write; what does it matter if it was by a Sinhalese, a Tamil Englishman or whoever, as long it is well written, the President read and accepted it and was well-delivered and well recieved. Of course good professional work costs and for situations like that, one should spend.
On the contrary if the president delivered a lousy speech, then these guys will say why can’t he get someone to write and pay for it and save the dignity of SL. This is all nonsense; like some one said just another gimmick to discredit Sri Lanka. It is juyt rumour any way and there is no confirmation that BP wrote it too.
Now I get it [speech writing is a art] none of the Sri Lankan intellectuals so far unable to master the paint brush of this art yet. Who can argue with that logic?
Wee problem is way a White man? Is it because that they are a better liars?
it is best speech
Theach Mahind good English. May be it will take over 15 years.
I dont think Mahinda Need Some One Else to prepair his Speech .
Bell Pottinger wrote his speech.
SO WHAT??
Aney MR should have got a local yakko to write his speech no? then he would not be sitting on the pot.
O ! Hoo ! This is why he does not do what he says as he does not know what he reads. G L. don’t put people in trouble
Rajiva Silva is a vicious tiger in sheepskin clothing, be aware
This is what happens when there are not many educated employees in the government departments other than uneducated, political henchmen appointed by their masters. So, we have to hire a foreign company to promote Srilanka and write speeches for the president at the expense of tax payers. Miracle of Asia!!