Mihin loses Rs. 83 mn in three weeks

By Vimukthi Yapa 

Since its re-launch on January 1, Mihin Lanka has made some serious waves in the national pocketbook: think a tsunami hitting the Treasury coffers with unprecedented force.

The airline has surpassed the expectations of all its opponents as well as The Sunday Leader, by losing a record sum of money in just 23 days. The airline has lost Rs. 83 million in its operations insofar.

With over a week left to go before January is over, Mihin Lanka is well on its way to losing over Rs. 100 million in its first month of operations - breaking its own world record for most disastrous state owned excuse for a budget airline.

Yet despite all its woes, Mihin Lanka has just paid a Rs. 4 million "advance" to the Triad advertising agency for its publicity campaign for January. The success of this campaign can be judged from the fact that in the last week, not one of its flights was more than half full.

Flights cancelled

In fact, four flights to Trivandrum were cancelled due to a lack of passengers in both directions. These frequent cancellations have left the Indian civil aviation authorities irate, and a Mihin Lanka official told The Sunday Leader that the airline's management has been spooked by the possibility of having its landing rights in India revoked - a move that would restrict the airline's budget flights to Dubai alone.

Interestingly, the Triad cheque was drawn from an account Mihin is operating with Sampath Bank, as it cannot operate its BoC account as it owes that bank over Rs. 1.1 billion, a debt that has been outstanding for over one year with no action being taken by the Bank of Ceylon to get its money back.

What is most startling about the stupid decisions being taken at Mihin Lanka - such as paying for 300 non-refundable and non-extendable flying hours on a brand-spanking new airplane per month, when they will fly less than 150 hours in that month - is that the airline is paying a small fortune for senior management talent.

The Head of Flight Operations, 73 year old Captain Cramer, draws a salary of Rs. 600,000 per month or Rs 20,000 per day to see to the 'operations' of just one single wet-leased aircraft. Head of Operations, Athula Dissanayake, who has yet to produce the 'operations manual' required from his post, is paid Rs. 650,000 per month.

Even the Head of Commercial, Rohana Perera, who is tasked with filling the plane with passengers, takes home Rs. 350,000 per month, despite the fact that Mihin is unable to fill its aircraft to even half capacity.

Over several months

These and many other top level management staff, as well as 160 additional employees, have been drawing their salaries not since Mihin launched in January but over the last several months, a time in which, clearly, little thought has gone into preventing Mihin Lanka from crash-landing once again.

The airline is currently running on a 'loan' of Rs 1.558 billion from Airport and Aviation Services Limited (AASL) until it receives its first infusion of the Rs. 6 billion gifted to Mihin by the UPFA government's budget.

With such vast amounts of money ready for this company to spend, it is alarming that Mihin's Chairman, Raja Edirisuriya, chose to leave the company on the grounds that he was unable to work with CEO Kapila Chandrasena.

When we attempted to contact officers in the Chairman's office, all attempts failed. Even Mihin Lanka's Media Coordinator, Gamini Abeywardena, refused to give an answer as to Edirisuriya's status. "I cannot comment on these matters. We have a Chairman and a CEO. That is all," he snapped.

Abeywardena also refused to comment on whether Mihin admits to losing Rs. 83 million in its operations. "I don't know where these figures are from. We can only verify official figures," he said dismissively.

Ultimate aim

In this backdrop UNP Parliamentarian Ravi Karunanayake warned that the government's ultimate aim appears to be amalgamating Mihin with SriLankan Airlines. "This is what they are trying to do now," he warned.

"They ran down Rs 3.7 billion on Mihin leaving no assets to show, and now they have taken Rs 6 billion and are losing it at Rs. 4 million a day. Whose money do they think it is?" he asked.

"The UNP has insisted that if the government wanted to invest Rs. 6 billion in the aviation industry, this money could go towards re-fleeting SriLankan Airlines instead of just wasting it on this Rajapakse ego trip."

Both airlines would be destroyed as a result, Karunanayake warned. "This is financially not viable as they cannot pay the amortisation. It is commercially not viable as they cannot fill their flights. We have said this from the start," the UNP MP lamented.

Prices

He pointed out that Air Arabia flights to the UAE were Rs 40,000 per economy class seat, and asked why anyone would fly Mihin Lanka at Rs 49,000 per seat for far more trimmed down services.

In any case, even SriLankan Airlines and Emirates who have much higher fares than Mihin's to Dubai, have had no problem achieving over 70% load factors throughout most of January. Despite these pricey airlines doing relatively well, Mihin Lanka is unable to fill even half of its aircraft on any given flight.

Given that it is a commercial non-starter, moves are already afoot for Mihin to again assume its 'Air Force One' role for the President and his coterie. Inquiries have been made by airline officials on the possibility of using the aircraft for an upcoming presidential trip to China.

As the year continues, reports of Mihin Lanka burning tax rupees like jet fuel continue to come in steadily with the airline now running a single plane. The question of how long Mihin Lanka can survive is a function purely of how much of their money tax payers' will be willing to sacrifice in the coming months and years to fuel this most lavish 'Chinthana' ego trip.

"Selling the FMM:" Sunanda, Park say no

Media activist Sunanda Deshapriya and Director, IFJ Asia-Pacific, Jacqueline Park have responded to the article published last week titled Selling the FMM for the good life. We reproduce below their letters along with a note by journalist Frederica Jansz.  

Sunanda Deshapriya responds

The Free Media Movement has been at the centre of the struggle for press freedom and democratic rights since the early nineties.

The success of the FMM has attracted attacks and criticism from senior ministers, pro-government media and extreme nationalist groups.

This is a short response to the article by Frederica Janz under the heading of "Selling the FMM for the good life" which appeared on 18th January 2009 in Sunday Leader.

She says that FMM functioned for a decade from the income of membership fees and it carried out large campaigns with the support of the industry. However, the membership fees were only part of the support.

It should not be forgotten that the MIRJE (Movement for Inter Racial Justice and Equality) INFORM and the Centre for Policy Alternatives has provided office accommodation to the Free Media Movement at all times. MIRJE paid for the printing of posters and the rallies countrywide in the early 90s. The Yellow Band campaign for free and fair elections (2000) and the campaign at Nuwara Eliya for media freedom (1993) are two examples for the activities of the FMM which were supported largely by political parties.  Even now, the official address of the FMM is that of a Non Governmental Organization and from the very inception the working committee meetings of the FMM were held at progressive NGO offices that provided all facilities. (Frederica Janz was never a part of any of these activities.) Fundamental rights cases filed by FMM on press freedom issues were supported by INFORM and CPA. 

FMM has been able to sustain its campaign for media freedom for last 17 years mainly because of its ability to work with progressive NGO sector and opposition political parties.

In line with our campaigning for a free and democratic media in Sri Lanka, the FMM has been implementing three projects and administrated one project in 2008. There are journalist's safety program, Public Service Media awards program, Human rights reporting awards program and International News Safety program.

The Sri Lankan media have benefited greatly from these activities: The FMM has been able build an all island journalists' net work; through the journalist's safety program FMM has helped many journalists protect their lives and continue their profession with enhanced safety. The media awards programs have made a qualitative change in reporting on public service issues. 

While I acknowledge that FMM has done a lot of work in the last few years, this is what the situation has demanded. But it is simply wrong to say that the FMM lacked proper administrative capacity to run number of programs at the same. All three programs had admin staff who were responsible for each respective program. We also benefited from the support and infrastructure of other national and international NGOs.

The FMM has never initiated any inquiry on financial misappropriation by me. I have not been accused of misappropriating money from a Safety Fund at all as Janz writes. And I did not resigned from my FMM position on any of these issues.  This is the relevant section of my letter to FMM secretary on 12th January this year. . "Due to prevailing security situation I will not be available for FMM activities for some time now on. I will not play any public role for unspecified period. Under this situation I may not be able to do my work as FMM spokesperson/ international relations/head projects." (FMM working committee did not accept my "resignation")

The article makes a lot of noise about internal financial arrangements. There is no question that I or anyone else ever received any personal financial benefit as a result.

I am disturbed that Mrs. Janz who is one of the safety coordinators of International News Safety Institute (a kind of INGO) discloses the names of  two journalists have been paid to relocate themselves for safety reasons. The FMM has facilitated a number of journalists and journalist's families to relocate. Providing support to relocate threatened journalists or human rights activists is nothing new.  It is practiced in all difficult situations all over the world. It was safety fund steering committee members advised the president and secretary of SLWJA to move to other locations for their safety for obvious reasons. It is not the amount but the policy one should discuss in this case. We all know that life is priceless.

Frederica Janz has in her article referred to number of expenses.  It is quite obvious that her statement is not based on any official document of the Free Media Movement including a statement of accounts or an audit report. She has not sourced her information to any official document.

Finally, FMM accounts have been audited on yearly basis, audited accounts for 2007 was submitted to Special General Meeting held on 20th January 2009. Under FMM programs all payments have been made according to approved budget line items. Training fees differ form program to program, there has been no standard fee for training.

There are many more factual errors in Janz's article but I am not wasting your newspaper in countering them. It is FMM treasurer Mrs. Janz should have contacted if she wanted to verify her claims.

The only thing I would like to mention is that journalism is the discipline of verification and Mr. Janz has failed in doing so.

Mr. Janz called me early January and asked some questions, when I asked what are the documents she is referring to she said she will get back to me. After a week it was Lasantha who called me and told that Frederica is going to write an article and she will call me.  When Lasantha called me his wife and Morning Leader editor Sonali Samarasinghe was also with him. Lasantha asked me to discuss all issues including INSI and SLPI. But Mr. Janz never called me back and what she has quoted me on FMM and Uvindu Kurukulasuriya are not my words.

I would like to end this short response by quoting the press release of Special General Meeting which was held on 20th January 2009 and elected new office bearers.

"The Special general meeting had unanimously decided to defeat and take every possible action against the forces which are acting to discredit and destroy the image and the functioning of the movement. FMM members, during the special general meeting, also appointed a disciplinary committee to conduct an inquiry into the matters which affected the credibility of the FMM and its members, thus to make available the findings to the public."

- Sunanda Deshapriya

Jacqueline Park responds

The International Federation of Journalists - the global voice of journalists - has been proud to have been working with the Sri Lankan media community for a decade.

We have seen significant improvements: many journalists have been better trained; no attack on press freedom has gone unchallenged; and the journalists' community has come together under the Five Media Collective, binding together the five key journalists' organisations on the island.

We have also seen a significant deterioration in the external environment as the government and its allies have turned on the media and on independent journalists and press freedom organisations - both Sri Lankan and international.

The focus of the work of the IFJ and Sri Lankan journalists has been:

 To promote public service values in journalism;

 To promote an understanding and commitment to human rights;

 To ensure the safety of journalists.

We have been fortunate to have received international aid support for this work. This aid has made so much of this activity possible.

The work has been made possible, too, because of the strong commitment and sacrifices by key individuals such as Sunanda Deshapriya, Sanath Balasooriya and Poddala Jayantha, among many others.

None of this is unusual. The IFJ works with journalists and their organisations around the world to protect and advance the rights and safety of the media.

Nor is it unusual that the success of the work of these organisations and individuals has resulted in threats, attacks and outright murder.

It is, however, unfortunate that The Sunday Leader should lend itself to the sort of shallow, inaccurate and unethical smears published in your newspaper on January 18, 2009, under the by-line of Frederica Jansz.

The article reflects the ongoing attacks by the Government of Sri Lanka against global organisations and the very idea that journalists globally through the IFJ should work with their colleagues in Sri Lanka or that they should receive international donor support.

This is a time of immense danger for journalists and the media in Sri Lanka, and I believe far too much time and space has been given to these allegations, which serve as a distraction from the real and present threat to the media in Sri Lanka. However, the slurs against the IFJ and the media community are so grave that a correction is essential.

There are three fundamental requirements of ethical journalism: check your facts, keep things in context, and declare any conflict of interest.

Clearly, there has been no attempt to investigate the facts and there is no documentary evidence to support the claims. I am surprised that Ms Jansz also made no effort to contact me to check the facts in her article. She has my email and phone numbers. Surely, these are the most basic requirement of professional journalism.

So, let's set the record straight.

First, the Kandalama training workshop to which the author refers took place under an IFJ project which is independently audited outside Sri Lanka. The project is not under the control of any organisation in Sri Lanka. All expenditure under the project is ultimately borne by the IFJ, not by the Free Media Movement nor the Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Your writer is misinformed on many details. To start with, Christopher Warren did not go to Kandalama, as she claims. He was not even in Sri Lanka at the time. 

The workshop ran for five days, not three, as reported. I stayed at a hotel in Kandalama for the purposes of conducting the training, as contracted between the IFJ and an international funder. I arrived late in the evening before the training began and left the day after it finished. I therefore stayed 6 nights. My children were with me at my personal cost. 

The venue at Kandalama was chosen specifically because it provided a safe haven for the training to be done free of security concerns at a time when the safety of many of the participants was under threat.

The training involved working with Sri Lankan journalists to create a training course and materials to help journalists deal with the serious threats they face in their daily work. Indeed, the workshop resulted in the development of such materials, of which the participants should be proud. At the workshop, I also trained local journalists to work as trainers themselves, so that they can assist others in the future without need of an international expert. This group of local trainers will be able to help other journalists in Sri Lanka to defend themselves against the death threats and physical attacks which have, sadly, become commonplace in Sri Lanka.

Second, there is nothing untoward in a debt owing to the IFJ. The IFJ was owed the funds for its attendance at the Public Service Media Awards ceremony in November 2007.

I attended the awards ceremony at the invitation of CPA, which ran the awards. The financing of my participation was agreed in advance with CPA. I have many years of experience in organising journalism awards, and such programs require much more than pulling names out of a hat. I am sure that any professional would appreciate that serious work involves advance preparation and the delivery of well-considered advice.

Third, the sorts of payments that were made from the safety fund administered by SLPI are standard in these sorts of situations around the world. Let us not forget that these are people who have been facing serious and real threats to themselves and their families. The payments have one goal - to save people's lives.

Fourth, the author takes many individual payments out of context and throws random figures around on the basis that if she throws enough mud, some of it will stick. Yet as the corrections I've made here show, once any of her allegations is investigated, they collapse like a house of cards.

Fifth, the author fails to disclose that she herself was paid by the London-based International News Safety Institute until the end of last year. Indeed, she herself would have received many of the payments that she reports that Sunanda Deshapriya received.

There is nothing wrong in this. INSI is an important part of the network that protects journalists. It's done important work in Sri Lanka and South Asia. The attacks on Ms Jansz in other media for her work for this international NGO have been unfair.

However, basic journalistic ethics demand that a conflict of interest of this scale be publicly declared.

Ms Jansz should know as well as anyone who is committed to media freedom and freedom of expression that our time is far better spent in supporting these programs and assisting journalists to do their work than on petty public squabbling which plays into the hands of those who would obstruct media freedom in Sri Lanka.

The allegations against me include unfounded personal attacks. They have no substance and are grossly offensive. I am surprised to see publication of such slurs without any evidence.

Sri Lanka's media is contending with a systematic campaign of violence in which it is directly targeted. It benefits no-one - journalists or the wider public - for unfounded allegations and vicious slurs to be cast about so loosely. These smears must end so that we can all get on with the real job - protecting the safety and livelihoods of Sri Lanka's journalists.

- Jacqueline Park

Frederica Jansz states: 

I stand by every word in my article.  Contrary to Sunanda Deshapriya's claim The Sunday Leader is in possession of documentary evidence to support the entire article in question.

Deshapriya was fully aware I was writing an article on this issue at the time I spoke to him.  I never at any stage said I would get back to him. Immediately after I spoke with him, Deshapriya telephoned Lasantha Wickrematunge and tried to vindicate himself of all the issues relevant to the article on which I had questioned him. Lasantha in fact telephoned me 10 minutes after I had spoken with Deshapriya and said as much. It is despicable that Deshapriya can even at this stage attempt to twist facts and deliberately lie knowing full well Lasantha is no longer alive for verification.

As for Jacqueline Park, the reference made to Christopher Warren having accompanied her last year in July when she stayed at the Heritance Hotel in Kandalama is regretted. The cost of her suite (for her and her children) for 6 nights was paid on a full board basis in full out of funds allocated for a conference on an 'Advanced Module in Writing Training.' 

In this instance too The Sunday Leader has documentary evidence to prove it.

That Park has the audacity to tell The Sunday Leader to remove from its website the article concerned based on inaccuracies as she sees it, is laughable.