Self censorship of the Sinhala Press about the President’s Shame Giving further ammunition to the LTTE Diaspora to carry the flag

Sri Lanka suffered another blow to the prestige of the country by its President having accepted an invitation to speak at the Commonwealth Business Forum, and which was cancelled less than 24 hours before the speech was to be given.

This was NOT reported in the Sinhala Press on Thursday June 7^th, the day after the cancellation, though it was in all the newspapers in the UK of the same day. In fact the Sri Lankan English language papers carried extracts from the UK papers reporting of this event, and even the FT I believe took word for word the whole article in the UK's Guardian Paper's coverage.

There is some confusion as to the exact cause of this, however there is no doubt that the LTTE Diaspora had a hand in this and they are no doubt chuckling with glee at their success of socking it to MR again after the Oxford debacle. Let the reader come to his own conclusion.

Why does our President not learn from such incidents, to keep his pride and not go to the UK? This kind of act does not do the nation proud as the allegations of human rights abuse have surfaced again and new information with more damning light is being put forward, no doubt to be denied by the Presidential spokesman as yet another fabrication. This kind type of bad publicity caused by government incompetence and ineptitude is bad for business in Sri Lanka and should be highlighted and the culprits brought to book to prevent more cock ups by these incompetent bureaucrats if that was the cause of this debacle.

This is indeed a further indication of the incompetence of our representatives in overseas missions in their failure to counter these allegations by presenting the truth. The reason we have not been able to present a true face to the world as to how difficult it was to overcome an enemy of psychopathic tendencies, is because there are real crimes we could have admitted to and be forgiven for in the heat of the battle and got on with our healing.

The government’s insistence of NO wrongdoing is at the heart of the inability to counter those in the LTTE Diaspora who have no intention EVER of giving up their fight from an overseas base. They have nothing to lose, all to gain in sympathy and justification for their existence in UK.

I have repeatedly stated that the country is put through the torture mill by a few in govt. who are implicated of crimes against humanity, which if they had been agreed to at the time, have cleared the air and a more lasting act of truth and reconciliation could have already been in place.

It is my accusation that the govt. has no desire for reconciliation. It is by continuous fear that they hold on to power, and the lie is part of this!!

I was heartened to see the Opposition UNP demand an adjournment debate to argue this case in Parliament for today, Friday the 8th of June. However the   Speaker refused to grant the debate citing the President as saying it is not an important enough issue to be debated.

This kind of arrogance in the face of defeat on the part of the President is a further indication that they live in an escapist world, living in denial that they caused a grave publicity debacle to the Country by their treachery.

Is it anything less than treachery when the leaders of our country continue to abuse the trust the population has placed on them, by engaging in activity that continuously brings disrepute to the Country?

When there is an incompetent bunch in charge it shows how devoid of even diplomatic finesse they all suffer from. The President in now on his way to Rome for an audience with the Pope where no doubt he will continue to bring the country a bad name, as the reason for his trip and audience is suspect, and not clear enough to be of any benefit to the Country other than seeking self publicity for himself at home with the catholic community in Sri Lanka.

It is plain shameful that the country's resources are squandered in negative publicity, when a proper assessment of foreign policy is needed before the bull in a china shop approach to foreign policy is reviewed.

I call upon the opposition to explain to a nation that that is being tricked as to why this issue is yet another indication of the leadership having lost their marbles and are now living in an irrational world, where they are unable to govern and why it is time for a change. That latter aspect by the opposition is also not present, and they need a team to find the best way of explaining the mess the to the people in language and nuances with examples they understand.