Rs 750M for ads on 17th 18th and 19th November – that can’t be!

If you happen to live in Sri Lanka and was your fault for receiving every Newpaper published on the above dates, one would have counted, 400 full page equivalents in advertising, of which 35% had a full page of HE the President. They were celebrating either the President’s 66^th birthday which fell on the 18^th or the beginning of the third year of his Presidency’s second term. I believe it is unprecedented in the annals of international sycophancy, and for that I am sure one sycophant may have applied to the Guinness Record Keepers to establish a new world record for such.

In addition to the advertising, which I am sure was a minor bonanza for the Newspaper industry, there were pages of editorial which I believe one would refer to more as advertorials written by each ministry pointing to the apparent successes during his administration. Each when viewed critically could just as likely to be a failure, but the point of reference to a reader of limited ability is not there, to glean such minutiae.

Nevertheless the level of businesses, which should steer clear of politics, that indulged in this sycophancy was a clear indication of the fear through which they operate, as without it they could suffer retribution or not get the largess. So the safer and most cost effective means was to join the sycophant rabble and be placed amongst them.

One has to see what I mean, ad supplements in some papers ran to two sections with each section having 40 pages! How much can one say about an administration, let alone a man? Well it is to the fact that he has 100+ ministers all vying for favors and treated like dirt, who want to prostrate on the floor for fear of losing their prostituted privileges, that add to this.

This media exercise was begun last time and now they appear to take it to another level of intensity, and one would wonder how desperate these people will be to hold on to their positions of favor a year from now! It does not appear that people learn from such action. They lose track of a sense of themselves, and also what they then become if they have to resort to such extravagances of mainly the Public’s Money to engage in this waste.

It is to the credit of a few who will not sell their souls, whilst being in Govt. who MR would not dare fire, that keeps his administration currently afloat. When or if they drop from their roles, I pity all those remaining buffoons.