By Malinda Seneviratne –
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was conferred an honorary doctorate by Deakin University, Australia. He’s not the first premier thus honored and he probably will not be the last. However, an honor it is and as such warranted media coverage. What was newsy, though, was not the event but a statement he had made that was almost missed; it was an add-on that was at once a de-conferring, so to speak, at the tail end of the report.
It was reported thus: “Immediately after the convocation ceremony Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe directed Prime Minister’s Secretary Saman Ekanayake to ensure that the ‘Dr’ tag is not attached to his name in official or personal matters.”
That might be called ‘classy’ if not for anything, it separates him from the many others who have received honorary doctorates. Some people love titles. Indeed titles adorn some. In other cases, the person adorns the title. I don’t think the Prime Minister falls into either category, but this mild and minor directive reveals character. Ranil is not about ‘show’ except of course when he heeds the advice of the near and dear of his inner political circles, and even then more out of trust than out of conviction.
He deserves a bit of applause, for both the honor he received and for being humble about it, not least of all because he is heads and shoulders above the vast majority who have name cards with the ‘Doctor Tag’ courtesy honors bestowed. Intellectually, he is clearly up there among the best of that lot.
Our Prime Minister is reputed to be a voracious reader on a wide range of subjects. He also does his homework before making speeches. The worst he can do is to extrapolate on an error, as he has done for example while making observations at the launch of a book by a loyalist, Sujith Akkarawatte, a few years ago. Yes, he does his homework. This was apparent in the speech he made at Deakin. He observed that Alfred Deakin, the Australian Prime Minister in whose name the university was founded had actually visited Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in 1893 to study the island’s 1000 year old irrigation system.
He may very well have taken a wiki-peek but then again that’s much more than many would do. In any event, Wikileaks only mentions that Deakin ‘played a major part in establishing irrigation in Australia’. Wickremesinghe appears to have dug deeper when preparing the speech or, more likely, had already filed away the fact during the course of educating himself in general. That does not make him a scholar of course, but it does make him a different and even special kind of politician.
His detractors may say he was undeserving. That’s politics. He is, after all, no Mervyn Silva or the innumerable doctorate holders who have in word and deed brought much disgrace on all spheres of scholarship. They need to drop the tag, not Wickremesinghe but on the other hand it’s because they cling to it that dropping it demonstrates as much wisdom as it does humility. Let there be no debate over this: Ranil Wickremesinghe is one of the more well-read of our parliamentarians if not the best read. If we consider all the prime ministers since Independence and if we were to assess doctorate-worthiness of them all, on the counts of intellect and vision (and not ideological bent or the balance sheet on delivery), only a handful are deserving. There’s D.S. Senanayake, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, in their own way J.R. Jayewardene and Ranasinghe Premadasa, and there’s Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Let us applaud.
It is indeed a pity, then, that Deakin University got it all wrong in the relevant citation. They were correct in recognizing his long service as a parliamentarian, minster and prime minister. Longevity is certainly praiseworthy, even though it is that same longevity or rather the fact that he survived while others fell to ill-health, old age, assassinations and terrorist attacks, which paved the way for him to become prime minister on multiple occasions. All that may have been fortuitous but let us not discount his tenaciousness and shrewd political skills. His tenure as the Leader of the United National Party may be described as dictatorial but that’s less due to iron-fist than to subtle maneuvering, preying on the weaknesses of would-be ousters and deft footwork to dodge political bullets. None of this requires elaboration. In hindsight, one might argue that had he not done all that he has, the party could very well have disintegrated or at best continued to remain in the political wilderness. Whether it deserves doctoral recognition is of course another matter.
Deakin University cites ‘the role he played in steering the country to a high status in the economic, education and human rights fields’. Prof. Jane Den Hollander reading out the citation in the presence of the Chancellor of the University, Prof John Stanhope, said “several factors including Prime Minister Wickremesinghe’s contribution towards steering the country to a high international status, tactfulness in getting LTTE terrorists into the negotiating table, creating the groundwork for obtaining financial assistance from the international community and dedication towards setting up good governance were taken into account.”
If one were generous, one might say ‘contentious’ or if less generous, ‘tendentious’. Let’s take the economic, educational and human rights fields separately. He was in charge of the economy in 2001 and is in charge of it now (for all intents and purposes). In 2001 he inherited an economy in its death throes. He was hemmed in on the one side by the chief executive, Chandrika Kumaratunga, who belonged to a rival party, and a seemingly never ending battle with terrorists. Kumaratunga didn’t really let him carry out his ‘Regaining Sri Lanka’ program, seizing three key ministries by the end of 2003 and dissolving Parliament a few months later. In April 2004, the UNP was routed in the 2004 General Election. That was probably less about the economy than his demonstrable naiveté regarding the LTTE. We’ll come to that presently. The bottom line about his economic policies was (and still is) selling off national assets. That might tickle the fancy of the like of Hollander who might call it judicious and enlightened, but stripped of sanitizing terminology used by economic pundits with dubious agenda, it’s pretty simple and simplistic thinking. Today, once again at the helm, his thinking hasn’t changed. National pauperization can only be hailed by the beneficiaries, not be the pauperized.
Another thing that pretty much undressed Wickremesinghe’s economic ‘wizardry’ is the downright stupidity in believing that pleasing the USA and Europe would result in those countries backing his economic program by putting money where their mouths are. Someone who does not know that these countries’ national debts are essentially owned by China and Japan is not an economic expert. The ‘Brexit Moment’ saw Wickremesinghe suddenly realizing the existence of China. He said ‘We’ll look East’. That’s, incidentally, where the previous regime had been looking, a gaze-preference that was ridiculed by Wickremesinghe. The gaze-change clearly indicates a certain myopia. Applauding him on his economic thinking says as much about Deakin as of Wickremesinghe.
Education. Whether one agrees or not with the thinking, it’s Wickremesinghe’s vision on this subject that has prevailed. What we’ve seen over the past 35 years is the sometimes open and sometimes subtle implementation of the White Paper on Education that he presented in the early eighties. Whether this alone accounts for the current crisis in education, it is hard to conclude, but certain things have to be acknowledged: a) we still don’t have an occupation classification which takes into account economic realities, policies and projections, so that the education system is in line with these, b) much of the agitation and controversies that have troubled this sector comes from the absence of a national education policy, c) incompetence and corruption override all else in this sector.
Human rights. That’s a favorite term used by those who want to rap Sri Lanka on her national knuckles, especially those who either violate human rights or look askance when their friends do so. Let’s leave Batalanda out of it. Wickremesinghe was a minister during the eighties, i.e. when the most serious human rights violations took place with over 60,000 people being killed in the course of two years. That was a time when the government unleashed the security forces, police and vigilante groups on the population, a time marked by proxy arrests, abduction, torture and assassination and was rightly dubbed ‘the bheeshanaya (terror).’ He can’t complicit, he was an approver and it is hard to claim that he has no blood on his hands. The eighties, let us not forget, was the period when the security forces had next to no discipline. That’s when the greatest atrocities were committed against Tamils in the country. Let us not forget either the decisive role played by the trade union of his party in the attacks on Tamils by mobs in July 1983 nor the fact that his government deliberately reined in the law enforcing authorities during those terrible days. He was a junior minister back then, but if he is the principled man that Deakin paints him as, he could have resigned. He did not.
Let’s now consider the more specific factors that Deakin claims contributed to the decision: “contribution towards steering the country to a high international status, tactfulness in getting LTTE terrorists into the negotiating table, creating the groundwork for obtaining financial assistance from the international community and dedication towards setting up good governance.”
Deakin cannot be faulted for delusion about the ‘international community’ and the relevant moral high horses that its principal movers and shakers often ride. We live in a world where those countries enjoying ‘high international status’ include Saudi Arabia and that such character certificates are dished out by countries such as the USA, Canada, the UK and the EU. Salutation is all about complying, about being an Uncle Tom, genuflection and all that kind of thing. That’s pretty old.
Tact. Now that’s a laugh. There are two broad justifications for the choices that Wickremesinghe made regarding the LTTE in early 2002. The first is that the economy was in such a bad situation that the Government had no choice but to come to some kind of agreement that allowed for recovery. The second is the view carefully orchestrated by those who were and still are soft on the LTTE and the Eelam Project that the LTTE cannot be militarily defeated. Neither of these ‘reasons’ go with ‘tact’. The truth is that the LTTE had its own problems at the time. The LTTE badly needed time and space to recruit, regroup and re-arm. Wickremesinghe’s ‘tact’ allowed the LTTE to do just that and in fact more since the government facilitated the movement of equipment and arms directly or indirectly to LTTE-controlled areas and also severely compromised its security forces by betraying the intelligence units to the enemy. That’s not tact. That’s at best stupidity; the more appropriate terms would be betrayal and treachery.
Deakin claims that Wickremesinghe had ‘[created] the groundwork for obtaining financial assistance from the international community.’ That’s difficult, now? All it takes is say something like ‘whatever you say’ to each and every proposal tossed with disdain at you. It’s a yes-sir or yes-ma’am business. It’s about getting the script from the US State Department, for instance, and reading it out to the letter. Any idiot can do it. But what really happened? True, one could claim that the international community provided financial assistance, China after all is part of this ‘international community’. China never needs any country to do any ‘groundwork’. China is also about business. The only difference is that China has money. That’s what the Rajapaksa regime knew. They didn’t the only ground work necessary — they asked and were given (for terms that were clearly poor but still richer than what the Wickremesinghe-Sirisena dispensation have apparently got).
Finally, there’s this claim about ‘dedication towards setting up good governance.’ He gets a lot of brownie points here. The 19th Amendment fell short of what was promised to the people, but it did erase the negatives of the 18th Amendment. The Right to Information Act finally saw the light of day. Things took more time than promised, but that’s easily forgivable. Things haven’t changed much, but legislation alone will not dramatically change political culture. There is still corruption, there’s still nepotism, there’s still wastage and abuse of state resources. In any event, the brownie points, as such there are, should be shared between Wickremesinghe and Sirisena. Neither talks of electoral reform; this too should be thrown into the overall assessment. The balance sheet is nevertheless positive. On ‘good governance’ that is.
All things considered, Deakin seems to have failed to do the necessary homework and this makes us think that the honor has more to do with ‘liking’ than about what’s deserved. Deakin University got it wrong or rather made some iffy things sound solid, ‘iffy’ being a kind word here. Alfred Deakin, on the other hand, got it right. He had his country at heart. He came to Sri Lanka, got what he wanted and enriched his own country. Wickremesinghe, considering his entire track record and that of the Governments he has served and led, is the polar opposite. What is surprising is that it was Deakin University and not Johns Hopkins University that has conferred an honorary doctorate on him.
Still, as we pointed out above, he is deserving. In a relative sense. In a comparative sense. He is deserving, most of all, for the quick, intelligent, damage-controlling and diplomatic instructions to his media point man, namely the decision to disavow it without disavowing the title ‘doctor’. Congratulations Prime Minister!
Muhammed Fazl / February 21, 2017
Not you again Melinda…. done with kissing Rajapaksa’s ass, now cuddling up to Ranil is it? Get a life mate…. and learn to stand on tour own feet. This is just friendly advice. Cheers.
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Silva / February 21, 2017
“the innumerable doctorate holders who have in word and deed brought much disgrace on all spheres of scholarship”
Are you referring to Dayan J de Silva?
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Kalupahana / February 21, 2017
MS: how come you don’t talk about Ranil’s Bond Scam, corruption and above all else failed and fake economic development projects?
Today in an era of FAKE NEWS we have FAKE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT – Tire Factories, Volkswagon plants, DEBT TRAP high ways from ADB and World Bank, too many cars and SUVs causing pollution, but no investment in PUBLIC TRANSPORT which is environment friendly, white elephant ports and air ports from China etc.
Fake development and corrupt development creates massive ECONOMIC INEQUALITY, DEBT TRAPS, and CONFLICT. In short, DEVELOPMENT DISASTERS.
Failure to PRIORITIZE local and national development needs and put people at the center of development planning and have a national strategic development MASTER PLAN, as well as, over-dependence on foreign experts and economic hit men, and debt-trap donors like IMF who have their own agendas to benefit global 1 percent, is the cause of massive national debt today.
Ranil is intellectually bankrupt on development and thinks that signing FTAs with all and sundry is good for the economcy, but the fact is that Sri Lanka must first have Something to trade. It must have goods to trade and development must start with manufacturing and value addition, otherwise the risk is that the local market would be flooded with cheap Chinese goods and even existing manufacturers destroyed!
Development needs prioritizing human development taking into consideration existing resource base, planning, sequencing. FTAs should come after the research, development, manufacturing bases has been improved and widened.
There is also CULTURE OF IMPUNITY for FINANCIAL CRIMES at the TOP with Ranil-Malik cabal who have no human development expertise. Failure to plan and prioritize and sequence development, provides a cover for environmental destruction and social conflict, in the name of development!
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Don Stanley / February 21, 2017
Malinda you are generous with Ranil Wickramasinghe: We should send the alternative facts report on Ranil to Dickin Uni!
If he had a brain, Ranil should have asked IMF which is supposed to do global financial governance, to trace and return funds looted by MR and corrupt politicians, that are kept in secret banks accounts overseas, so Sri Lanka can pay off some of the national debt caused by political corruption and FAKE DEVELOPMENT projects, rather than borrowing more from IMF and dancing to its tunes and loading VAT onto poor people.
The buck stops with Ranil for the economic crisis in Sri Lanka today, as he has magnified it 10 fold with Ravi K who lacks the skills and is corrupt, and promoted a CULTURE OF IMPUNITY FOR CORRUPTION and financial crimes with the BOND SCAM, while increased salaries and perks of the gigantic and corrupt Cabinet of clowns:
1. Appointed a corrupt crook UNP’s Avant Guard, Wijedasa Rajapaksa as Minister of Justice. Wijedasa is blocking corruption investigations and is playing racist politics with Buddhist monks.
2. Ranil has been promoting a culture of IMPUNITY FOR FINANCIAL CRIMES and FAKE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT with a cabal of unqualified economic hit men who know nothing about Sustainable development that benefits people and environment – Malik and co.
3. Ranil Looted the Central Bank with the Bond Scam via his Royal College buddy Arjuna Mahendran
4. Ranil is protecting the Mahinda Rajapaksa family as he did Wimal Weerawansa from corruption arrests and treats the people who voted for him with contempt and stole from the Cental Bank for his political career and UNP cronies in broad daylight.
The buck stops with Ranil Wickramasinghe who constantly runs after the IMF and other debt-trap, so-called aid donors, who are partly responsible for the economic crisis along with Chinese loans to Mahinda Jarapassa.
Meanwhile corrupt politicians are living high life with SUVs and creating more DEBT.
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Lankan / February 21, 2017
Agree, [Edited out]
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Samuel Jayaweera / February 21, 2017
This particular man Mahinda Seneivratne, did not utter a single world at the time, abusive some institutes offered Rajakashes Dr Titles even if they have no proved basic level degrees that any candidates should have been qualified to be awarded with ” honorary doctorates”: but deliberartely come down to attack current PM this way is no means acceptable.
Besides, it is their regulations that the Title awarded should not be used out of the offered institution.
That is valid to all other candidates too. On that day itself, RW and his information provided this with lanken press.
I really dont know why this writers to feel that he has to explain it further widening the gap between malicious folks in the country.
If any harm was done to this country it was not RW or MY3 but Rajapakshes for whom the writer has been doing everything as any other grass eating media men of the country sofar. At the time, Mervin the notorious illfated man was harming the nation betraying us all, this man and others stayed as if they were fed with kirimati.. by idiotic Rajaapkshes. Remember ?I am ashamed to call this writer s alma mater is Harward Universty, even if he completed his MA at Harward.
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Ajith / February 21, 2017
[Edited out]
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Gamini / February 22, 2017
Haha Fazl,good observation.Yes now with Dayan Jayatileke in mental and physical decline Sri Lanka is in urgent need fo a replacement.And the worthy successor is…. you guessed right: “Doktor”(Dosthora) Malinda Pemsit Seneviratne indeed!!Commeth the hour commeth the man ha?Halleujah
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jim softy / February 21, 2017
So, Malinda Senevirathen wants this for turnning around the Political fortunes of Mr. Ranil Wickramsinghe.
I am pretty sure that not much known, recently established university which is alive since 1994 (as I heard) got good publicity among prospective Sri lankan students who like to ask admission to that university. It is worth their expenses.
What a way to fool people.
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justice / February 21, 2017
“…………………….the role he played in steering the country to a high status in the education, economics and human rights fields.”
“………………………….tactfulness in getting the LTTE terrorists to the negotiating table………….”
We didn’t know, did we?
And, what did we do?
We awarded honorary doctorates to Mahinda Rajapakse and Gotabaya Rajapakse !!!
How about an honorary Doctorate in Laws to Wijedasa Rajapakse – the only Minster of Justice anywhere who does not want lawyers’ presence when those arrested by police are interrogated !!!
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Amarasiri / February 21, 2017
Prime Minister, Ranil Wickramasinghe
RE: Congratulations Mister Prime Minister!
//”It was reported thus: “Immediately after the convocation ceremony Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe directed Prime Minister’s Secretary Saman Ekanayake to ensure that the ‘Dr’ tag is not attached to his name in official or personal matters.”//
“Our Prime Minister is reputed to be a voracious reader on a wide range of subjects. He also does his homework before making speeches. “
Yes, Congratulations,Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe. for recognizing that the “Dr.” was not “Earned” after years of Research and Study, but conferred, for participating in an effort to get rid of the country from MaRa MaRa ChaTu MaRa AmaNa MaRa HoRa MaRa DhushaNa MaRa along with President Sirisena and others.
This act certainly enhances your reputation, Prime Minister. Yes, this separates you from the crowd of honorary “Drs”
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roy / February 21, 2017
give the man a doctorate and suck all the pure blood out of srilanka. very soon this geezer will be hopping like a kangaroo with the notorious Alibaba MaRa.
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samakala / February 21, 2017
You forget that Deakin is only interested in expanding its tentacles in Sri Lanka. Whats an Honorary Doctorate in return for all the doors that this will open for their degree shop?
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P. U. K / February 21, 2017
[Tact. Now that’s a laugh. There are two broad justifications for the choices that Wickremesinghe made regarding the LTTE in early 2002. The first is that the economy was in such a bad situation that the Government had no choice but to come to some kind of agreement that allowed for recovery. The second is the view carefully orchestrated by those who were and still are soft on the LTTE and the Eelam Project that the LTTE cannot be militarily defeated. Neither of these ‘reasons’ go with ‘tact’. The truth is that the LTTE had its own problems at the time. The LTTE badly needed time and space to recruit, regroup and re-arm. Wickremesinghe’s ‘tact’ allowed the LTTE to do just that and in fact more since the government facilitated the movement of equipment and arms directly or indirectly to LTTE-controlled areas and also severely ]
Thank you for including a few words about “Tamils” in this article. Whether it is about Ranil, biology, Karma or How to repair a cracked windshield… it should have a few words about the “Tamils”…. and should push Sri Lankan readers reside in the past… wasting their time!
Lacking resources to write about millions of other subjects that are helpful to us Sri Lankans in particular, it is too easy to churn out these chunks of BS, coated with “Tamil”.
Good Luck!
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Spathodea / February 21, 2017
RW does not want to cheapen himself just because he got an honorary Doctorate.
Even Chef Pubilis of Mt. Lavinia Hotel got an honorary Doctorate; so did Soma Edirisinghe without O-levels and so many others.
Dr. Mahinda Rajapakse
Dr. Gotabhaya Rajapakse
Dr. Soma Edirisinghe
Dr. Malini Fonseka
Dr. Mervin Silva
Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne
But at least RW is leading by example. Contrast that to a so called Peace Council that is National; that man has a JD from a US uni. JD is not a PhD; so he called himself Dr. P****a until he was challenged here on CT. He always espouses high browed bull puckey and was so wrong about LTTE being invincible. Like Sara he too likes to talk big and get US money and spew whatever their western christian masters tell them to say.
But at least RW will not call himself a doctor; his so called wife actually I believe has a PhD in English from England or at least is in the process of earning one. That is a Real Doctor.
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Dr. Vanguard / February 23, 2017
Even Dr Mervyn Silva does not refer to himself as a Dr. so the equivalent of RW in this matter.
None of those in the list except one refers to himself as Dr.
Where is your argument
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Nathan / February 21, 2017
Malinda Seneviratne is among the best you get on engaging sarcasm. He isn’t hilarious; he is witty. And, the best part of his show is his timing!
I had almost forgotten him. Was he in hibernation? Perhaps not. With his penchant to grab even a straw to ‘attack’, I am sure he had been writing elsewhere. I didn’t miss him!
But, whenever he shows up I am ready to gulp! I gulp; I have to, because he is never tasteful! But, his dishes are bellyfuls!!
Thanks Malinda, I am so full, I need to regain my breathe!
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Devindu / February 21, 2017
Witty? sarcasm? Bullshit.
This is the most shameless job application you will ever see.
What he is saying is, see, I am happy to praise you. Give me a job probably as a media adviser (your team is not doing a good job).
Anyone who knows this man’s vagabond history can see what he is on about.
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Native Vedda / February 21, 2017
Devindu
“Anyone who knows this man’s vagabond history can see what he is on about.”
You forgot to mention him being a pro active Anti Minority propagandist, who is also popular among chattering classes – the noisy minority.
But then they enjoy reading gossip than facts.
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Nathan / February 21, 2017
You got the wrong end of the stick, buddy! Brush up on your language skills.
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Dcn / February 21, 2017
Melinda is a supporter of MR and therefore he is compelled to pick holes in RW receiving this recognition and honour. Where was Chechen MR, Mervyn etc received their doctorates?
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Sunil Dahanayake / February 21, 2017
Dear Malinda,
There is a sinhala saying as given below:
[Edited out]
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jim softy / February 21, 2017
Malinda Senevirathne:
Some of his acheivements may be just chance.
Obviously they did not want to talk about places, Central Bank bond Scandle where he screwed up.
REad the section below. It does not talk about he never stepped down even though he screwed up and people called him Eternal LEader for the opposition etc., So, he could become PM for multiple occasions because, some how he hanged on to it. Australians are not doing that. when they screw up they step down leaveing the space for some one who can do it.
They were correct in recognizing his long service as a parliamentarian, minster and prime minister. Longevity is certainly praiseworthy, even though it is that same longevity or rather the fact that he survived while others fell to ill-health, old age, assassinations and terrorist attacks, which paved the way for him to become prime minister on multiple occasions.
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Richard / February 21, 2017
Dear Melinda and all participants,
Yes Melinda’s articles give readers fun, sarcasm and is witty too with some information for the readers. But what is not being realized by the journalists, and the Administrators in their own Country is the irony of their portrayal outside. It is not realized just as the Prime Minister of the Country is inviting the Sri Lankans seeking asylum outside offering a good life back home, the Sri Lankan Government is helpless to those made refugees inside the Country by its own destruction of their life and property. These inside refugees are not even given their own property back even after 7 years ended after the mass massacre. All the world over not excluding Australia are watching closely how the war victims are taking a lot of sacrifices to go back to where they belong and how the new Regime is cold blooded just because they are Tamils.
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Lankan / February 21, 2017
What about his cunning ability of toppling the government with the help of foreign powers? He should win elections based on his ability to develop the country,not based on the foreign powers’ dirty propaganda.
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srinath.gunaratne / February 21, 2017
You can try, But you cannot polish a turd!
Get a life Malinda, Sad!
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SF / February 21, 2017
This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2/
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Shyamon Jayasinghe / February 21, 2017
MALINDA SENEVIRATNE should be applauded for his outright honesty. We have had many persons of the Mahinda Rajapakse camp condemning the award as undeserving. There is a thing called the SPUR movement here, which is now dying, and we saw how its leaders unreservedly condemned the awardee and the awarding University and how they went on protest over the award. The LTTE group here, who protested for other reasons, never attacked the award but our nationalist and so-called patriotic group did condemn.
Malinda is a young man and son of a friend and batchmate of mine. He writes beautifully but his thinking had been trapped by a blind loyalty for MR. If he extricates himself from that prison and thinks freely he would be hard to beat.
DAYAN JAYATILLEKA has lessons to learn from Malinda.
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Spurred / February 21, 2017
Two job seeking boot lickers agreeing wholeheartedly.
Oh Myee God.
Do these frickers know the meaning of the word shame?
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Simon De Silva / February 21, 2017
So what brings his talents of writing, if he too has been brainwashed by MR et al ?
Today we know more than two years ago, how MR administration had worked against own folks. So, MS not to have grasphed it -let alone today, should be connected with a pathological reason as I feel.
To you: DJ would never learn from anyone. He is a mutation. He is born so, and will die too that way. By today he is fallen down to all depths. I have no pitty to see that, becasue his cesspits destroys the nation no better to that of Wimal Weerawanse.
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LANKA NITIZEN / February 21, 2017
Hats off Malinda ,man what dynamic piece of Article ,proper to the point ,no favouritism ,candid and very generous to what the man only truly deserve. Enjoyed reading every single line. If The Hon.PM appoints people who are really skilful and deserving the job he will see the nation’s economy boom,instead what he has done is like always friends ,friends of friends ,friends relatives ,that is what matters for Mister Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. The sad part is who do you vote for in 20-20 ? May be MR and Jo back to base ,,, no one will dare to give an opportunity for a new lot ,am not referring to JVP… A new party with equal representatives from all races and with a all new different constitution which gives true power to people ,not shadowy . But we lankies do not like change ,its no-kia .kia or hari hondai .. We do not like Panasonic any more.
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Dilip / February 21, 2017
Malinda is a great journalist. Most of the participants here may not agree with him. But that is not the point. He is a great writer and a journalist. We must respect his ability. Now, whether he supports MR or RW blindly is another question. I believe in SL there are only two main political camps. One is lead by UNP and the other is lead by SLFP (JO-real one not the name board one). Then you get fringe elements such as JVP. Also the political organizations as SLMC and TNA who are based on ethnic lines. SLFP and UNP camps have several political groupings within themselves and some are contradictory to each other’s policies…now the political camp led by UNP you get, UNPers Hela Urumay, Mano Geneshan’s group, CBK, LSSP alternative group, SLMC, TNA, SLFP (MS group)…the political camp led by SLFP (JO) has SLFPers, Wimal Weerwans, Udaya Gammapilla, LSSP, CP, Vasu’s group, some tamil nd muslim groups….Malind belongs to Udaya/Wimal group of the JO…so I doubt he supports MR blindly…which policies will take front seat in each government (SLFP or UNP camp) depends on whose group is powerful within the camp. Obviously after the war the wimal/udaya/gota groups were very powerful within MR regime…but will it be the same if MR group captures power again?…I doubt it…but for sure…Time will tell…
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LANKA NITIZEN / February 21, 2017
My personal view is no offence ,SLFP is by SLFP Sinhalese supporters only,UNP is nothing but Sinhalese Supporters of The UNP,the JVP is exclusively JVP -Sinhala only, Tamils and Muslim parties and politicians except, Mano ,Azath Sally ,Imtiaz Baker Makar, they are very ,very kind to themselves and their relatives . there is now a block of Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims left out and deceived and never helped. If this block join hands and call upon people like Azath Sally,Imtiaz ,Mano Ganeshan, Pakiya Sothy, Dr.Wije bawu, and likes to form a new party ,yes withe vision of a new Lanka truly by the people and everything is by the people, for which you will have to be brave enough to embrace Federal administration ,the only way to keep the crooks from robbing and easier to account for,whether ,politician or Citizen if he is against Federal administration, it is only because he will loose this open treasury that can be robbed left right and centre. No minority should vote for UNP ,SLFP ,JO ,ofcoz JVP goes without saying no, local gov.votes should go to only Azath Sally ,Mano Ghaneshen and Wije bahu if they do form a new party and appoint a good decent young people among Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims, you need to give them an opportunity, nonsense everytime its UNP or SLFP ,it use to be bad enough when they use to rule separately, imagine both together ? MR is only guilty of onething against humanity which is unforgivable. He permerantly poisoned the hearts and polluted the Souls of every single Sinhalese against the whole minority and mostly with a lot of lies and fabrication against The Muslim, he even made sure that The Muslim community’s basic right for food is made hell. And that is an issue ,I really do not know if anyone can remove that hate,suspicion, separation he created. When you hit a human in the stomach it will haunt you and your generations forever. Never deny even your worse enemy the right to eat what is palatable for him or her ,that is more important than the religious ritual behind the whole issue.
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jim softy / February 22, 2017
I think Malinda Senevirathne’s education became useless. Now, he is saying “AVADA” to Alibabas in the Sinhale politics. He just turns every thing upside down to get into something. Here, he has just changed the chair.
I don’t think they like educated people. If yo are an artificial lawyer, if you a PhD is honorary you had a chance.
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Lanka Nitizen / February 21, 2017
When I was in my teens I was used to listen to a radio sermon of a wise Buddhist monk (We had only upali transitor radios no smart phones or TVs) his popular theme use to be atahe thithai ,nomuth a atai. (Trust is bitter ,thou it is ,its the truth) There is sweet nothing the present government has done to fulfil their pledges. Now BBS has got a new boss after betraying MR. Extremely dissapointing ,what changes have happened since Yahapalana? Do we have our right to display dieyry logo? People should stop talking shop ,including some Muslim s who try to curry favor with bigots, if they do not understand that we all have a preference of what are palatable & its basic human ,rich, in countries like China and Thailand where theyvdo have a muslin war on. They still have Halal displayed freely , ThisvYahapalana & Muslim Munisters could not even give us back this tiny right,where are they going to solve the greater griences of the Muslim?its time for the Muslims to wake up. We are been taken for a ride ,.
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Gune / February 21, 2017
This is an astonishing turn around. [Edited out]
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K A Sumanasekera / February 22, 2017
Chinas Foreign Trade topped USD 3.7 Trillion in 2016.
The surplus was USD 500 Billion..
Chinese non Financial Direct Investments in the friendly nations topped USD 18 Billion.
Dr Batalanda Ranil said he can do better by kicking the Chinese out.
Not even a penny of FDI since 2015, according to the new CB Chief.
Batalanda may be able to read .. Does he understand?.
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LANKA NITIZEN / February 22, 2017
Corrections, my previous comment – to read as,dietary logo ,basic human rights, Muslim Ministers , grievances. Even the Cadbury product which is coco was found with traces of Pig DNA,further how does one be certain that the bird or animal had drained most of its blood ,even worse how can you by sure if they were not birds or animals that have died of some dangerous illness ? Why deny the Muslims of their food? What is so criminal about it ? All the rest who did not want to consume halal has to do is refrain from it.
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Lanka Nitizen / February 22, 2017
Please read about a bug in the system ,by Wild S hylton. No one really understand why The Jews and Muslims are so particular about kosher & Halal. And about having the max blood drained and also making sure the animal or bird is alive and healthy. Actually the halal proceedure should be also certified by Vetnerians .people who talk about the past when such strict requirements were not used,therefore we do not need it today are still living in the past .they have idea what is going on around the world.if am not mistaken even Seventh day adventist follow Kosher
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Bensen Berner / February 23, 2017
Is the writer still with the BBS and Gothabya? what a turnaround. Bensen
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Ravi / February 23, 2017
Malinda Senevirathne
Why don’t you post your article “Sinhala & Tamil traces in an Island’s history” here if you are expecting a scholarly response.
It is difficult to send fitting responses on to a news paper. You are talking about no evidence (only Myth) on Tamil side but what about the Sinhala side (what reliable evidence do you have?).
I was laughing like hell after reading your hilarious article on a weekly newspaper. Please post it here and we will prove what a joker you are.
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Stanislaus / February 24, 2017
I quote from Seneviratne’s diatribe:
Wickremesinghe was a minister during the eighties, i.e. when the most serious human rights violations took place with over 60,000 people being killed in the course of two years. That was a time when the government unleashed the security forces, police and vigilante groups on the population, a time marked by proxy arrests, abduction, torture and assassination and was rightly dubbed ‘the bheeshanaya (terror).’ He can’t complicit, he was an approver and it is hard to claim that he has no blood on his hands. The eighties, let us not forget, was the period when the security forces had next to no discipline. That’s when the greatest atrocities were committed against Tamils in the country. Let us not forget either the decisive role played by the trade union of his party in the attacks on Tamils by mobs in July 1983 nor the fact that his government deliberately reined in the law enforcing authorities during those terrible days. He was a junior minister back then, but if he is the principled man that Deakin paints him as, he could have resigned. He did not.
True enough; it is difficult to resign from the perks of office. Look at Seneviratne: In spite of the atrocities and attacks on democratic principles the violations of the rule of law, rampant corruption etc. etc committed by the previous government Seneviratne himself has neither repudiated nor resigned from RAJAPAKSE BRIGADE!
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