Thisuri Wanniarachchi
Honorable MP,
Your new found interest in media freedom is heart-warming. We too strongly believe that any form of government media repression must be questioned and corrected. We also believe that all governments must be held accountable; the media should never be censored, journalists shouldn’t be abducted or disappeared. Instead they must be empowered, encouraged and welcome by all politicians and government institutions. And yes, as citizens we must all demand media freedom and improvement in our access to authentic information. But you Sir, are not one of us; you, former supreme leader, do not get to talk about media freedom, you lost that right the moment you betrayed the trust that a large portion of us put on you to ensure the democratic freedoms of not just some of us, but all 22 million of us. You failed us miserably.
Your 180 degree transition from an authoritarian leader who led by despotism to one that is criticizing the current government for its repression of media is quite fascinating. This very news site that you chose to share your grievances was blocked and inaccessible to all of us living in Sri Lanka during your administration. I do not believe it is a stretch to assume that the irony of the recent developments in your political journey can be grasped even by those who support you.
Your grievance, had it come from an ordinary, democratic, law-abiding citizen would have been one of substance. You mention that “not a day goes by without a major demonstration against the government.” I can see how this may confuse you. You see, this government happens to encourage the democratic freedom of assembly, an act that was met with real bullets during your tenure, killing innocent civilians whose demands were as simple as access to clean water. It would have also helped if the media organizations you mention were not ones that were tainted with conflicts of interest during your tenure.
I believe Derana TV is the same network that found it necessary to recently telecast footage from your son’s minor surgery on its prime time news. We can only hope it was a potential backup plan tip that you received from former MP Duminda Silva for the ongoing investigations into your family, to somehow convince us that his surgery led to a memory lapse. I truly, truly hope it was part of some long term political strategy, if not, it is utterly unfortunate that millions of us had to see it. However, I digress from my point, so let me be very precise:
You are not one of us, you do not represent the Sri Lanka we want to see: the Sri Lanka that we demand from the current government. We understand that there’s a lot that needs to be done to restore the democracy you deprived this country of for a decade. This government has a long way to go and it is a work in progress.Unlike your supporters, we are not blind followers. We will take it upon us to hold this government accountable, ensure that another Rajapaksa era will not be repeated. We shall build a country that is strong enough to put the trauma we experienced from your leadership behind us. We will take this country forward, and we will unapologetically leave you behind. Do us all a favor and stay behind; pack up your stones and go back to your glass house.
Sincerely,
Concerned citizen.
Native Vedda / November 21, 2016
Pradeepa
“What ever de have to appreaciat that end of the war was done by Rajapaksha era. “
Are you sure about what you have typed above?
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Spring Koha / November 21, 2016
Thisuri Wanniarachchi
You have picked up your shield of justice and your sword of truth and ventured bravely into battle. CONGRATULATIONS! You have written well (very well for one so young! if I may say) It is a sad sad trait that many of our elderly politicians and leaders seem to think that they are indispensable. That the country would be lost without them. The Great Liberator could have ridden off into the sunset, leaving his achievement of bringing about the end of that pestilential period of conflict, his legacy. BUT ‘victory’ went to his head, he thought he could walk on water, he thought he was invincible. Big mistake! Even worse was his giving licence to family and friends to loot the country. He now compounds this by continuing to be a festering sore, a boil on the backside of our body politic. The man does not understand the noble art of making a ‘dignified exit’. The Great Liberator has shown that he is really nothing but a proper yakko who got lucky.
Enough of the MR nightmare! WE the PEOPLE are now shackled with a fresh bad dream. We elected what we thought would be a government committed to YAHAPALANAYA. WE expected good governance, and a time of healing. Actively working to heal the old wounds of conflict and division, and bring about a reconciliation of the communities that make us, together, SRI LANKA. Day by day we see our dreams crumbling before us. The slowly dawning truth is that we have elected just another bunch of politicians (and their friends and hangers-on) practicing incompetence and corruption rather than commitment to serve the country. Cronyism, bribery and corruption are on the rise again, and worst of all, evil men in saffron robes are roaming the streets spreading hate and inciting communities, with impunity, unchallenged by those in authority, and encouraged by those in opposition.
So there is more work to be done. Even the present government must be held to account. A free independent press, fearless and determined to tell the truth is the need, now as ever.
WE urgently need good young people of talent and commitment to clean our political stables, and make serving country fashionable again. WE need a new breed of politician to bring fresh thinking. AND, YES, SOMEONE TO MAKE SRI LANKA GREAT AGAIN. WE ARE HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO!
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Cheers / November 22, 2016
Spring Koha – Excellent addendum to an superb response from Thisuri to MR’s hypocritical “grievance on media suppression”.
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Sam Fernando / November 22, 2016
Spring koha,
quote
It is a sad sad trait that many of our elderly politicians and leaders seem to think that they are indispensable
unquote
Dont you think that it the failure lies exclusively on the MEDIA men – some like DERANA and HIRU make every effort to interepret any news in favours of them, while Killi led Maharaja Organisation makes it to attack the current rulers but making their way to pave for a third force – who should be for Sajith Rajakashe. See, Dayan Jayathilaka is invited by Sirasa for a program, calling him permanently as one of the most senior political analyst –
Even my 10 year old grand child would go into pieces, if DJ is respectd that way. DJ is a person who deserves no or least respect since he has been sitting with Wimal Buruwasne. Who would ever sit with Buruwasnse, if he or she has some sorta of selfrespect ????
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rabbi- la / November 22, 2016
Spring Koha –
“”You have picked up your shield of justice and your sword of truth and ventured…………A free independent press, fearless and determined to tell the truth is the need, now as ever.””
reality + dream gives you a heartache so be careful please.
The more you write is a sign of ignorance.
The more you travel is a sign of enlightenment.
(by the way when you visited dream land you never felt that Trump had won like Brexit? Even Boris the Bombastic did not know but I smelt it November 2015 when Sir Sugar took 3 giant steps back into his Rolls Royce and headed for UK- (it was comical to watch the F word man do it)
Lanka is a land of dishonest, racist, war lovers who beg, boast and are stupidly socialist.
MR was forced to hold the elections by both America and India so he announced the date at India via The Hindu.
What God proposes man disposes at Lanka.
Lankans were seduced by woman and 2 gay men to vote MR2.
Even the Indians who die of hunger and are scorned and laughed at by Lankans do not vote stupidly like you because they write NOTA – “None Of The Above,” in the ballot. These votes are counted unlike the stupid Tamils advised by journalist refrained from voting.
India is still the fastest growing nation in the region (7%) while China bubble is weakening. Therefore Trumps personal investment of $1 billion at Bombay.
The Bush family wrote “None of these candidates” and UK we write NOTA
CT and its village commentators are so thick headed that they did not heed the advice perhaps they all thought like from 1948 we will get diplomatic passports.
“WE urgently need good young people of talent and commitment to clean our political stables, …. HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO! “
Using young blood was tried as an experiment in several towns and borough’s by Italians for 10 years (from 2000) and dropped because the young turned to be idealistic socialistic and a failure therefore dropped.
One has to be realistic,and sensitive because social is impulsive and bound to be what you see today- Jehan Perera writing for his supper like any other journalist.
Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.-Thomas Merton(The Seven Storey Mountain)
This is how the democratic world votes so as to be counted : NOTA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/None_of_the_above
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Sudath / November 21, 2016
Madam, without him there wouldn’t be any media to defend any rights in Sri Lanka.Only Eelam media under Prabakaran. You would have had to defend Hilary’s crimes against humanity from Vermhont. Also MR killed people who protested but Police killed two youths in Jaffna right?
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SinhalaPropaganda / November 22, 2016
Prabakaran wasn’t trying to conquer the Sinhala nation, idiot!
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SinhalaPropaganda / November 22, 2016
and without slum Hindia, apartheid Israel, imperialist America, terrorist Pakistan and totalitarian China, Mass Murderer Mahinda and his impotent forces would have been nothing
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Simon De Silva / November 23, 2016
You should be one another punnaku eater. Pleae change your brand. That can at least teach you something.
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Gune / November 21, 2016
Well said. Say it again and again because this family just does not get it!!
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janaka / November 21, 2016
The killing of journalists and forcing them to flee along with burning documents and smashing printing presses during his regime the fat filth can make this statement?
Better get the roof of the temple surveyed before your next visit?
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Dane / November 21, 2016
this kid might never heard of the Batalanda era? have you heard about Richard de Zoysa, Premakirthi de Alwis and thier fate? so you call Mahinda as authoritarian but have you ever condemned the ltte, UNP assassinations of the innocent journalists?
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Buzz off / November 22, 2016
Dane, what exactly does the past (or “Batalanda”, as you term it) have to do with what “this kid” is commenting on?
Stick to the subject and if you disagree, do so with an intelligent response, instead of some blind and meaningless defense of a dictatorial crook whose time has (hopefully) passed.
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Seelawathie Jayasinghe / November 22, 2016
Just because Batalanda or other eras worked agains the people – should we give right MR et al the permit to do lot more harm ?
What kind of stupid idiot you should be, not to have get the message one another brave writers is making every effort to clear.
Anyways, you guys would stay so rotten, is becoming very clear to those who want a radical change of this society towards, all good – and civlized standards.
Mahinda regime was so authoratarian was not clear not only to young ones like the writer, but also to entire world. Please google and get the facts about MR brutal tactics to have applied in his barbaric killing politics.
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timbuttu / November 22, 2016
This thread is run by woman for women.
Why don’t killary followers tell us so as we are not used to using the same toilets.
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Hela / November 22, 2016
This is a totally biased crap. Sirisena was a key leader of the previous regime. He bears significant responsibility of the actions of the previous regime. Yet Thisuri appears to consider him as one of her clan. Ranil W was a key member of multiple governments with much worst records of media suppression, extra judicial killings and grave human rights violations. Yet Thisuri appears to consider Ranil too as one of her clan. Accordingly on what moral grounds does she speak about MR?
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BBS Rep / November 22, 2016
Thisuri,
Many people think the way you think. MR is the last person who is qualified to talk on media freedom.
MR like all our politician is a con artist and a dangerous one at that. My3 is a con artist but less of a dangerous man. They are both criminals except the degree of culpability which is different.
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Tsylana / November 23, 2016
“”My3 is a con artist but less of a dangerous man. “”
still waters run deep.
Fact: As commander who presses the button- Obama Hussein has killed more than Bush and conveniently blamed others at UK and France to save his pet killary.
That is called the finest of the debating teams.
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Perera / November 22, 2016
She is really funny ? I guess she has no idea what’s really going on in SL, just another drama of media.
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Eranga / November 22, 2016
Your drawing of “WE” is not justified in accusation. Btw MR is trying to do the correct thing now, are you afraid he will shatter the Glass house of the Masters you try to defend. Nevertheless well written , just v biased.
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EDWIN RODRIGO / November 23, 2016
I refer to Para – 1 of the article:
” … blah …blah..the media should never be censored, journalists shouldn’t be abducted or disappeared”.
MR never disappeared people. Nor did he appear people. He may have laughed the people. But he never cried them.
The author has mistaked there.
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Leelawathie / November 23, 2016
You many know better about the bank procedures of Dubai andME countries.
So why not you guys help the govt to get their bank documents in terms of the high frauds amounting to billions of state funds ?
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EDWIN RODRIGO / November 23, 2016
Leelawathie, thank you. Why didn’t I think of that before? I will start on it right away. Will send progress report tomorrow.
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Leelawathie / November 23, 2016
Great – I wonder why the authorities are that backward or slow in getting the documents from their counterpart authorities from those countries.
Today,Minister of health reiterates – had the responsible authorities approached DUBAI statemen – we would have collected all the needful documents to PROVE black and white of the bank deposits of FORMER VVIP family
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EDWIN RODRIGO / November 23, 2016
I think the reason is simply that they do not want to do it, because some of the present people also may be involved in these.
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EDWIN RODRIGO / November 23, 2016
In 1820s Jean-François Champollion, in an act that is considered as the most important in archaeology, decrypted Egyptian hieroglyphics. But now, I am faced with a task more difficult than that, viz. decrypting the following sentence in Para 2 of the article.
“I do not believe it is a stretch to assume that the irony of the recent developments in your political journey can be grasped even by those who support you”.
Completely flabbergasted by this, I tried a little bit jugglery and ended up with the following (Note that the words within brackets are mine)
“I do not believe it (requires any) stretch (of imagination) to assume that the irony of the recent developments in your political journey can be grasped even by those who support you”.
Working like Champollion from that onwards, I homed in on the word ‘irony’, which seemed to be the key word here. Disregarding Samuel Butler, who said, “Neither irony or sarcasm is argument”, I went ahead, because the author is not arguing with us – she is making revelation to us. (Using her own style, I would say, ‘she is revealed to us’).
One cannot blame her. She is too smart to argue with the proletariat like us. I have to clarify here that, when I say ‘us’ I do not mean Thishuri’s ‘us’. Confusing? Well, when she says ‘us’, she obviously means people who agree with her words, “but you Sir, are not one of us; you, former supreme leader, do not get to talk about media freedom”.
Coming back to the main topic, let us see what this irony is. The irony is that the people who demand media freedom, tend to actually curtail the freedom of expression of people like Mahinda , because he curtailed media freedom when he was in power. Steven Weber, said of people like Thishuri, who is trying to play a game of Tit for Tat, “That’s just idiotic, right? That’s like a snake eating its own tail! A wolf in a trap gnawing off its own head to escape”!
With all those digressions from the main topic of deciphering the words of wisdom of Thishuri, time is running out and I have farewell and goodbye you.
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EDWIN RODRIGO / November 23, 2016
Egad my friends! Alarm bells are ringing. Here is what happened: As I was unable to decipher the revelation by Thishuri, I tried an old trick. I started to read the paragraph in question from top to bottom and you all will be surprised at what I found. Let me start at the beginning. Sorry, in this case I should say let me start at the end.
“But you Sir, are not one of us; you, former supreme leader, do not get to talk about media freedom, you lost that right the moment you betrayed the trust that a large portion of us put on you to ensure the democratic freedoms of not just some of us”.
With that proclamation, our heroine is appointing herself as the judge, jury and the executioner.
Then reading backwards (Arabic style), we come to this jewel of a saying: “the media should never be censored, journalists shouldn’t be abducted or disappeared”.
Now take the two together and what do we find?
Action: MR ‘suppressed the media personnel.
Reaction: We (not us we but Thishuri we) have to gag MR.
Fine. We don’t have any big quarrel with that. But take the next step.
Action: MR ‘disappeared’ journalists.
Reaction: We must ‘disappear’ MR.
So, you see now. Thishuri is sending an encrypted message to her storm troopers, Nazi style – Go and ‘disappear’ MR.
I agree that MR was a thug and a bully. But I am not going to take part in disappearing MR or anyone else for that matter. It is a serious crime.
Sorry guys. Thanks for nothing. I am disappearing from CT until the coast is clear..
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Lanka Watch / November 24, 2016
Thisuri – Young lady, you must thank your stars because you must have written this article from a foreign land where freedom of expression is encouraged but if some one had written from SL, he or she had taken a big risk of their life as it is not worth the trouble taken as you are aware what journalists like Lasantha, and mostly Tamil journalists
went thro’.Their graves were dug for evidence by the current govt. and
the bones,materila evidences and the connected papers slowly vanished under the very eyes of the current Govt. and the grieved families do not have graves to pray for the dead of their loved ones.
Here in SL, the patriots become crooks and v.v. over night and govts.
change hands on false promises and it is possible that Interpol may
be alerted to trace the author of the article by the next Govt. There was another young educated guy by the name Mohamed Fazie, who wrote similar, fine articles attacking the bureaucrats who played havoc in the last govt., an year back or so is now silenced and we do not hear from him that often.
As you are aware that almost 90% of the educated young graduates voted for Hillary Clinton in the recent US elections because they wanted one
who could unite various communities together and energize economy. This is a new trend growing in many countries and in India too, where the youngsters voted Mr. Modi to power. This indicates that youngsters like you are getting fed up with communal divisions, and more inte-
rested in unity and economy. Even in Sri Lanka, there is a change in the attitude of the UNI students as they are for unity. Even in Jaffna University, except for few hic ups in the recent past, the majority
of students are Singhalese,and classes are conducted in orderly manner without any disturbances and the Vice Chancellor and most lectures are Tamils and the Sinhala students take part in all religious and other events. Even students in UNIs in deep South join hands with
N/E Uni.students when their support is required.
So,Thisuri, what I am saying is that you have talent and instead of you pouring water on ducks back,you should use it to bring up good citizens, by authoring more articles on unity and may be in a decade later, SL may become another Singapore.
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EDWIN RODRIGO / November 24, 2016
Thisuri, I had a nagging doubt that I have seen your style of writing before, but I could not put my finger on exactly where. Then today Wallah! I found where – Instruction manuals of Chinese products. The style is so similar, vague and confusing but so funny.
Here are some gems. Appliance – PIzza Pan:
General:
1- NOT PERMISSED TO BE PUT IN TO WATER.
2- IF THIS APPLIANCE WOULD BE USED TOGETHER WITH CHILDREN PLS NOTE CHILDREN MUST BE TAKE CARE
Operation:
1- THE RIGHT TEMPERATURE WOULD BE KEEP THE TEMPERATURE SACLE WOULD BE KEEP PUT ON THE ONE WHICH FOOD NEED.
2- IF IT HAS VOICE IN USING, THIS NOT ERROR, THE VOICE COME FROM HEATER AND HEAT PLATE.
I kept the best as the last.
3- IF RED LAMP ON IT CAN BE DISAPPEARED BY PUUSHING PUSH BUTTON. IF NOT DISAPPEARED TAKE TO AGENT. NOT TOUCH ANYTHING.
I think you should put to use your obvious literary talents on such pursuits as writing operating instructions for the Chinese rather than silly articles in the CT. You sound like a kid still running around in jungees and you need a long time to be mature enough to butt in to the conversations of adults.
You can improve grammar by reading Thisaranee’s artcles. Her ideas are in line with yours but her grammar is much better and she does not talk in riddles.
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