CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

The Travails of Negative News Reporting and Opportunistic Politicking And Why It Cannot Be Viewed Objectively!

© Insight by Sunil Kumara For LankaWeb

In like manner to a hyena in Colombo with all the affront and nerve one associates with the carrion eater, Hindusthan Times correspondent in Colombo P.K.Balachandran has once again helped disperse the" Mangala Samaraweera syndrome" a bit further in propagating more of his fantasy based idealogies on what's best for Sri Lanka as an alternative to the Rajapaksha Administration and is better advised to stick to impartial journalism if his credibilities are to be tolerated as legit any further. Always quick to broadcast anything anti - Government with a particular sting in his verbiage; often times with an LTTE friendly mentality perhaps by virtue of some related ethnicity and now the scenario projected by the breakaway faction of Mangala Samaraweera founder of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (Mahajana Wing) aka a breakaway group of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and takes the liberty to suggest that the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government according to Samaraweera has "reversed" the "excellent" relations, which his predecessors had established with India. Albeit a quote said to have come from Samaraweera the tone of the Balachandran repartee very obviously on a high note almost as though he endorses it. Once again it gives rise to the curiosity about why such individuals are permitted to be so undiplomatic in seemingly violating foreign correspondent related protocols as well as wonder if they are given Carte Blanche to write negative reports which appear to be in defernce to the concept of impartial journalism where he appears to be taking sides and a fact which has been poinrted out by previous observers!

That Sri Lanka-India relations had been strong from the time of SWRD Bandaranaike and Jawaharlal Nehru onwards is nothing new and not something sullied by the Rajapaksha Administration as to the contrary, ties between the two countries are stronger than ever before!. Quite appropriately as recently as 2005 and indeed before Mahinda Rajapaksa came to power the late great Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar had declared that Sri Lanka-India relations had reachd a level of irreversible excellence but the duo of Samaraweera and Balachandran seem to think to the contrary as they fantasize that" the present government reversed it in just four months!"as reported by the very myopic sounding Hindustan Times reporter and not reaslly kosher as a confirmation of the sagacity of this assumption from the Indian Government would most certainly assert its inaccuracies and on the basis of which the likes of Balachandran should be sent packing back to where he came from or learn to be diplomatic and impartial in his future bulletins where he should not present himself as a misguided and somewhat confused news journalist!

In quoting thus that"As Foreign Minister, I had seen how Rajapaksa was trying to mislead India," while continuing his out of whack sermon to the effect that "We Sri Lankans must restore the excellent ties we have had with India. We have to take into account India's political compulsions. When thousands of Tamil refugees arrive in India, we cannot expect India to remain a silent spectator. India has a justifiable interest in what is happening in Sri Lanka in regard to the Tamil problem." Samaraweera seems to have his lines crossed in blaming the President that he was misleading India when India has had a reputation of being authoritative in many Sri Lankan matters going back in time and has been quick to shirk the responsibility of collaborating with Sovereign Sri Lanka in her need to quell and thwart the LTTE terrorists until much arm twisting in recent times for obvious reasons! which was being pointed out not only by the President but many discerning world leaders and certainly no crime of any passion beyond the anguish of a leader who is probably inclined to beleive that it was India which to a great degree is responsible for the leeway and inroads the LTTE have gained in the past!

"It need not be a Samaraweera euphemism that co-operation and understanding are necessary for the future of Sri Lanka and India equally it is within the capacity of a deaf mute's reckoning given the long standing history of Indo Lanka relations which have never been turbulent albeit intimidatory from an Indian perspective and the many collaborations and understandings between the two countries something which has prevailed for centuries.It seems cacophonous on Samaraweera's part to also echo a sentiment which has prevailed without ursurpance for a long time that "On the economic front too, cooperation was necessary, we have to move along with India to be able to become an economic hub of the South Asian region. Strengthening of ties with India is more important than ever before." so what else is new beyond the repeating groove that such verbiage has turned out to be on a theme which is more than obvious and needing no confirmation by such pundits whose motivations seem plretty clear towards a needless denigration of the Rajapaksha Administration.

The fact of the matter is that the likes of Samaraweera and his associates who have now jumped on an Anti Rajapaksha bandwagon in the misguided belief that it will be fruitful towards his power hungry agendas with little or nothing to carry his credibilities beyond loads of speculative innuendo which he presents to the world, little know the circumspect curiosities his actions have arouse both nationally and internationally where the once lovey dovey pal of the President is now all out to smear him and discredit him in a totally apathetic lack of decorum which points only to the cuthroat politics which often transform such individuals into back stabbing cuthroats where one asks are these individuals truly aspiring to become national leaders when they realistically need to be indicted for their treaonous behaviour!

It must be emphasized also that the likes of Samaraweera have a certain tendency to utilise the falsely presented conclusions of self styled authorities both foreign and local who often tend to distort many facts relating to the state of affairs in Sri Lanka mainly on speculative hearsay and little tangible evidence to carry their accusations filtering into controversial and equally sensitive issue such as UN monitoring of human rights violations in Sri Lanka more on a "He said She Said" basis where Samaraweera has said with affront to the Administration that such monitoring might be "inevitable" given the policies of the Rajapaksa government and the ignorance of his logic which by far is outweighs reality and acknowledged by public opinion towards its apathetic context where the violation of human rights seems endemic to the LTTE and a distorted definition of the Government's fight against terrorism!

Then comes the biggest contradiction of all where he says " As Foreign Minister, I did oppose foreign monitoring because I believed that Sri Lanka, being one of the oldest democracies, had the institutions to monitor rights violations. But these institutions had become defunct due to the pig headed policies of the present government. In the present juncture, perhaps some kind of UN monitoring may be inevitable.The government has to take the blame for this," so what was he doing all the while he was in office? twiddling his thumbs? and how is it that all these issues have become so apparent only after he was unceremoniously dumped together with his sidekick? Case in point towards the credibilities of such individuals who are no more than individualistic opportunists for whom the Nation of Sri Lanka should have little or no use for!

The volume of Anti Rajapaksha propaganda in recent times has increased in varying degrees with the ambitions of many factions which would dearly love to see the decline of the present administration and apart from the Jathika Hela Urumaya and perhaps to a degree the Sihala Urumaya of limited Parliamentary capacity beyond negligible status unfortunately which has been non committal on the issues at hand nonetheless have been relentless in their pursuit of Parliamentary disruption. The rest of the opposition have shown scant respect towards the real role they should be playing towards national unity and the preservation of the Sinhala Nation and the likes of Balachandran and Samaraweera have merely combined to depict the many transparencies of these sources whose idealogical differences prevent them from bonding ! Idealogies which by far could never carry the potencies needed to overwhelm the administration as invariably some sanity does prevail and the loyalties to the Administration by far outweigh the betrayals which help consolidate the nations stability.

One thing is for certain, neither the negative news reporting of Balachandran nor the aspirations of Samaraweera to disrupt the smooth functioning of the Rajapaksha Administration through puerile and unpatriotic means needs to be tolerated and perhaps needs to be confronted towards demanding their credibilities which the two individuals could very well find difficult to establish as in Sri Lanka there is a strong sentiment against unpatriotic conduct by political leaders and a resentment against diced up news reporting with the sole intention of selling a story!

Such individuals should tread very carefully and lightly lest the floor under them collapses sooner than later!

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