Malik hires another US firm to lobby for Sri Lanka
Posted on August 25th, 2016
Hema Perera Wadduwa Courtesy The Island
August 25, 2016, 9:56 pm
Reports that Minister Malik Samarawickrama has contracted a US PR firm must have come as a shock to many. This was what the former government was accused of. The US firms were paid hefty sums monthly to boost Sri Lanka’s image, but the US government remained hostile as it detested the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa. It was mentioned in social media that those who retained these companies received handsome kick-backs; but this government, though it is said to be aware of what actually happened as there are documents available, has done nothing to bring these miscreants to justice.
Is it because Vass Gunawardena has got close to a VVVIP of this government and is ready to rat on his former boss? We have learnt nothing of what has happened, bar the President’s recent statement that he would reveal it all, and whatever that may be. Let us hope that the President would immediately request the authorities to reveal to us how and who authorized the earlier ‘adventure’ and also inform us, the public, as we today have a legal right to demand such information as to who authorized and who has benefitted from that ‘fraudulent’ act. He should now find out why Minister Samarawickrema has decided to follow the dubious act of Cabraal and Gunawardena. This must be inquired into in the public interest, for we are concerned that this government, which we elected and reposed much confidence in, may be going the same way as the government we rejected because of horrendous corruption. If Minister Samarawickrama is seeking to bring the IT Industry in a big way, then he must go to the Silicon Valley in the US and to Bangalore in India; there is no need to retain a lobbyist in the US; after our war has ended, that money could be better used to set up an IT Unit in the North.
Over to you Mr. President
Hema Perera
Wadduwa
August 26th, 2016 at 8:12 am
This Is How The Office Of The Missing Persons (Which Will Become A Bogus ‘Evidence’ Manufacturing Machine) Manufacture Bogus ‘Evidence’ Of 40,000 Missing Persons To Try Our Brave Armed Forces For So Called War Crimes They Never, Ever Committed
In the Missing Persons Act, a relative or a friend can make an official inquiry (but a totally bogus inquiry) from the Office of the Missing Persons (OMP) by email inquiring as to the whereabouts of their relative or friend.
There are over 8 lakhs to 10 lakhs Tamil diaspora asylum seekers (actually economic migrants), a vast majority of who support the separatist terrorist LTTE and its aim of a separate state. If even 40,000 of these Tamil diaspora who support the separatist terrorist LTTE write bogus emails to the OMP inquiring the whereabouts of their friend or relative (but this friend or relative is actually living alongside them in these countries i.e. the US, UK, EU, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, India etc.) these inquiries will officially be accepted by the OMP as 40,000 missing persons.
According to the provisions of the OMP Act, even if the OMP inquires after these let us say 40,000 and finds out that these are all bogus inquiries and that all these 40,000 persons are actually living alongside the inquirer i.e. their relative or friend and these complaints about these persons being missing are all bogus, the missing persons, now found by the OMP, can request that their whereabouts not be revealed to their relative or friend or be made public. So officially these 40,000 persons will still be missing!!!
Then the OMP will use these bogus 40,000 missing persons (who are actually living comfortably in the US, UK, EU, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, India etc.) as manufactured ‘evidence’ that war crimes happened in Sri Lanka (and all these bogus inquirers will state that these persons went missing during the 2006-2009 period) and our Sri Lankan Armed Forces will be persecuted for committing war crimes that they never, ever committed by a judicial process using these bogus email inquiries.
The Missing Persons Act states specifically that if the missing person who is now found requests that the fact that they are now found not be revealed to the public that person will remain as missing as far as the OMP is concerned. That is how the OMP will manufacture bogus ‘evidence’ of 40,000 missing persons so that the Sri Lankan Armed Forces can be persecuted for committing bogus war crimes.
The OMP emails cannot be checked by any outside body as stated in the Act since all evidence (almost all bogus) gathered by the OMP remains confidential. The OMP cannot be taken to the Supreme Court on this issue. However the OMP should absolutely and immediately be taken to the Supreme Court regarding what has been written above which is what would happen when this OMP is set up.
The OMP will become a bogus ‘evidence’ manufacturing machine which will gather such bogus inquiries via email from those members of the Tamil diaspora who are supportive of the LTTE terrorists and who will send bogus email inquiries by their thousands. All these bogus inquiries (of people who are actually living in the US, UK, EU, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, India etc.) will then be misused as missing person inquiries.
I did not realize that the Sinhalese were this stupid as to allow such a process within the Missing Persons Act which can be blatantly misused in order to manufacture bogus ‘evidence’ like this. The OMP process is not transparent, it will happen in total secrecy, no one in Sri Lanka will be able to question it, not our police, not our courts, not our Sri Lankan citizens, nobody. All the OMP will do is gather bogus email ‘evidence’ such as described above which will then be misused as missing person inquiries to try the Sri Lankan Armed Forces for bogus war crimes that they never, ever committed.
The OMP process as described above must be stopped immediately. If a relative or a friend really and genuinely wants to find out about their genuinely missing relative or friend (i.e. perished LTTE terrorist), they can make a complaint to the OMP in person in public. This is the only way that Sri Lanka and the world will know that their inquiry is genuine. This was the methodology followed by the earlier Paranagama Commission which then received 23,000 complaints from relatives or friends of the missing person (i.e. perished LTTE terrorist or our perished Sri Lankan Forces soldiers) but they made their complaint in public in person to the commission. This is the only way to ensure authenticity and make the process transparent since this happens in the public arena. However, even with such safeguards, even some of those complaints may have been bogus.
The OMP should be stopped immediately since it is not a transparent process at all as described above but a totally secretive process where no one and nobody can request to be provided an opportunity to even peruse, investigate or look at the email inquiries received by the OMP. If the UNHRC, the US, UK, EU, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, India, the TNA and the separatist terrorists genuinely want to find out about perished LTTE terrorists, this Yahapalanaya Government could expand and extend the scope of the already set up Paranagama Commission in order to make such inquiries. This process should be totally following Sri Lankan Law, within Sri Lankan jurisdiction, paid for totally by the Sri Lankan Government only and with only Sri Lankan citizens appointed as commission members and investigators. In fact the entire staff should be composed of Sri Lankan citizens only. The process should be a totally domestic process with no interference or input whatsoever from foreign countries. Most importantly, all complaints should be made in person by relatives and friends in public if their complaint is genuine.
The Missing Persons Act is totally dangerous as pointed out above and should be dismissed totally as it is highly dangerous and a totally secretive process as described above designed and set up to manufacture bogus ‘evidence’ against the Sri Lankan Armed Forces.
August 26th, 2016 at 8:20 am
plumblossom Says:
August 25th, 2016 at 2:13 am
Mr. Udaya Gammanpila Sir,
Apart from highly commending you for taking legal action against the treacherous CBK (Chaura Rejina) regarding the defamatory and utter lies she keeps repeating to defame her rivals, legal action should be taken against her for stating that she will definitely devolve more powers to provincial Councils within the new constitution. Does this evil woman CBK think she owns Sri Lanka and that she is the one who is going to draw up the new constitution of Sri Lanka (according to the wishes of the imperialistic US, UK, EU, Canada, Norway, Sweden, India, the racist TNA and the separatist terrorists)? The constitution of Sri Lanka should satisfy first and foremost the majority of people of this island i.e. the Sinhala people and the Sinhala people firstly do not want to draw up a new constitution nor do they want any more powers whatsoever be provided to the provincial councils especially land, police and fiscal or to illegally merge the North and the East.
Someone has to go to the supreme court and take action against treacherous CBK for suggesting that she will definitely devolve more powers to provincial councils within the yet to be drawn up constitution since this means the treacherous Ranil, Sirisena, CBK and Mangala have already drawn up a constitution to satisfy the imperialistic US, UK, EU, Canada, Norway, Sweden, India, the racist TNA and the separatist terrorists which is illegal.
August 26th, 2016 at 1:08 pm
Hiring Public Relations (PR) firms to advance the nation’s interests is NOT A BAD IDEA as long it does not involve bribing; many countries do it, especially in Washington DC. It is an essential part of LOBBYING through individual US polticians.
Therefore, hiring PROCESS firms, per se, is NOT A CRIME. But, lobbying in influence peddling, and usually involves payment on the form of some valunable asset or service.
What would be a CRIME, in ANY VENTURE using govt funds, is if such bribes have been paid either as a condition of getting that PR contract, or a payment made to bribe politicians who belong to foreign countries or of Sri Lanka in the execution of that contract.
I don’t know whether it is illegal under Sri Lankan law to bribe a foreign official, but I do know it is illegal under US and Australian laws.
Since lobbying invariably involves the transfer of some valuable asset or delivery of a valuable service (because no one does a favor for nothing in return), it usually involves bribing.
Under US Law, LOBBYING is LEGAL, but BRIBING is ILLEGAL, and determining whether an instance of lobbying is LEGAL or ILLEGAL is very complicated and is a legal minefield few brave souls would want to walk on.
August 26th, 2016 at 1:12 pm
Oops! I meant to say PR firm not PROCESS firm.
August 26th, 2016 at 1:22 pm
In evaluating the VALUE of using PR firms to LOBBY officials of other countries, we have to recognize that the Tamil EELAMIST Diaspora does it all the time, and they have NO RESERVATIONS about BRIBING these politicians.
They have been HUGELY SUCCESSFUL; the strong support they have in ALL Western countries like the USA, UK, NORWAY, CANADA and FRANCE, and even the UN, give ample testimony to their success in LOBBYING and BRIBING officials in those (and other countries).
Sri Lanka is engaged in an EXISTENTIAL STRUGGLE against the Tamil Diaspora; we should use the same weapons they deploy against us, and LEARN to use them MORE EFFECTIVELY than they do.
Israel is another country threatened with extinction that LEARNED to do that; we should emulate Israel in our own struggle for SURVIVAL!
August 26th, 2016 at 3:27 pm
ක්රිකට් ටිකට් බකට්;
20-20 මැච් එකට පෙර ක්රීඩාලෝලීහු අවුට් වෙති
සිරිමන්ත රත්නසේකර
ශ්රී ලංකාව සහ ඔස්ටේ්රලියාව අතර ලබන 9 වැනිදා කොළඹ ආර්. ප්රේමදාස ක්රීඩාංගණයේදී පැවැත්වීමට නියමිත පන්දු වාර විස්සයි විස්ස ක්රිකට් තරගයේ ප්රවේශපත්ර අලෙවි කිරීම ඊයේ (26 වැනිදා) කොළඹ 07 මෙට්ලන්ඩ් පෙදෙසේ පිහිටි ශ්රී ලංකා ක්රිකට් ආයතනයේදී සිදු කෙරුණු අතර එය පුංචි යුදපිටියක් බවට පත්ව තිබිණි.
ප්රවේශපත්ර අලෙවි කිරීමේදී නිසි ක්රමවේදයක් අනුගමනය කිරීම නොපෙනුණු අතර එහෙයින් බොහෝ වේලාවක් දිගු පෝලිම්වල ටිකට්පත් මිලදී ගැනීමට බලා සිටි ක්රිකට් ලෝලීන්ට ප්රවේශපත්ර ලබාගැනීමට නොහැකි විය.
මෙයින් උරණ වූ ක්රිකට් ලෝලීන් ක්රිකට් ආයතනයේ දොරවල්වලට පහර දෙමින් කෑකෝ ගසමින් ඔවුන්ගේ අප්රසාදය පළ කළ අතර තත්ත්වය පාලනය කිරීම සඳහා පොලිසිය ද පැමිණ සිටිනු දක්නට ලැබිණි.
“ටිකට් විකුණන එකත් ඉන්දියානු කොම්පැණියකට දීලා” “යහපාලනයෙන් සේරම ඉන්දියාවට” යහපාලනේ මේකද කියමින් ඔවුන් කෑකෝ ගසනු දක්නට ලැබිණි.
ටිකට් නිකුත් කිරීම ආරම්භ කළ මොහොතේ එක් අයකුට ටිකට්පත් පහ බැගින් නිකුත් කළ බවත් එකවරම එය එක ටිකට් පතකට සීමා කළ බවත් සඳහන් කළ ක්රිකට් ලෝලීහු තරගය නැරඹීමට බලාපොරොත්තු වන සියලු දෙනාම ටිකට්පත් මිලදී ගැනීමට කැඳවාගෙන එන්නේ කෙසේදැයි ප්රශ්න කළහ.
ටිකට්පත් අලෙවි කිරීම ඉන්දියානු සමාගමකට පැවරීම නිසා මෙම තත්ත්වය උදාවූ බවත් ටිකට් පතක් ක්රිකට් ආයතනයට විකුණ ගන්න නොහැකි නම් එවැනි ආයතනයකින් රටට ඇති ඵලය කුමක් දැයි ඔවුහු ප්රශ්න කළහ.
ප්රවේශපත්ර මිලදී ගැනීමට නොහැකි වූ ප්රේක්ෂකයන් ක්රිකට් ආයතනයේ දොරටුව වෙත පහර දෙමින් කෑකෝ ගසන අවස්ථාවේ ටිකට් අලෙවි කළ පිරිස මුදල් බෑගයන් සහ ටිකට් බෑගයන් රැගෙන ආරක්ෂාව පතා ක්රිකට් ආයතනය වෙත දිවයන අයුරු දක්නට ලැබිණි.
කුරුඳුවත්ත පොලිසියේ නිලධාරියකු පැමිණ ක්රිකට් ආයතනය වෙත ගොස් පිටතට පැමිණ ප්රවේශපත්ර විකිණී අවසන් වී ඇති බව දැනුම් දුන් අතර එය නොපිළිගත් ක්රීඩා ලෝලීහු ලොකු මිනිස්සුන්ට දෙන්න ටිකට් සඟවාගෙන යෑයි කියමින් චෝදනා කළහ.
August 26th, 2016 at 4:30 pm
“Israel is another country threatened with extinction that LEARNED to do that; we should emulate Israel in our own struggle for SURVIVAL!”
I AGREE.
Israel has been successful even without USA and other US lickers like TURKEY going against it. The success of Israel is MAINLY due to STATE SPONSORED COLONIZATION. In SL, state sponsored colonization of TRINCO can SPLIT TAMIL ONLY NORTH and TAMIL ONLY BATTI. Like WEST BANK and GAZA.
After that TAMIL ELAM is physically NOT possible.
Another success of ISRAEL is HIGH PROFILE MILITARY MEN rule the country. Democratically elected but they are from the military. CONSCRIPTION is also there in Israel. IF conscription is introduced in SL, all KALLATHONIS and COLOMBIAN TRAITORS will get out of SL than work for the army. We can save SL without firing a shot.