{"id":150133,"date":"2025-06-08T15:51:33","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T22:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=150133"},"modified":"2025-06-08T15:51:33","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T22:51:33","slug":"bribery-commission-investigate-the-mass-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2025\/06\/08\/bribery-commission-investigate-the-mass-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Bribery Commission: Investigate the Mass\u00a0Media!"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News<\/a><\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n

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blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before you study the economics, study the economists!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

e-Con e-News 01-07 June 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

June furnishes us with humid, dripping, sopping, sodden, swampy examples of how the media in Sri Lanka lives in another world, perhaps in the City of London, or Wall Street, New York. Look how they act surprised by the annual SouthWest Monsoon<\/strong>, which had already long begun in the ocean outside wintry Southern-Eastern Africa<\/strong> (if there\u2019s such a thing as a beginning, to winds) and seasonally lashes the country as it heads for the Himalayas and further north & east. Yet, like transport investigators tardy to the scene of an Ashok-Leyland bus accident, with news-media editorialists lamenting the loss of housing, roofs & lives, faking tears that are soon flushed away with the bountiful rains, the media then faithfully and belatedly tracks the devastation by flood and landslide, just as they devotedly trail the movement of the sun over our heads from Devundra to Pandatharippu in April & August, pretending to be exacting astronomers. But it is all reaction<\/em><\/strong>. There is little information for preparing people for this spell of wind & rain, or its failures, what cultivators & workers (the real majority!<\/em>) should be doing or do, and the expected consequences\u2026 \u2013 and,<\/strong> where are the interviews with CEB repairing workersthe 50, 000 power outages across the country?<\/strong> \u2013 or, what precautions people may take, let alone discussing appropriate clothing or \u2018fashions\u2019! So, who decides this local media\u2019s agendas & priorities? Well, we don\u2019t have to look too far\u2026 (& don\u2019t act surprised!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018USAID spends over a quarter billion dollars<\/strong> yearly<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

training & funding a vast sprawling network of more<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

than 6,200 reporters & nearly 1,000 \u2018independent<\/em>\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

news outlets<\/strong> or journalism organizations\u2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

the largest global propaganda network<\/strong> ever created\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Lee Camp (see ee Media<\/em><\/strong>, Giant US Propaganda Web!)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Overseas School of Colombo\u2019s first-ever Media Open Day sets<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a new standard<\/strong> \u2013 opening its doors, hearts<\/strong> & soul<\/strong> to the media\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(see ee Workers<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018CIC Holdings delivers resilient<\/strong> FY25 results with 9% topline<\/strong> growth<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(see ee Agriculture<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018LOLC Group posts Rs41bn net profit; assets top Rs2trillion mark<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The robust<\/strong> performance was fueled by steady expansion<\/strong> in financial services,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a series of strategic<\/strong> international acquisitions, & improving<\/strong> economic conditions.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(see ee Finance<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost every single English medium in Sri Lanka reproduce & repeat company \u2018press releases\u2019, most times without changing one hyperbolic word. Since these \u2018news\u2019 items are actually non-industrial products (mere hulang) from these import merchant\u2019s public relations (PR) agencies<\/strong>, shouldn\u2019t they be clearly delineated as \u2018paid\u2019 advertisements? Most \u2018news\u2019 are pure ads, and repeated verbatim throughout media (see ee News Index <\/em><\/strong>below)!  If this merchant media (owners, editors, reporters) are being paid (over & under the table) to reprint these \u2018infocommercials\u2019, shouldn\u2019t they be declared as income and taxed, or exposed by the Bribery Commission<\/strong>? What says the Internal Revenue Department<\/strong> about these \u2018paid printers\u2019 who are usually full of \u2018shlock & awe\u2019 about politicians\u2019 corruptions, etc? That is, when they are not photocopying corporate junk or state \u2018media divisions\u2019 signalling good intentions, all liberally deploying the infinitive tense: \u2018to<\/em> do\u2019, \u2018to implement\u2019, with no follow-up on any such thing done or implemented. Then there are the mind-boggling array of prizes and awards being handed out daily \u2013 shouldn\u2019t all these elaborate ceremonies be listed as tax-evading expenditures? Does the answer lie with that award-winning & prize-giving Institute of Marketing (SLIM<\/strong>), which claims to be Sri Lankan?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     In this month of banks & financial institutions releasing their \u2018first quarter\u2019 (1Q2025) statements, shouldn\u2019t their hyper claims about revenues & profits & premiums be modified by use of the words \u2018reported<\/em>\u2019 or \u2018claimed<\/em>\u2019? & how do they make their profits? Is it investment in production? or usury & speculation in real-estate? No such questions are asked! The nouns, verbs, adjectives & adverbs used in headlines include: \u2018surpass, highest, top, robust, hike, achieve, leads,<\/em> historic, strong<\/em>\u2019 \u2013 while providing no investigation into such nouns, verbs, adjectives & adverbs by the so-called \u2018independent<\/em>\u2019 \u2018free<\/em>\u2019 \u2018nursemaids of democracy\u2019 and \u20185th<\/sup> Estate\u2019, offer no veracity to such claims. And it\u2019s not just companies but ubiquitous nosey envoys (going far beyond their station, as if sticking up a middle finger in scatological defiance) & so-called NGOS (funded by OGs<\/strong> \u2013 other governments<\/em>) \u2013 look (above) at the self-righteous hype of these international <\/em>schools<\/strong> \u2013 which are illegal under the Education Act<\/strong> but operating under the Business Act<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Meanwhile, the Central Bank Governor, that good \u2018non-medical Dr\u2019 N Weerasinghe (A Heroic Lion) assures the US Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka (AmCham), that the \u2018Collapse of the economy in 2028 is a myth\u2019! Yet, one media cheerleader even exerts themselves to caution, albeit in obtuse financial jargon:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka \u2018risks\u2019 asset price inflation without real economic gains<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Merchandise trade indicators reinforce concerns, with import expenditure<\/p>\n\n\n\n

jumping 12.7% year-on-year to US$6.57bn in the first 4 months of 2025,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

widening the trade deficit to $2.26bn. A notable surge in motor vehicle imports<\/strong>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 up a staggering <\/strong>707.9%<\/strong> y-o-, has contributed to the imbalance, outpacing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

export growth despite a 6.4% uptick in export earnings. While tourism<\/strong> earnings<\/p>\n\n\n\n

rose to $257mn & remittance inflows hit $646mn<\/strong>, foreign investments in<\/p>\n\n\n\n

government securities saw a net outflow of $12mn signaling persistent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

global investor caution. \u2018One would take a fleeting look at the data & say<\/p>\n\n\n\n

bulls may be charging forward<\/em><\/strong>\u2026 but they should keep an eye on<\/p>\n\n\n\n

storm clouds ahead<\/strong>. Without real economic productivity, Sri Lanka risks<\/p>\n\n\n\n

liquidity-fueling asset price inflation<\/strong> rather than sustainable progress.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(see ee Economists<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The controversial Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP)<\/strong> leader NM Perera\u2019s 120th<\/sup> Birth Anniversary falls on June 6. As Finance Minister of a government that had won by a landslide in 1970, he famously informed his PM, Sirimavo Bandaranaike: \u2018Madam, the kitty is empty.\u2019<\/em><\/strong> We all know what followed next, in 1971 (insurrection), 1973 (OPEC), 1974 (famine), and 1975 (destabilization), and sabotage of any industrial endeavours. And while now \u2018Next<\/em><\/strong>\u2019 turns out to be, not what comes after, but another English company stealing our labour, it is apropos that present LSSP leader Tissa Vitarana\u2019s resounds the alarm, with a call to \u2018Save Sri Lanka<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 We are in Danger<\/strong>\u2018. (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Indeed, with the US attack on Russia\u2019s nuclear force on June 1<\/strong>, the white world appears ready to imperil the whole world, including themselves. Yet, their media diverted<\/strong> to a purported rift between US President Don Trump and a senior advisor, E Musk, who only appear to differ on the recipe for how to cook & eat us, and our ranking on their menu!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Vitarana recalls the accomplishments of Sri Lanka\u2019s first political party, the LSSP<\/strong>, formed in 1935 <\/strong>under English colonial rule (but, what about AE Goonesinha\u2019s Ceylon Labour Party formed in 1928?). Vitarana lists the LSSP\u2019s early \u201822 Demands\u2019 including \u2018free education & health, and complete trade union rights for all employees\u2019. He also recalls the jailing of their leadership by the English (we should note here that SA Wickremesinghe was also jailed by the English, as a founder of the Communist Party of SL, which gave their full support to the USSR\u2019s defeat of Germany\u2019s Nazi war machine).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Vitarana also describes the LSSP\u2019s controversial coalition<\/strong> with the SLFP, which resulted in LSSP leader Colvin R de Silva\u2019s formulation of the first Republican Constitution in 1972. It turns out our English rulers and their readers do not know or care about what a Republic <\/em>really means. He thus draws attention to the dangerous military agreements demanded by the USA & India<\/strong> that undermine such claims to be a Republic. He also describes the current state of affairs where \u201870% of families<\/strong> in Sri Lanka [live] below the poverty line\u2019, adding: \u2018Farmers & their families are deeply in debt to traders & mill owners<\/strong>. Suicides go unreported.\u2019 He notes LSSP leader and Finance Minister NM Perera, who \u2018by discouraging imports\u2026 promoted the national economy by increasing local food production & value-added industries\u2019. Yet, curiously, there\u2019s no mention of the modern (machine-making) industrialization required (as noted by the Karl Marx he invokes), to sustain all these otherwise utopian demands\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we may wonder about such terms as \u2018Global North<\/em><\/strong>\u2019 (where Russia & much of Asia is also located) and \u2018Western<\/em><\/strong>\u2019 (which for us is firstly Andhra, Kerala, Tamilnadu & Africa), Shiran Illanperuma wonders: Can Global South Investments Develop Sri Lanka?<\/em><\/strong> (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>) He quotes the incessantly quoted Singaporean leader Lee Kwan-Yew who noted \u2018in many newly independent states, the \u2018will to resist often melts in the face of hard power\u2019,\u2019 while noting our bamboo-like wavering between \u2018winds\u2019 from the east & west. Illanperuma notes the recently signed \u2018$3.2billion investment from Chinese state-owned enterprise Sinopec for an oil refinery\u2019 in Hambantota<\/strong>, which Indian news agency IANS<\/em> claims has hit \u2018obstacles<\/em><\/strong>\u2019. If it materializes, the investment would be \u2018Sinopec\u2019s first<\/strong> overseas refinery<\/strong>, creating opportunities for several downstream chemical industries\u2019. He also notes how \u2018monopoly<\/strong> interests exist at every level of the agricultural sector<\/strong>, from the provision of credit, seeds, and fertilizers, to the processing, storage, transport, and marketing of the finished product\u2019. He points to the crucial lack of \u2018a real state-owned development bank<\/strong>\u2019, unlike in the rest of Asia, and the challenge of overall coherence \u2013 requiring Sri Lankan people\u2019s own responsibility to impose our priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Illanperuma speaks of a \u2018New\u2019 Cold War<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 however we often wonder about such formulations. The wars in Asia \u2013 South, East, West & North \u2013 have indeed been \u2018frozen\u2019 since 1945, and more than just \u2018Cold\u2019, but also quite hot & horrific. The term implies a certain mutuality of aggression, when in fact, the US (& Europe) have for centuries been invading our countries and have only temporarily withdrawn in the face of resistance. How easily this merchant media tries to make us forget. He criticizes the entry of Israel into this country<\/strong>, even as Israel is nothing but a forward settler \u2018province\u2019 & frontline of the USA & Europe, etc, formed (clearly as a terrorizing trap for Muslims and Jews!), after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, along with various \u2018Arab\u2019 satrapies, who also enable the US & EU horror. Naming these wars correctly<\/strong> as white wars <\/em><\/strong>would go a long way to recognizing \u2018thy enemy\u2019 and who are friends really are\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then following in this ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>, Vinod Moonesinghe analyzes the positives & drawbacks of the NPP government\u2019s \u2018Budget 2025 Industrial Zone Proposals: Challenges & Solutions<\/strong>\u2019. He notes the allocation of \u2018Rs500mn for 5 industrial parks<\/strong>, planned in Kankesanthurai, Mankulam, Iranawila, Galle, and Trincomalee\u2019, but worries about a \u2018lack of outstation industrial ecosystems<\/em><\/strong>\u2019. He sees the need for large amounts of sulphuric acid from Paranthan, wih the Ministry proposing that the government-owned Lanka Phosphate make \u2018 single super phosphate\u2019 from the rock phosphate found in the Eppawela deposit, in Trincomalee \u2013 but suggests it \u2018would prove very expensive and uneconomical. He believes there is \u2018an idea of the ad-hoc nature of economic planning in Sri Lanka, and [a] lack of theoretical knowledge regarding the process of industrialisation\u2019. He notes, \u2018Trincomalee could exploit its natural harbour and its proximity to Eppawela to avoid costly inland transport and develop industries based on sulphuric acid and rock phosphate processing\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     He wishes the government would also look \u2018to revive rail freight, eg, to reduce logistics costs for bulk chemicals\u2019, which would require rebuilding \u2018port-rail links for container transport\u2019, and calls for the offer of \u2018subsidised rail rates for industries in the new zones\u2019. He concludes: the \u20182025 Budget\u2019s industrial zone plans have potential but suffer from disjointed planning<\/strong>, transport inefficiencies, and unrealistic scaling\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The most difficult struggles of the <\/em>imperialist countries<\/em><\/strong> since<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the 18th<\/sup> century had\u2026 been with\u2026 their <\/em>own settlers<\/em><\/strong>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Emmanuel Arghiri, quoted in SBD de Silva\u2019s<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Political Economy of Underdevelopment<\/em>, 1982<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This ee Focus<\/em><\/strong> continues looking at Sri Lanka\u2019s Import-Export Mafia<\/strong>, via Chapter 5 of SBD de Silva\u2019s monumental study. SBD\u2019s thesis is proved in the incessant & saturated barrage in the media in Sri Lanka on the need for exports<\/strong> & foreign investment <\/strong>(for what?<\/em> asked de Silva, to import their cars?).<\/em> He also cogently rooted the English sabotaging of industrialization<\/strong> in Sri Lanka in capitalism\u2019s \u2018immanent tendency to stifle, suffocate & push back the full realization of the developmental potential of rival capitalisms. It is the nature of capital itself to demand the ousting of rival businessmen\u2026 the very basis of the central contradiction in capitalism<\/strong> arising from the appropriation of surplus value by fewer & fewer capitalists, while the production process is increasingly socialized.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     SBD de Silva saw the world\u2019s economies divided into non-settler colonies like Sri Lanka, where the natives are the majority but are ruled by expatriate investors ruling from metropolitan capitals; whereas in the countries of \u2018new settlement\u2019 (US, Canada, Australia, etc) settlers through genocide had become the ruling majority and replicated the metropolitan economies; and then there are settler-colonies (South Africa, Congo, Kenya, Rhodesia, the Maghreb, etc) where there were a sizeable population of settlers, but the natives were still the majority. So genocidal settlers did not call for exports or rely on imports:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Settlers pressed for \u2018policies committed to building up<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

internal rather than export markets<\/em><\/strong>, & even for <\/em>protection<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

for industrialization<\/em><\/strong> despite what they saw to be<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the opinion of <\/em>English manufacturing interests<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 MR Dilley<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Sri Lanka, English capital has been allowed to remain intact through a \u2018post-colonial\u2019 alliance between London\u2019s investors and Colombo\u2019s merchants who are thoroughly proud of their mimicking of English culture. Whereas, in the settler colonies, having first detached from their \u2018parent\u2019, they combatted or challenged attempts \u2018by metropolitan capitalism to stifle their autonomous growth\u2019 openly fighting London\u2019s investors, shippers & factory owners, proudly \u2018sabotaging\u2019 Paris\u2019s dictates. They won this \u2018freedom\u2019 through their insistent assertiveness and \u2018political conflicts with the metropolitan interests\u2019. Even in the non-settler colonies, relations with foreign investors in European capitals \u2018were not entirely harmonious\u2019. In Sri Lanka, eg, the English coffee planters engaged themselves in the country\u2019s first constitutional struggles, \u2018demanding a program of public works \u2013 roads, bridges and railways \u2013 and wanted a hand in the colonial budget\u2019. However, London\u2019s \u2018absentee\u2019 investors have always seen their \u2018native\u2019 brown satraps as more malleable\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the recent local government elections in Sri Lanka being lamented as a \u2018fiasco\u2019, ee Focus<\/em><\/strong> continues looking at the 19th<\/sup> century roots of the USA\u2019s political & economic mafia (actually the ruling capitalist class) through that original NGO \u2013 the \u2018charity\u2019 known as New York\u2019s Tammany Hall, via Gustavus Myer\u2019s history. It examines the origins of the US Democratic <\/strong>& Republican Parties<\/strong>\u2018 controls of the candidates through the role of \u2018inspectors\u2019 who chose delegates to party conventions \u2018as they pleased.\u2019 Sometimes factions of parties had simultaneous meetings in the same hall, at other times they prevented factions from entry to meetings through their ownership of the hall\u2019s property, and usually through the use of gangsters \u2013 their main concern being their \u2018share in the division of plunder\u2019, ie, the \u2018spoils\u2019 of office, as they fronted for the then-nascent and rising banks, transport, railway and shipping corporations. We should remind readers of Tammany\u2019s misuse of original American \u2018native\u2019<\/em><\/strong> language such as \u2018Wigwam\u2019 (Ojibwa) to describe Tammany\u2019s headquarters & \u2018Sachems\u2019 (Narragansett) to refer to the real leaders hidden in backrooms: the real rainmakers\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ee<\/em><\/strong> is dedicated to the memory of the dedicated scholarship of SBD de Silva, whose 7th<\/sup> death anniversary will occur in the coming week. We have wished to bring to ee <\/em><\/strong>readers the issues SBD foregrounded (\u2018Why don\u2019t our garment factories make a pin?<\/em>\u2019) to transform Sri Lanka\u2019s still-colonial labour-intensive and unproductive import-export plantation economy; to go beyond what our otherwise-occupied mass merchant media wishes to waste our eyes & minds & time on: They prefer to broadcast the retail crimes of petty criminals versus the wholesale crimes of multinational banks & corporations (eg, Unilever, CIC & Ceylon Tobacco Co, Caltex-Exxon, Standard Chartered & Citibank, etc) and the merchants & usurers they puppeteer. SBD, when asked about why he did not seek to express his ideas in the mass media, would retort: \u2018What do they know or care about economic issues in Sri Lanka? Let me interview them!\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

_________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contents:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bribery Commission: Investigate the Mass Media!<\/a><\/blockquote>