Editorial

A notable anniversary

Published

4 years ago

2021/10/10

October marks the 40^th anniversary of the Sunday Island and we celebrate this occasion today by publishing two articles, one by the first editor of this paper, Vijita Yapa, and the other, a condensed translation of another that appeared in the Irida Divayina last week. Upali Wijewardene who founded Upali Newspapers Ltd. (UNL), was a nephew of D.R. Wijewardene, the Beaverbrook of Sri Lanka, whose Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd. (ANCL), best known as Lake House, publishing in English, Sinhalese and Tamil, played a significant role in winning Independence from the British; this not by bloodshed but through negotiations. Unlike India, we had no Mahatma Gandhi, nor did we go through as protracted a struggle as in the neighbouring subcontinent to win our freedom. The stakes, of course were different. Though ours was a green and pleasant land, second only to Japan in Asia in terms of development and lack of abject poverty, then Ceylon though not the jewel in the crown of the British Empire, was blessed with many resources including a largely literate population, a relatively sound infrastructure, an efficient public service as well as a favorable climate.

There is no doubt that Upali Wijewardene founded UNL in furtherance of his political ambitions. A nephew of not only D.R. Wijewardene, but also J.R. Jayewardene who had become Sri Lanka’s first executive president in 1977 with a stunning electoral landslide. JRJ was to later boast that this victory empowered him to do anything he wished to do ‘except make a man into a woman.’ Jayewardene handpicked Wijewardene, among the most successful enterpreneurs of his day, to head the Greater Colombo Economic Commission (GCEC) created to attract the ‘robber barons’ as he styled them to invest in Sri Lanka. Ours was a long-shackled, controlled economy that had been boldly opened by virtually a single stroke. Wijewardene had both the verve and the ability to deliver on that front, as well as an ambition to succeed his kinsman on the national throne. Once asked by the then Colombo correspondent of the Hong Kong based Far Eastern Economic Review whether he aspired to be president, he responded saying “what else is there to aspire to?” The publication of that remark infuriated Prime Minister Premadasa who too had presidential ambitions. Wijewardene sent a copy of the magazine to Premadasa with a mischievous note above the article saying “I hope you’ll enjoy this as much as I did.”

By the time UNL was founded, ANCL had been taken away from D.R. Wijewardene’s heirs by Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike’s United Front Government which included both the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Ceylon Communist Party who had been implacable foes of the UNP (and of Lake House) from pre-Independence days. The takeover was on the pretext of broad basing the ownership of the company which has not happened over 50 years later. Lake House remains the propaganda trumpet of whoever is government. That perhaps well served Upali Wijewardene, married to a niece of Mrs. Bandaranaike, because his strategy for his new newspaper toy included recruiting as many of the country’s top journalists he could attract by offering three or four times what they were then earning. With the ANCL takeover, he didn’t have to poach talent from his cousin’s newspapers. Though he didn’t get all the people he wanted, he did get most, including Edmund Ranasinghe, who played a major role building up UNL’s Sinhala newspapers and shaping their political direction.

As last Sunday’s Irida Divayina article noted, many of the journalist that were recruited by UNL were to later become editors of other national newspapers as the news industry expanded in recent years. There were people like cartoonists WR Wijesoma, undoubtedly the country’s best since Aubrey Collette who cut his teeth at Lake House, photographer Rienzie Wijeratne and Ajith Samaranayake, a brilliant bilingual journalist who was head and shoulders above his contemporaries. There were others who are not mentioned here for reasons of space. The Irida Divayina made the point that just as much as Lake House was the mulgedera (principal home) of most of the best journalists of the time, UNL became a training ground, or a university, for others nurturing what was to become the Jatika Chinthanaya (national vision) that influenced the shaping of contemporary politics.

Despite Wijewardene’s close kinship to JRJ, he was no lapdog. What he published at times in his papers infuriated the president who once attempted to starve Upali companies of bank credit. Jayewardene also did not thwart his prime minister by allowing his nephew an opportunity to enter parliament. But he did protect Upali when Premadasa attempted to kick him out of the GCEC through a Parliamentary Select Committee. Upali Wijewardene’s life was tragically shortened when he and some companions returning in his private Lear jet to Sri Lanka from Malaysia where he had business interests, was lost somewhere over the Straits of Malacca. But UNL and its newspapers continued to soldier on and notch the present anniversary. While times have changed and the print media here, as in the broader world outside, is no longer what it was and is eclipsed by the electronic and social media, it is by no means dead. Many new entrants have come into the field with businessmen in countries like ours embarking into that space more for reasons of influence than of commerce. How Upali Wijewardene would have piloted his ship, had he been alive today, is an imponderable. His father died young and he believed that would be his lot too saying that was why he focused his later years on enjoying life.

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Editorial

Jekylls and Hydes

Published

16 hours ago

2025/12/29

Sahan Weerasooriya

Monday 29th December, 2025

Sri Lankan politicians love the media dearly and take up the cudgels for the rights of journalists when they are out of power. The JVP/NPP leaders also defended the media to the hilt while they were languishing in the Opposition. Jekylls become Hydes after being ensconced in power, with the media exposing their failures and malpractices. Those who can, do; those who cannot, attack the media, one may say of the governments in this country, with apologies to Bernard Shaw.

The JVP-led NPP government, angered by bad press, is all out to intimidate the media it cannot control. Previous governments had the police on a string and used them to attack and harass independent journalists. The incumbent administration has gone a step further; the police have reportedly written to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), asking for action against Hiru TV for what they describe as broadcasting unverified, misleading news. Thus, the government has used the police to give Hiru a choice between toeing the official line and losing its licence. Thankfully, its efforts have run into stiff resistance, with media institutions and various associations circling the wagons around Hiru.

If the government thinks Hiru or any other media institution disseminates false information to the detriment of its interests, legal avenues are available for it to seek redress. The police must not be used as a political tool to intimidate the media.

Among the current defenders of the media are the SLPP, the UNP, the SLFP, etc. Their leaders are shedding copious tears for Hiru. But it was while the UNP and SLPP leaders were in power that the suppression of media freedom and violence against journalists became institutionalised for all intents and purposes. UNP governments not only throttled media freedom but also murdered journalists. SLFP regimes had media institutions attacked and journalists killed. An SLFP-led government, with the current SLPP leaders at the helm, had media institutions torched and journalists abducted, assaulted and murdered. These sinners currently in the political wilderness are condemning other sinners in power for suppressing media freedom.

The government deserves the bad press it gets. The police have been reduced to a mere appendage of the JVP/NPP. Two of the NPP’s Retired Police Collective members, namely former Senior DIG Ravi Seneviratne and former SSP Shani Abeysekera, have been appointed Secretary to the Public Security Ministry and CID Director, respectively. Absurd claims the police make in defence of the government remind us of Matilda, whose dreadful lies made one gasp and stretch one’s eyes.

When the police were asked why NPP MP Asoka Ranwala had not been subjected to a breathalyser test immediately after a recent road accident he caused, they had the chutzpah to claim they had run out of test kits. They transferred two of their officers over the incident to enable the government to save face. They arrested one of their own men assaulted by an NPP MP following a recent police raid on a cannabis cultivation in Suriyakanda. Acting just like legendary King Kekille, they let the MP off the hook and arrested the policeman, who was bailed out; they went on to suspend him from service. A few months ago, they unashamedly sided with a group of JVP cadres who stormed a Frontline Socialist Party office in Yakkala and forcibly occupied it. They go out of their way to ensure that the arrests of drug dealers with links to the Opposition get maximum possible publicity, but they do their best to keep the media in the dark when narcotics dealers with ruling party connections are taken into custody. They crack down on Opposition politicians and activists but steer clear of government members and their supporters. The despicable manner in which they are doing political work for the government reminds us of the Gestapo. Now, they are zeroing in on Hiru TV at the behest of their political masters for exposing their sordid actions.

The only way the NPP government can overcome problems and challenges on the political front and shore up its crumbling image is to mend its ways and fulfil its election pledges while taking action against its errant members who have brought it into disrepute and turned public opinion against it. Shooting the messenger is not the way to set about the task.

Editorial

Executive brinkmanship

Published

2 days ago

2025/12/28

Thilina Walpola

Pressure is mounting on President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to ensure that an Auditor General is appointed without further delay. But he has remained unmoved. He is determined to wear down the Constitutional Council (CC) and appoint one of his party loyalists as Auditor General. The CC has rejected his nominees—and rightly so; they are not eligible. Former Executive Presidents went all out to railroad the CC into rubber-stamping their decisions. They had no qualms about doing so while claiming to uphold the independence of the public service. President Dissanayake has failed to be different. His refusal to compromise amounts to brinkmanship; he is waiting until the CC blinks.

The NPP’s election manifesto, A Thriving Nation: A Beautiful Life, attributes the deterioration of the public service to ‘political appointments’ and state workers making political decisions. Among the steps the NPP has promised to take to straighten up the public service are ‘merit-based appointments and promotions’. This principle has fallen by the wayside where the question of appointing the Auditor General is concerned.

The government should take cognisance of the possible negative effects of the prolonged delay in appointing the Auditor General during a period of disaster response and international relief and rebuilding support.

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka has called upon President Dissanayake to appoint a person with proven competence, integrity, and independence, who commands wide acceptance as Auditor General forthwith. It has stressed the need to appoint a nonpartisan professional as the Auditor General to safeguard the integrity of the National Audit Office and inspire the confidence of both citizens and international partners in the financial governance of the State.

Transparency International Sri Lanka, the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and the other good governance activists, too, have faulted President Dissanayake and his government for the inordinate delay in appointing the Auditor General. They are of the view that a strong, independent Auditor General enables Parliament and the public to scrutinise government expenditure, identify irregularities, prevent misuse of funds, and ensure that those entrusted with public resources are held to account. The delay in appointing the Auditor General has weakened the effectiveness, authority, and the independence of the entire public audit system and created space for inefficiency, mismanagement, and corruption, they have noted. The situation will take a turn for the worse if the government succeeds in having one of its cronies appointed Auditor General.

The government is apparently playing a waiting game in the hope that the reconstitution of the CC due next year will provide a window of opportunity for it to appoint one of its loyalists as Auditor General.

Why the government is so desperate to place a malleable person at the helm of the National Audit Office is not hard to understand. If it succeeds in its endeavour, the next Auditor General will be beholden to the JVP/NPP. When an ineligible person is elevated to a high post, he or she naturally becomes subservient to the appointing authority. Such officials go out of their way to safeguard the interests of their political masters in case of irregularities involving state funds and other accountability issues.

A protracted delay in appointing the Auditor General or the appointment of a government supporter to that post will increase the risk of mismanagement of state funds and corruption, lead to the erosion of public trust and confidence in the National Audit Office, undermine legislative oversight and impair fiscal discipline. Most of all, the government’s failure to appoint a competent, independent person of integrity as Auditor General will diminish donor confidence especially at a time when the country is seeking disaster relief funds from the international community. There is no way the government can justify its refusal to appoint the current Acting Auditor General as the head of the supreme audit institution. He is obviously the most eligible candidate.

Editorial

Selective transparency

Published

3 days ago

2025/12/27

Thilina Walpola

Saturday 27th December, 2025

The NPP government has released a cordial diplomatic letter from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, and gained a great deal of publicity for it as part of a propaganda campaign to boost Dissanayake’s image. Such moves are not uncommon in politics, especially in the developing world, where the heads of powerful states are deified and their visits, invitations and letters are flaunted as achievements of the leaders of smaller nations. However, the release of PM Modi’s letter to President Dissanayake is counterproductive, for it makes one wonder why the government has not made public the MoUs it has signed with India?

PM Modi’s Sri Lanka visit in April 2025 saw the signing of seven MoUs (or pacts as claimed in some quarters) between New Delhi and Colombo. Prominent among them are the MoUs/pacts on the implementation of HVDC (High-Voltage Direct Current) Interconnection for import/export of power, cooperation among the governments of India, Sri Lanka, and the United Arab Emirates on developing Trincomalee as an energy hub, and defence cooperation between India and Sri Lanka.

The NPP government has violated one of the fundamental tenets of good governance––transparency; there has been no transparency about the aforesaid MoUs or pacts, especially the one on defence cooperation. They cannot be disclosed without India’s consent, the government has said. This is a very lame excuse. The JVP/NPP seems to have a very low opinion of the intelligence of the public, who made its meteoric rise to power.

When the JVP/NPP was in opposition, it would flay the previous governments for signing vital MoUs and pacts without transparency. But it has kept even Parliament in the dark about the MoUs/pacts in question.

Ironically, the JVP, which resorted to mindless violence in a bid to scuttle the signing of the Indo-Lanka Accord in 1987, has sought to justify the inking of an MoU/pact on defence cooperation between Sri Lanka and India and keeping it under wraps, about three and a half decades later. The signing of that particular defence MoU/pact marked the JVP’s biggest-ever Machiavellian U-turn. How would the JVP have reacted if a previous government had entered into MoUs with India and kept them secret? It opposed the proposed Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) between Sri Lanka and India tooth and nail, didn’t it?

Whenever one sees the aforesaid letter doing the rounds in the digital space, one remembers the MoUs/pacts shrouded in secrecy, which have exposed the pusillanimity of the NPP government, whose leaders cannot so much as disclose their contents without India’s consent.