The Island group and their follies

Friday, 15 June 2012

Who is more powerful in the heavily pro Government and racist Island group?

Is it the owner NimalWelgama, the Chairman of the group? He is also the Chairman of The Sri Lanka Telecom whose advertisements are all channelled only to the Island group.

Or is it the rebel and racist Editor, PrabathSahanabdu. He is known to castigate everything under the sun and projects himself as a champion of all lost causes. The country’s laws still do not apply to him.

The Ministry of Defence recently instructed Sahabandu not to refer to Fonseka as General. This is because it is unlawful since the title has been withdrawn by President Rajapaksa through a legally valid warrant. Sahabandu has thrown this to the waste paper basket and continues to defy Defence Ministry Secretary GotabhayaRajapaksa. On Thursday, he even gave a front page prominence to “General Fonseka” addressing a press conference. To add insult to injury, he wrote an editorial also challenging Gotabhaya when all other media maintain a deliberate silence on him for terrible fear of being abducted in white vans.

What is law for other citizens, the warrant issued by Rajapaksa, is not law for Sahabandu. Suddenly the Island has begun to support Fonseka and ignore Gotabhaya. A Cabinet Minister said Sahabandu’s new policy to oppose Rajapaksa Government is with approval of Welgama. He said the circulation of the newspapers have come down. However, Gotabhaya is furious about this.

Another man who has got angry is Shamindra “sources said” Ferdinando, the wonder boy of modern journalism in Sri Lanka. He is disappointed Gotabhaya did not ask him to write a book and gave it to former JVP activisit, C.A. Chandraprema. Therefore, Ferdinando is “re-visiting” the LTTE war in articles to boost his ego and image.

Gotabhaya has said that he will deal with Welgama and his group if they continue playing the double game. Await more developments in the coming weeks said an MoD official who is monitoring the developments.