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The Dalai Lama
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Hiring PR Firms And Our Public Relations Will Not Be Able To Help Us
By Rajiva Wijesinha -September 2, 2014
Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha MP
A Presidency Under Threat – Public Relations
Much has been reported recently about the various Public Relations firms
government – or rather elements in government, since it seems that
there has been no Cabinet approval for these ventures – have hired to
raise our profile in countries which seem hostile to us. There have been
a host of such firms in the United States, and one in Britain. The
first lot were almost all arranged through our Embassy in Washington,
whilst Bell Pottinger, which also works in the United States though it
is essentially a British firm, was arranged by Nivard Ajith Cabraal, the Governor of the Central Bank. More recently it seems Mr Cabraal has also been instrumental in arranging yet another firm in America.
The reports are very critical of those who make these arrangements, but I
believe there is need of some discrimination here. I cannot defend the
earlier agencies in America, for I found the only two I was introduced
to, way back when I headed the Peace Secretariat, to be both naïve and
incompetent. One of them had a young Sri Lankan who seemed to have
initiated the relationship, but he was almost as ignorant as the large
American he brought with him. Given the manner in which our Embassy in
Washington conducted business, that being the operative word it seems, I
believe there should be thorough investigation of what happened.
It is also worth noting that our relations with the United States
deteriorated significantly during this period. Hiring of such firms
began in the time of the Bush administration, which was relatively
positive about us. The excessive expenditure then that our Ambassador in
Washington was incurring was culpably unnecessary. More bizarrely, when
the Obama administration took over, he continued to work with agencies
that had good Republican connections.
