Editorial

29TH November 1998

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When she speaks

When the President speaks we are beguiled. The roguish twinkle in the eye and the fleeting twitch of a smile have held the people of this country in their thrall and we would have been forgiven for applauding more the Singer than the Song.

But the President would have to draw on more than her inherent charms, if she is to continue to captivate her audiences. Of late those who listen to her have had their fill of a persistent and plaintive refrain. "Ranil's uncle's newspaper" has neither a cadence or a rhythm and one wonders what must prompt the outpouring of this unmelodious sound.

The episode of the Tax men's letter is now too well known. Our Special Assignment desk very aptly proves the truth, or otherwise of the presidential pronouncement in Galle. Last Sunday hardly had our newspapers hit the streets, she accused us of undermining the economy bordering on treason. It served as the most recent occasion for the rendition of the avuncular chant.

The sequence of events of this happening is given elsewhere in this paper and our readers can judge the episode for themselves.

Clearly if Ranil's uncle's paper is guilty of gross distortion then Ranil's uncle's former newspaper, now safely in the lap of the President, must plead equally guilty.

The Sunday Observer of the 15th and 22nd November reported the same story. Is there some insidious family malignancy yet lurking in the bowels of Lake House that it must match aberration for aberration with Ranil's uncle's newspaper? And as we see in recent days, nay months, nay years, with the President's own uncle's newspaper?

The President may well feel that ties of blood will draw on independent newspapers to support the opposition in the final round, on the eve of an election she may be contemplating that blood is thicker than politics. In which case a pre-emptive strike to taint its credibility now, could be the reason for this monotonous repetition.

By the same arguments then, the President should expect her own uncle's paper a 'hootin and a tootin' for her, come the elections. We would then predict that at the end of such a bizarre media blitz, the people of this country would cheerfully wipe out Uncles, Nephews and Nieces, their Governments and their newspapers from the face of this country and that family bandysim will be relegated to the dustbin of history.

The President and her own Ministers' credibility is very much at stake. It is indeed the talk of the town and the village. Election promises of bread at Rs. 3.50, jobs, houses, media freedom, transparency and good governance is one thing. But sweeping statements while holding public office is yet another.

We have been listening to pledges to abolish the Executive Presidency by 15 July of 1995. That the war will be over by the Sinhala New Year of 1996. That they will shake hands with Prabhakaran by 4 February 1998. That the economy is doing wonderfully well and the country is flowing with milk and honey.

Power begets euphoria. A newspaper props up an ailing regime at its own peril. This at least, is a lesson we all who have been in the business long enough have learnt.

It is not too late for this Government to set aside its ridiculous paranoia and take stock of its plunging popularity. The quest for scapegoats is not eventually a productive one.

Political Column

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