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| Sunday, 15 January 2006 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Touch not
Rajah of SMS voting fame
Light Refractions by Lucien Rajakarunanayake The Media and media persons are very much in the news these days. The latest was a protest demonstration against the use of emergency powers to threaten Tamil journalists and media institutions. It is certainly a matter worth protesting against. What is important is to note that the ability to carry out such a protest without any harassment is proof that democracy does still exist in at least some parts of the country. Let's hope that the protest brings about the desired result. It will not take long for the LTTE that began its hunt of media persons with the killing of Rajini Thiranagama more than a decade ago and continued with the felling of several other journalists; the closing down of publishing houses and now imposes total control over what is published in the North and much of the East; to also get its members in Jaffna to launch a similar protest in support of freedom of expression. There will be very few to see that as a sign of manipulative democracy of the Tiger kind. What is strange is even stranger is how well-known defenders of media freedom hastily ganged up to voice their protest against an alleged plot to assassinate a business tycoon who reigns over an empire of private business houses, with a finger in the media pie too. The protests were made without even the threatened person making a formal complaint to the police. Very soon organizations for media freedom and the usually laid back society of newspapers owners too joined in the protests against so-called threats to a hugely successful business magnate, suddenly turned a media person. The time may not be far when the Public Trustee who holds nearly 80 per cent of the shares of Lake House is also considered a media person. The alleged threat to the Great Rajah was the topic of discussion among many persons who had diverse views about whether or not he deserved any punishment or not for the manner in which he handled or manipulated media freedom. When Sarath Hodiyegedera said he deserved to be seriously punished for what his radio and TV stations had done to corrupt and destroy the Sinhala language, there was Horace Linguafranca who believed that all he did was in the best interest of Sinhala by lacing it with plenty of English on the cheap, and developing the recipe, for a refreshing "saladey" of the Sinhala language, and deserved kudos for it. Bertie Clapperboy believed the new found media person had done a great service to the nation by repeatedly showing the new style of clapping to the rhythm of music, as developed by Ranil Wickremesinghe while on the campaign trail. But for his TV channels the country would never have known of this free-style handclapping, he said. Not unexpectedly fans of good Sinhala music were all for strong punitive action against this Rajah for what his media channels had done to bastardize Sinhala music, with the deliberate promotion of a new trend in music that had very little of the national in it. Yet others insisted that his broadcast channels had infused a new life and character into popular Sinhala music bringing more of rap and reggae into it. "But what about political advertising" asked, Nirmaana Gundurala, very much an expert in the field? "What the hell were those channels doing by repeating such mushy advertising ad nauseam, supposedly meant to promote the candidacy of our leader? All they did was make his campaign look increasingly ridiculous. I will not speak one word in his defence, and I don't see why others should either. In fact I believe that if there is a conspiracy against him it could be by those who are still unable to face the defeat all that advertising caused" he said with conviction. "It's the case of blaming the messenger for the message", said Ravi Horagajaya of CWE ill-fame. "You cannot blame the channels for dishing out what the campaign strategists wanted. They didn't have to bother about quality or content. All they had to do was keep broadcasting as many advertisements as they could within a day. No doubt that all of it was meant to mislead the people, and he did that job mainly at his own cost. We must be firm in our support of him and his contribution to media freedom." There was general agreement, however, that the Great Rajah deserved an award for his introduction of SMS voting at elections. It is a revolution in election practice using technology to make voting so easy. With SMS voting, in future it will be possible for people to vote from their homes on Election Day. It was decided that the Great Rajah would be given a special award for having Ranil Wickremesinghe elected the SMS President of Sri Lanka, long before the actual votes were counted. The voices of media freedom and transparency in elections were loud in
their cheering. |
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