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| Sunday, 30 April 2006 |
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Politics |  |
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TALKING POINT: UNP kept press goes greener... Ah, it's uproarious to see all those UNP-kept press wallahs going into paroxysms over the so-called state media's so-called sojourn in Geneva in springtime for peace talks. Some have expressed worry over state expense. Rich, really, from those who were parcelling out Ambassadorships and Chairmanships among their journalistic cadre, being cocksure in the usual cock-eyed way that Ranil Wickremesinghe is guaranteed winning the Presidential election. They had already emptied the state kitty and trousered enormous profits for themselves through all these postings -- all in their pole-vaulting imaginations. Them being green in the bone, it's quite the thing, watching them go greener with envy. Damned right there was a right-minded media delegation in Geneva before the talks were to begin last week, quite mindful of the fact that this Ranil-kept (...and NGO kept..) happy hookers of the media would -- before they literally give that thumbs up to Anton Balsingham as they did last time -- burrow under the soil of that city to plant saboteurs, dollar gobblers and assorted desiccated vermin to queer the pitch before the Geneva talks. These negotiations therefore do not take place in a vacuum, from start date of talks to end date. Press pets of the Ranil persuasion manufacture a pinch-hittng run upto it, by sending Nimalka Fernandos and similar petty saboteurs to Geneva to christen Sri Lanka 'a failed state', with the fervent hope they could kill the talks before they are born. A strictly non-UNP press delegation was sent to Geneva to unearth these eager beavers, and those who would have read the expose' on Nimalka Fernando in the papers last weekend must know that all her posturing was in Geneva, just before the talks. She gave her now notorious ''failed state '' interview to IPS Geneva correspondent Gustavo Capadivela before talks were to begin, with that oversize hope that she could scuttle those talks. Journalists with a conscience are supposed to stay here in Colombo, while Ranil's eager beavers wreck the talks before they begin? Fat hope that. They'd better be sent to Geneva with Godspeed to unearth these subterranean machete welders, and they went, and they did smoke them out. Its better getting the state to pick the tab after doing the job, rather than subversive NGO ravens to pay as in the case of Ranil's poodle press, so that the UNP could come to power, and the UNPs favourite kept-press media-wallahs could then get themselves Chairmanships to trouser even more enormous profits for themselves. As for that other milder version of the disgruntled UNP press wallah, that one near the Beira, he sounds queer these days more than he sounds regular insipid. He wrote ''the government's media persons who, knowing that the April 19 dates were off for a certainty, still went to Geneva at the expense of the public's purse to enjoy the coming of spring in Europe.'' At least they are alive enough to enjoy something -- but besides that, they are enjoying themselves even better having a go at this UNP kept journalistic dross. They asked for it, of course. By the way, just look at their scoop. We in these pages never hid the fact we went to Geneva. Last week's Talking Point in this newspaper was titled 'Geneva Diary.' Some scoop! There are more exposes from Geneva (...the round that never took place...) to come. The UNP kept press could go from green to greener and then to blue when
confronted. We of the freer press could make watching a spectator sport. |
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