The Sunday Leader. I warned you.

I warned you that if you don’t reply to me, I’ll make sure my articles appear within the top ten results for Google searches for you. As of today (10th June 2010), one of my articles is the 10th best Google result for “the sunday leader”… This isn’t going to stop anytime soon.

The Sunday Leader EXPOSED. Is this freedom of speech?

As the scandal surrounding The Sunday Leader continues to unfold after they accused the UNP leader Ranil Wickremasinghe of corruption for accepting Rs. 48 million from a criminal named Sabir Hussein, without having any documentary evidence whatsoever to account for more than Rs. 47 million of that money, The Sunday Leader has resorted to removing comments I and someone else made on their website thesundayleader.lk asking about it, even though neither of our comments contained any abusive language at all.

On 6th June 2010, the headline of The Sunday Leader was “UNP Leader Got Rs. 48 Mn From One “Donor”.” Commenting on it on their website, I raised the point that even though this man Sabir Hussein (who is believed to be a CRIMINAL by this newspaper) claims that he gave Rs. 48 Mn (USD 456,000) to Ranil Wickremasinghe, even though the newspaper uses his claim as its main headline, according to the article, the documentary evidence they have only accounts for less than 1 million rupees (USD 9000). Even these USD 9000 weren’t directly given to the UNP or to Ranil Wickremasinghe. In my comment, I asked them to explain whether or not they have documentary evidence to account for the rest of the money (i.e. USD 451,000). This comment, and a similar comment some other person made there, have now been deleted.

The fact that they have deleted my comment implies that they do not have any such evidence. The Sunday Leader should either directly claim that they have such documentary evidence and publish photographs of them on their newspaper, or they should publicly apologise to Ranil Wickremasinghe for being the centre of a huge false propaganda storm against him, and to me and the other commenter for shamelessly deleting our comments.

I wish that I can sue you, Sunday Leader. I can’t. But I will not stop until you reply to this. I will set up a new website or a dozen of them if I have to. I will make sure that my articles about you appear among the top ten Google searches for you. I will do all of that, unless you reply.

The Sunday Leader + Ranil the Corrupt + Sabir Hussein the Criminal + Yellow Journalism

And so The Sunday Leader, the self-proclaimed unbowed and unafraid newspaper, continues to practise yellow journalism with misleading facts and blaring headlines, giving vent to the sexual frustrations of its malicious backers.

In an previous article I wrote how terrible Frederica Jansz, the Editor-in-Chief of this tabloid is at Maths. Now it seems that one of its “prominent” correspondents, Faraz Shauketaly, who definitely has something up his/her rectum, is not much better at it either.

Today (6th June 2010), in the newspaper’s main article titled “UNP Leader Got Rs. 48 Mn From One ‘Donor'”, using far too many words as usual to say a precious little, Faraz writes “Sensational new information obtained by The Sunday Leader show that the former Chairman of the UNP and Ranil Wickremesinghe-confidant, Malik Samarawickrema, collected on behalf of UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe a huge Rs. 48 million from one “donor”. Swedish based Sri Lankan businessman, Sabir Hussein, 50, contacted The Sunday Leader with details.”

I’m sorry, but I find this article to be the greatest creation of yellow journalism since Joseph Pulitzer first coined the term. Faraz writes “Later, Samarawickrema contacted us again to say that he was UNSURE whether Hussein indeed had a criminal record and that in fact it had to do with an issue with the Swedish authorities. IF it is the case that Hussein has a criminal record and that Samarawickrema was aware of it , it proves that Ranil Wickremesinghe had no qualms about taking huge amounts of money from criminals.” UNSURE and IF, are great words to be used in a sentece, and in the sentece before it, that calls a man corrupt for taking money from criminals, I see.

Have no doubts, I truly believe this man Sabir Hussein’s a criminal. Apparently The Sunday Leader believes so as well. Now read the rest very carefully.

Faraz writes “Hussein gave documentary evidence of one such donation he made from Sweden, and CLAIMS that it was PART of a substantial donation of approximately USD 460,000 made to the UNP. The bulk of these funds were given to the Leader of the Opposition, according to Hussein.”

Then Faraz writes “The Sunday Leader has documentary evidence which proves a transfer of USD 9000 (approximately 0.95 million rupees) in November 2001 to Penguin Sportwear Ltd. which company Samarawickrema confirmed belongs to him.”

So the documentary evidence they have (if these documents, provided by a CRIMINAL, are legitimate) only proves that this CRIMINAL gave a minor donation of approximately 0.95 million rupees to the UNP.

So the newspaper’s headline “UNP Leader Got Rs. 48 Mn From One “Donor”” is just a baseless claim by a CRIMINAL named Sabir Hussein. Yellow journalism at its best, don’t you think?

People have the right to know. They have the right to know if their opposition leader is a corrupt old man. But people also have the right to know if a newspaper, which calls itself unbowed and unafraid, of which the office is a pilgrimage site to foreign jounalists and NGO personnel, practises yellow journalism. I’m just ensuring that people get to enjoy this right.

P.S. Indi Samarajiva, the owner of Kottu, is, I believe a decent guy. He has published many of my articles on the Kottu section of the newspaper’s website in the past (I’ve never bought it. Just read it on the web). I just hope he has what it takes to publish this article as well (with minor editing). I just hope he does. But I don’t think he can. He has a better chance of sticking something up Jansz’s rectum than publishing this on that tabloid…

The Sunday Leader Vs. Ranil Wickremasinghe

The Sunday Leader, the self-proclaimed unbowed and unafraid newspaper known for yellow journalism since the beginning of time, is kneeling before Sajith Premadasa, causing him to groan with pleasure, as it ventilates its pent-up frustrations on the wretched state of the United National Party, and its leader, the biggest loser of all time in Sri Lankan politics, Hon. Ranil Wickremasinghe, on its pages. Or rather, Sajith Premadasa is crying out loud in pleasure as he’s having a threesome with The Sunday Leader’s Publisher/Chairman Lal Wickrematunge and Editor-in-Chief Frederica Jansz while Ranil, who’s known for voyeurism, is watching. However, since there’s no evidence to suggest he’s a masochist, we have to believe that he isn’t enjoying this…..
The first question that arises is why it took so long for The Sunday Leader to turn on Ranil. Was it in the spirit of democracy? Couldn’t be, since if that was the case, the decision to declare war on Ranil is an undemocratic one and The Sunday Leader cannot make such a decision especially since their office is a pilgrimage site to foreign journalists and NGO personnel. Or was it because the sexual insecurities of the newspaper’s management; more comfortable with a man whose testosterone level is equal to that of Hilary Clinton, than with a real man looking like a Gorilla with hair on his chest? Didn’t they see the fact that all the successful chicks in world politics were more dick than this guy Ranil? …..
But I think it’s just plain stupidity. Need Proof? Here’s something Frederica Jansz wrote in her editorial titled “What Matters Is the UNP Not Ranil” on May 30th, 2010. “An all powerful Executive President has now nearly succeeded in capturing a 2/3rd majority in Parliament. Never has such power been concentrated in one individual — his party and his family.” Is this ignorance or stupidity? It is stupidity, for only the stupid can forget how powerful J.R. Jayawardene (the most unpopular politician to ever win an election) was after his victory in 77…..
She writes “The oldest party in Sri Lanka has a duty to sit together and deliberate rationally the kind of leadership required to take the country and the party out of the woods. There will be many experienced members such as Gamini Jayawickrema Perera, Dayasiri Jayasekera and Lakshman Seneviratne who can stake their claims. Premadasa could be one among many.” What is this but just plain stupidity? Of the first three, only Dayasiri Jayasekera has the popularity needed. Who is Dayasiri? Is he one of those rare breed of politicians with a great vision who would take Sri Lanka out of the woods? Or is he just one of the many who talk relentlessly without making any sense and with no substance whatsoever? Is this the man The Sunday Leader wants to be the UNP leader? …..
Here’s something funny. Jansz writes “Young Sajith Premadasa who has been fighting the Rajapaksa political machine almost single-handed is being mentioned for leadership.” Jansz writes as if Sajith has actually beaten the Rajapakses when he has never even come close to it. Really, what qualifications does Sajith have to be the party leader other than being the son of a former president and being the only one within the UNP who seems like an alternative (although not an alternative) to Ranil Wickremasinghe?
If The Sunday Leader wasn’t just plain stupid, it would’ve declared war on Ranil right after he lost the 2005 presidential election. Instead of doing that, it kept supporting him. It supported him during the CFA. It supported him after the CFA. It supported him when 18 UNP MPs left the UNP, it supported him a while after Mahinda crushed the LTTE, and now it’s trying to shoot Ranil dead, which is again the wrong decision. If there ever was an alternative to Ranil, it was Karu Jayasuriya right after the 2005 election. He was the perfect UNPer – a capitalist, an advocate of the free market and to a certain extent of liberal values, yet firmly a nationalist. Now they want Sajith to be the party leader, and they think he’d be able to be the president. This, according to what Jansz writes in her platitudinous editorial, is to save democracy in Sri Lanka. Yeah sure, especially when the sole reason for The Sunday Leader to believe that Sajith Premadasa could beat Mahinda Rajapakse is because it thinks Premadasa can out-Rajapakse the Rajapakses. Didn’t he support the war? Isn’t he a socialist? Isn’t he a nationalist, or doesn’t he pretend to be a nationalist? ….. Apparently,
Frederica Jansz is very good at mathematics. She writes “The last great UNP victory was in 1977 — 33 years ago. Eighteen years of continuous UNP rule…” Me, being terrible at maths, thought 1994 – 1977 = 17. How dumb I am. Frederica, I’m surprised that you still haven’t asked SB to come back, fight for the leadership and then be the president to save democracy in Sri Lanka.

Violent Protest and Government Lies

Contrary to what dishonest goverment propagandists like the Lanka Libertarian blogger sittingnut and others claim, Sarath Fonseka supporters didn’t incite violence. They were the recipients of it. All they did was reacting. It was the thugs who with UPFA Municipal Councillor Ajantha Liyanage attacked the demonstrators. The police were protecting them. That was why the Fonseka supporters damaged police vehicles, and that was why a Colombo Court severely reprimanded the police…. Anyone who read the last two posts of mine knows sittingnut got screwed by trying to put the blame on the SF supporters…… So far, violence has not been used by Fonseka supporters to free him. All they’ve done is reacting to it. Thank goodness for that. Violence should be answered with violence itself. You cannot stop violence by being peaceful, democratic, cowards. The government should know that if they use violence against the opposition, as a way to take away people’s freedom, there will be severe consequences……. As I said, so far, the SF supporters haven’t incited violence. But if the government continues to take us down the road to Iran, there will be the need to incite violence as well. As long as democracy is alive, we should use our vote to speak. But if that’s taken away from us, the only way forward is through riots and violence. What else can we do (other than praying to god and begging for foreign interference)? This is when the JVP will be important. It takes a political party with balls made of titanium to make people risk everything and work for common good…… I don’t believe the time for that has come yet, and I certainly hope that it’ll never come. We still have a bit of democracy in this country. Even though the election was corrupt, I believe Mahinda had more than fifty percent of the vote. Even though Lasantha was murdered in broad daylight, even though Poddala Jayantha’s legs were broken, even though Ekneliyagoda was abducted, and the editor of the Lanka Newspaper was imprisoned, The Sunday Leader, Irudina, and Lanka Newspapers are still running. Even though under enormous pressure, Sirasa TV is still reporting. Even though the government doesn’t give a damn to what it says, we still have a court that says the police should be ashamed of dancing to the tune of politicians…… If anyone thinks that we aren’t on our way to Iran, or Zimbabwe, or Venezuela, they are sadly mistaken. Just like Chavez, Mahinda doesn’t like Twitter. Just like the fundamentalist Ahmadinajad, Mahinda suppresses the opposition. It was he who abused state resources and power and surrounded the election office with armed forces. It is his government that tries to prevent the opposition from staging protest, saying it’ll lead to sound pollution….. But as I said, democracy is still functioning. Hope is still alive.