A letter to the President on his re-election campaign spending
Dear Mr. President,
As a tax payer and citizen of Sri Lanka, I am deeply concerned by, inter alia, the wasteful nature of your campaign and the manner in which you have manipulated what should in reality be independent authorities, to broadcast propaganda.
Your SMS message on New Year’s Day is a case in point (http://www.groundviews.org/2010/01/09/the-shocking-behaviour-of-the-telecommunications-regulatory-commission-of-sri-lanka) and your ad campaign on international media websites another (http://www.groundviews.org/2010/01/05/paying-global-media-for-local-elections).
Why is it that your official campaign website has no information on campaign financing? How can I be assured as a voter that the money being lavishly spent by you and your campaign for re-election is not public finances? Will you disclose the sum of money spent on the international ad campaign, and even only as a gesture of enlightened self-interest, allow the other presidential candidates to broadcast an SMS also free of charge?
These, amongst many others, are pertinent questions that require urgent answers. I trust that part of the subha anagathayak you promise is also anchored to democratic governance, accountability and transparency.
With my best regards,
Sanjana Hattotuwa
Editor
Groundviews
###
This online submission was entered into the incumbent Executive campaign website. Confirmation of the submission was displayed on screen. There is however no indication or guarantee that online submissions are actually forwarded to someone with the authority to answer them, or to forward them to someone who can. Curiously too, these online submissions are only possible on the Tamil and Sinhala versions of the site (Correction – we learn from a reader that a ‘Tell Mahinda’ link does appear on the English version of the site, which was missed because the site does not render accurately on Macs).
The first article on the pernicious nature of the President’s New Year SMS appeared on Groundviews – Unsolicited SMS messages are spam. Please desist Mr. President.
Paying global media for local elections has generated over 60 comments to date. The article and subsequent comments by Groundviews flag a number of pressing concerns over the opaque nature of the incumbent Executive’s re-election campaign financing. As we noted,
“Amongst a number of other questions, we wonder why the incumbent feels the need to secure prime banner ad spots on these international websites? Does the incumbent believe that the handful of Sri Lankan voters who visit these sites from Sri Lanka are worth the significant amount spent to secure these banner ad placements? How and why were these news media sites based in the UK, USA, India and Australia chosen? Will the incumbent disclose the sum of money spent on these ads if demanded by a voter? Where did this money come from?”
Read the article in full here. It is also an issue flagged on Page 2 of The Sunday Times on 10 January 2010.
27 Comments
Leave a Reply
Subscribe to Content Updates
iPhone app
Dear Groundviews,
This is a far more acceptable approach and I welcome it. It puts everyone’s time to better use than quibbling over unknowns.
I too have been looking into ways to contact the said campaign and will post my findings on ground views should I succeed or fail.
A failure to respond would, in my books, be valid grounds for assuming culpability on the part of the MR campaign.
cheers!
Beware of White Vans!
Dear Groundviews,
As promised, I have attempted to contact the campaign and this is my first update on the response received.
I contacted the campaign on their hotline and was transferred to a pleasant gentleman by the name of Sanjaya, who, to his credit, proved extremely cooperative and helpful with the inquiry. He informed me that the issue would be tabled for discussion in a meeting in the afternoon today and requested that I mail him the questions.
The details are given below, with personal information omitted due to privacy concerns. I will publish further updates as and when I receive them.
from …
to sanjaya….
date Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 2:09 PM
subject Funding source of internet advertising campaign
mailed-by gmail.com
Dear Sanjaya,
This is further to my call today on the article published here: http://www.groundviews.org/2010/01/10/a-letter-to-the-president-on-his-re-election-campaign-spending/#comments. The article raised some valid questions which I have extracted below.
Why is it that your official campaign website has no information on campaign financing?
How can I be assured as a voter that the money being lavishly spent by you and your campaign for re-election is not public finances?
Will you disclose the sum of money spent on the international ad campaign?
While a lot of discussion took place on this topic here (http://www.groundviews.org/2010/01/05/paying-global-media-for-local-elections/) I was of the view that the campaign should be requested to provide this information to the public before assuming that public funds may have been used for the purpose. I agreed however, that if the campaign does not provide any information, the source of funding would remain highly suspect. Therefore, I look forward to hearing from you in this regard, as such information is extremely important for the voting public to make a sound decision and in reassuring the supporters of your campaign that no misappropriation of public funds is taking place. It is also in accordance with the draft “Freedom of information act” which has been endorsed by both major parties in 2004 and therefore, I’m sure you will help out in the utmost in this regard. The editors of the site are also agreeable to publishing any clarification received forthwith on the same website.
I thank you for the helpful nature of your communication so far and look forward to further information in clearing up the matter.
Yours faithfully,
…
Here we go again. Moan, moan and moan. The people have to be told what the president has done, because they have a real short memory. Some of the ungrateful people have already forgotten the time when we were anxiously waiting until our children and wife came home in the evening, fearing that they could have been attacked by a suicide bomber. Yes the president must spend money to remind ungrateful people.
I do agree with some of the views you present in your blog., but not this one. Please remember that the opposition is funded by the LTTE and the West. I am more than happy to give my tax (a substantial amount) for a good cause. I am a patriot of my country and of Tamil ethnicity.
The President is harping on the War Victory.In his Chinthanaya, it was categorically stated that there will be face to face discussion with the LTTE laeder to solve the ethnic problem and further war was no solution.
Other than the war victory, Prsident and the party claims that more than 98% of the promises of the Chinthanaya has been fullfilled. If so then why all these unnecessary expenditure on the election Campaing.Whose money is this.Not only expenditure all undemocratic tactics are being used but says one horse race
Sanjana, thanks I had the same question about the spending hopefully it will end on the 26th. keep up the good work.
peter, you keep drinking rajapaksha koolaid till the 26th. The voters will decide his fate on that day.
Groundviews,
Well done. As tax payers we need to know whether our money is put to good use. If it is the case that tax payers money is been used for Presidential campaign advertsing purposes then it is simply unacceptable and totally unethical.
Dear Sanjana, Thanks for pointing out this. President’s campaign spends millions of money , which can be private or public, can be used for other usefull thing. How these people can be ” Desha Premi”?
Curiously too, these online submissions are only possible on the Tamil and Sinhala versions of the site.
http://www.mahinda2010.lk/tell-mahinda.php
Tell Mahinda
Use this page to submit any inquires you would like to ask President Mahinda Rajapaksa directly.
Doh! you didn’t look hard enough did you?
By the way, I’ll be very very surprised if you actually get an answer through that online form. If only presidents in this world were that easily reachable!
@Observer – keen observation. Thank you. The problem is that I work on a Mac, and both MR’s and SF’s websites render horribly on it. MR’s homepage looks like this on a Mac, which is why I missed out on the Tell Mahinda link.
Look at the bigger picture and what Mahinda Rajapakse with all his alleged faults has delivered within such a relatively short period of time.It is true, belive me,Prabhakaran and his demonic cohorts are no longer amongst us , the LTTE and its muderous force has been annihilated ,not single handedly as Fonseka naively claims, but under a carefully worked out plan with the co-ordination of all segments of our forces.It was Mahinda Rajapakse who withstood the avalanche of force that the Tamil Diaspora unleshed with its influence in the west to stop the advances of our gallant forces in their tracks.It was Mahinda Rajapakse and Gotabaya who sent the interfering Milliband who was virtually threatening to send ships into Sri lanka against our wishes and express refusal, packing home empty handed.We have short memories.This victory belongs to Mahinda Rajapakse and his government and all of the good people of Sri Lanka who with deep devotion supported the cause. I am sure the ordinary people of the country like most of us will remember that when they vote.If Rajapakse has misused public funds then it is the duty of the Auditor General to expose such abuses.Has there been any enquiry into or reports of such abuses in any of the past Presidencies.It is a known fact that incumbent leaders make use of the privileges they possess to win election.This is what has happened in the past and what will happen in the future unless we get someone like Siddharta Goutama appointed as our president.This would be most dangerous too as we would then be invaded by the evangelists as it happened in Ranil Wick’s time an convert us all at the cost of US$1.00 per week. The executive /Presidency is a monster that was created by the worst President we have ever had J R Jayawardena a man who thought he was going to be the President for ever or that he could hand the legacy down his line.He annointed his nephew the great patriot Ranil to carry his flame; the Ranil who was wining and dinig with the Norewegians at the most crucial point of the war and trying to reverse our fortunes and again get our government to beg for peace at Velupullai’s feet.
Good job at asking this question. Finally someone has sense in the middle of all the “western conspiracies”, “showing gratefulness” and “Treasonous betrayals”. people keep forgetting that this is a democratic republic and an individual, no matter what he may have done, cannot, use state money for his election campaigns. Him doing the duty he was elected to do (lets say he did it flawlessly) doesn’t turn the country into his dowry. Duty is duty, you do it because its your duty, not to expect any gifts or gratefulness. He gets a Salary as a Civil servent (the president in a republic is not a leader/king he is a civil servent), to do his job, just like a teacher or accountant. You don’t elect a teacher to president every time their students score 100% in a test. For the same reason, he shouldn’t expect anything from a grateful public. Yes we should be and are grateful, but this dosen’t mean we should vote for him because of that even if his economic policies aren’t the best for the country’s next challenge – development. if they are, fine, but if they are not, then country comes first not the personal need to be thankful. Thats patriotism. Also, if we were to be grateful to a man for being involved in a war for 3 years and seeing it to victory by electing him, then we will need about 300000-400000 presidents to cover all the past and present members of the armed forces, who shed their blood, sweat, and gave their limbs, lives or at the very least their lives over 30 years to see the country to victory. To say that it was Mr Rajapakse that only deserves a reward is to not knowledge a single drop of blood or sweat shed by our boys or the supreme sacrifices they made. But in a country where the accuser gets questioned by the CID for making the allegation instead of the accused when a serious charge is levelled against them, people with sense are few and far between.
that is the same question we as tax payers ask specially from the government but they show no evidence but proceed with their election campaign cheating us.if the money is from their own pockets we do not boter any more but it is we who pay these money as tax which government use for their own political agenda without the knowledge of people .And that is why we are agaist it and therefore this should be conveyed to each and everyone
“.It is true, belive me,Prabhakaran and his demonic cohorts are no longer amongst us , the LTTE and its muderous force has been annihilated ,not single handedly as Fonseka naively claims, but under a carefully worked out plan with the co-ordination of all segments of our forces”
Its not fully exactly how this “victory” was achieved in so short a time span. To attribute the entire victory to Mahinda and his brother, however, is rather naive. The exact amount of support that India lent towards the war effort needs to be told to the public. Is it true that there were Indian soldiers on the ground? What about the gathering of intelligence? How much and in what form did India provide? Further, Sonia Gandhi certainly had a grudge to fulfill. How much of money and weapons did she provide? When the Sri Lankan Army was violating every protocol of conventional warfare, from shelling hospitals to shelling no-fire zones – why did Sonia and friends look away? On the previous occasion, it was an airdrop of dhal packets. On this occasion, India actually took the trouble to defend Sri Lanka against war crimes at the United Nations!
Let me summarize: the role that the Rajapakse brothers and Sarath Fonseka played in the war effort is over-hyped. While they obviously played *some* role, it was not the only deciding factor. Sri Lanka needs the Chinese just to build a harbor and a highway… God forbid Sri Lanka could have won a guerilla war just through its own efforts, despite what too many patriots here are inclined to believe.
*It is not fully clear
We cant say it is tax payers money. MR has to collect money and spend on countering the mud-slinging and anti Sri Lankan machinery at work with millions of dollars of foreign money. All business people, well wishers give money for campaigning. But the opposition is getting money from foreign embassies and ex-arms dealers. We must ask them to account too.
@ Raj
quote: “I am more than happy to give my tax (a substantial amount) for a good cause. I am a patriot of my country and of Tamil ethnicity.
And you’re entitled to do so
As for me……. I’m a patriot of my country and of Sinhala ethnicity. I too am happy to give a reasonable amount of my tax money for a good cause. And I am quite convinced that this entire election campaign (leave alone the pathetically transparent SMS campaign) is almost diametrically opposite to the definition of a “good cause”. Hence I most certainly do not want any of my tax money used for that purpose, and have a right to demand that. Hypothetically, if I were forced to make a choice, I’d rather have that segment of my tax money be used as toilet paper (especially if it’s the new 1000 notes – one side of it, anyway!)
Raj is certainly free to opine that MR’s use of the tax money is a good cause and — and Raj is hence welcome to donate his money towards that. But tax money cannot be used for any such purpose unless the taxpayers have approved it; that is, if the budget has included this. I don’t recall any of MR’s budgets doing such.
Raj’s tax money and my tax money do not belong only to Raj or me, but to all of us. Therefore we cannot simply informally “approve” its usage for non budgeted purposes. Not even for toilet paper.
@Peter…
I have had more fear in the past few years during living my normal honest life of integrity under MR’s regime, than I was when terror bombs were going off and in some cases affecting my near and dear. Terror is not only of bombs etc; there are other kinds of terror that are worse. Right now I have a living nightmare of fear about “what if MR wins”. I should also clarify that I have some fear, albeit less, of “what if SF wins”.
This is so ridiculous to assume that it si the Tax Payers money that is used for the Presidential campaign wihtout any proof . However the President has requested donations from peopel and the expats , who are contributing massively for his victory.
Some people jump the gun without any facts to collaborate thieir statements It would be intersting to find out who is sponsoring Sarth Fonsek’as campaign as well . .
Sohan Bones, I wonder if you have seen Dayasiri Jayasekara weasel his way out of corruption charges about to be revealed against Sarath Fonseka by Wimal Weerawansa on Rathu Ira on Swarnavahini recently. The usually comical Dayasiri was nearly in tears.
I think he full well knew that SF had said hello to a fair share of the Tax Pie as well! I guess that’s why he ran scared.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xfYzVRLdl0
Makes for great viewing!
How much tax do you pay? You guys, learn to think not only to talk and write.
I always wonder how Mr Rajapakse and Mr Fonseka spend lots of money for their elcetion. Since I know how expensive to study in America or the England how these people send their kids to foreign countries for their eduction. I always see rajapakse’s kids in sri lanka. Are they studing in England or Amera? anyone knows? But for sure Fonseka’s kids are studing in America and I heard sri lankan tax payers pay for their eduction. “JANADHIPATHI FUND” or somethin. Is it true?
THIS IS ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING HOW MAHINDA THINKS HE OWNS OUR COUNTRY
Reading all discussions so far leaves me weary and puzzled as to why people argue on minor word usage. There are a lot of arguments supporting the absence of proof of corruption.Apart from COPE reports and the deliberate non availability of the many presidential commission reports,hard evidence is difficult unless there is access to bank accounts here & abroad,proof of ownership of properties, allegged 10% siphoning from contracts,ostentatious life styles,expensive vehicle purchases etc.Corrupt persons are careful to cover up.
But on the whole,there is clear perception among citizens that this government is corrupt.The worst ‘official’ corruption is the money spent on the MegaCabinet of 113 at last count. who are clearly sycophants ‘purchased’ by the president for his own survival. He became avaricious and hoped to enjoy the corrupt presidency for another six years or more but the General has upset the apple-cart.There is a rerrific amount of mudslinging most of it horribly personal going on.Someone tabled proof monthly sum paid to a website for this purpose.Now it is rumored that the central bank’s relaxation of money transfer abroad is to facilitate sending ill gotten wealth abroad.The day the Bribery Commission was disabled by the president, all of us knew that this was to cover up massive corruption.There was even a minister with Rs 240 Million who was under investigation and the two police officers who uncovered it were told by the Commission member who had been a top polce officer that “the minister has a future and not to investigate further” and both were transferred out – all this was in the media but there was no outcry at the time! On the whole all this is proof of massive corruption. I think that the country needs a change of governance. I do not know whether the General will be willing & able to carry out all what he says he will do, but I want him to try.
Hi people. When reading all comments passed from a few people here, I feel why sanjana or any one who noticed that the funds spent on MR´s campaigning is clearly using state funds. So why should we need to bother how SF campaign his election propaganda. As one of my friends who just got back to Europ having seen recent campaigning in sl, said to me, it is unbelievable the manner that incumbant president spends for this propaganada – he compares it as if giving ” poson dansala”. One who attend his programs are paid after giving them a free meal. How can a leader who just forget the grivances of the masses can spend like this is the quesiton that many ask today. A large majority of the country struggles to survive in the unbearable cost of living while a few who can address the issues of those poor ones, just waste those funds arbitorily.
One thing we must when we are discussing presidents children and their education that they are still children and they too deserver a normal education which they will never get here with all security precautions etc. So if they are sent abroad will save money spend on security and prevent a lot of inconvenience to others. That child can have a normal student just like all of us.
“THIS IS ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING HOW MAHINDA THINKS HE OWNS OUR COUNTRY”
Politics was never a rational business. The addition of people like Mahinda makes it only more slightly irrational.