Comments on: Bell Pottinger and Sri Lanka: A trail of spin doctoring and whitewashing https://groundviews.org/2011/12/13/bell-pottinger-and-sri-lanka-a-trail-of-spin-doctoring-and-whitewashing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bell-pottinger-and-sri-lanka-a-trail-of-spin-doctoring-and-whitewashing Journalism for Citizens Mon, 19 Dec 2011 02:37:46 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 By: Candidly https://groundviews.org/2011/12/13/bell-pottinger-and-sri-lanka-a-trail-of-spin-doctoring-and-whitewashing/#comment-39729 Mon, 19 Dec 2011 02:37:46 +0000 http://groundviews.org/?p=8167#comment-39729 In reply to Kusum.

@Kusum wrote:

‘”Keith Vaz, Simon Hughes, Siobhain McDonagh and Lee Scott, and Australians such Bruce Haigh & John Dowd” came into the picture only after 5-6 decades of damage control by successive ”sovereign” governments at the UN and the Commonwealth.’

I have to point out that this is incorrect. Vaz, Hughes, McDonagh, Haigh and Dowd have been providing excuses for the LTTE (and other terrorist groups, by the way) for years. Dowd was sacked by the Australian government several years ago for refusing to support Australia’s quite reasonable steps to protect its citizens from terrorism following the Bali bombing in 2002. Read back through their speeches and news items about them to find out more about what they really think about the Tamil Tigers and other terrorists.

The same goes for some of the so-called human rights organisations. For example, I and others resigned from Amnesty International more than 20 years ago when they classified LTTE members arrested by Sri Lankan authorities, including some accused of murders and assassinations, as “prisoners of conscience”. AI completely failed to draw a distinction between those who are arrested for verbally criticising a government, and those who are arrested for murdering members of a government (as well as civilians). This is all documented in their files & publications.

]]>
By: Kusum https://groundviews.org/2011/12/13/bell-pottinger-and-sri-lanka-a-trail-of-spin-doctoring-and-whitewashing/#comment-39719 Sun, 18 Dec 2011 15:09:06 +0000 http://groundviews.org/?p=8167#comment-39719 In reply to Candidly.

”Keith Vaz, Simon Hughes, Siobhain McDonagh and Lee Scott, and Australians such Bruce Haigh & John Dowd” came into the picture only after 5-6 decades of damage control by successive ”sovereign” governments at the UN and the Commonwealth. They are not going to work even in the future in the world disorder of ”geopolitics”.
Only the US court case has driven the President to release the LLRC report. He couldn’t even publish the APRC and Udalagama reports. He even STOPPED the investigations into hundreds of murders in 2005/6/7/8 that took place outside the Vanni in highly militarised areas.
The last 30 months !!

Instead of adopting good governance, a ”rogue” government would opt to pay for covering up oppression of its own people.

LLRC has recommendations ?

In the last five decades successive governments ignored the recommendations in the national, regional and international organisations.

For 63 years we have had rulers who did whatever they could just to stay in power. Will there be a change so that Sri Lanka will have a leader just doing things for the good of the country, ie for all the citizens?

http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers46/paper4558.html:
Sri Lanka: Indian Delegates go Home Empty Handed, Kumar David, 15 June 2011: ‘’The umpteenth Indian delegation (Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, National Security Advisor Shiva Shankar Menon and Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar) came to Colombo and duly went back empty handed and funny as a comic strip! President Rajapakse handed them a flat ‘Nyet’ and for once in a lifetime he spoke the truth. “If I make any devolutionary concessions to the Tamils, 13A Plus, Minus, Divided or Subtracted, it will be curtains for me.” The government’s parliamentary group met the evening before the esteemed visitors arrived and decided; ‘’Let’s tell them the truth straight from the shoulder and upfront; let’s tell them. if we do it we are dead meat”

]]>
By: Candidly https://groundviews.org/2011/12/13/bell-pottinger-and-sri-lanka-a-trail-of-spin-doctoring-and-whitewashing/#comment-39690 Sat, 17 Dec 2011 11:44:49 +0000 http://groundviews.org/?p=8167#comment-39690 Given the vast range of free publicity and spin that the Tamil Tigers received, & continue to receive, from Western politicians such as Eric Solheim, Keith Vaz, Simon Hughes, Siobhain McDonagh and Lee Scott, and Australians such Bruce Haigh & John Dowd, I don’t see why the Sri Lankan government should not employ public relations firms such as Bell Pottinger to help them in getting their message across in international English media and fora. Particularly as these spin-masters for the Tamil Tigers have also been assisted by the “useful idiots” in the human rights industry and radical-chic Western media like The Guardian and Channel 4.

The total money and resources used to whitewash the Tamil Tigers by all those individuals and groups, taken together with the money spent on propaganda by the LTTE and its front organisations, must far exceed the money paid by the Sri Lankan government to Bell Pottinger.

]]>
By: Nihal Appaswamy https://groundviews.org/2011/12/13/bell-pottinger-and-sri-lanka-a-trail-of-spin-doctoring-and-whitewashing/#comment-39623 Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:32:03 +0000 http://groundviews.org/?p=8167#comment-39623 In reply to justitia.

Yes 🙂

This is mad for Mahinda to buy spin doctors to further his malady of megalomania.

]]>
By: justitia https://groundviews.org/2011/12/13/bell-pottinger-and-sri-lanka-a-trail-of-spin-doctoring-and-whitewashing/#comment-39612 Wed, 14 Dec 2011 23:07:46 +0000 http://groundviews.org/?p=8167#comment-39612 What a massive waste of peoples’ money to promote the megalomania of one individual, while one third of citizens are living in abject poverty.
Does this happen anywhere else?

]]>
By: kadphises https://groundviews.org/2011/12/13/bell-pottinger-and-sri-lanka-a-trail-of-spin-doctoring-and-whitewashing/#comment-39604 Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:16:21 +0000 http://groundviews.org/?p=8167#comment-39604 This sort of expose brings into question the very ethics of British politics. Why do british politicians need to listen to these professional lobyists to learn the truth about what is happening in Sri Lanka? They have a diplomatic mission here which monitors newspapers and gathers information from its numerous contacts within the government, forces and opposition groups. Are they not best placed to inform and advice british politicians on what is happening and what British policy should be towards Sri Lanka?

The British policy towards poor nations seems to be to say “If you want us to change our policy towards you, you should hire these friends of ours to speak to us on your behalf.” … Sounds more like blackmail to me and both the Sinhala and Tamils sides are its willing victims. This I’m afraid is the price for being unable to solve our problems between ourselves.

]]>
By: Lanka Liar https://groundviews.org/2011/12/13/bell-pottinger-and-sri-lanka-a-trail-of-spin-doctoring-and-whitewashing/#comment-39580 Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:59:28 +0000 http://groundviews.org/?p=8167#comment-39580 Bell Pottinger is just one of them. We have many cheap ones in India and Pakistan. $ram would have done a better speech.
What has happened to the fox farm.
Karuna or Pillaiyan would have done a better jobs. oops Dog lass too.
This is Sri Lanka fool the world how long can you. There was no war.the tsunami was created by LTTE. Terrorist Terrorist Terrorist. Thsi sis enough for the next UN speech.

]]>
By: Saleem https://groundviews.org/2011/12/13/bell-pottinger-and-sri-lanka-a-trail-of-spin-doctoring-and-whitewashing/#comment-39578 Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:48:34 +0000 http://groundviews.org/?p=8167#comment-39578 If the government are honest and do what is good for the country and people there is no need to hire publicity firms to whitewash or do propaganda. The money is wasted to publicity and carrying plane load of government supporters abroad to lobby foreign governments and influential officers employed in global institutions.

]]>
By: Kusum https://groundviews.org/2011/12/13/bell-pottinger-and-sri-lanka-a-trail-of-spin-doctoring-and-whitewashing/#comment-39575 Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:48:16 +0000 http://groundviews.org/?p=8167#comment-39575 Home-grown speech dumped in preference to million-pound speech !

]]>