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| Friday, 26 December 2003 |
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Right of Reply: 'Insinuations under cover of journalism' The Daily News of Friday, December 19, 2003, has published a strongly worded and lengthy reply by J. C. Weliamuna, Executive Director, Transparency International, Sri Lanka, to a single paragraph in my article titled "Corruption transparent" also published on the middle page of the Daily News of December 13, 2003. One expects a person who uses the right of reply to confine one's response to the specific point or issue to which the reply is given, and that it should not extend to casting ill-founded aspersions against the writer of the original allegedly offending publication. Mr. Weliamuna takes offence to my observation regarding what I considered to be his surprise, in my view almost amounting to national shame, at the failure of the present government of Sri Lanka to give a positive response to the Action Plan on Fighting Corruption in the Region, which had been endorsed by 21 countries, including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, with Sri Lanka being the only exception. He takes strong exception to my statement that "If he had any faith in the UNP's commitment to fight or end corruption, he should have abandoned it when he saw how the UNP defeated the last government by encouraging the unprincipled cross-over of Ministers and MPs from one side of Parliament to the other." He has conveniently ignored or thought it fit not to include the two concluding sentences of this same paragraph, which said: "That was privileged corruption of the Parliamentary kind. However, he continues to battle on against corruption and all credit to him for that." (My emphasis). I regret to state that in keeping these two sentences out, in the language of his own profession, Mr. Weliamuna has not come with clean hands. These two sentences in the same allegedly offensive paragraph, when read together with the rest of it, gives no cause whatever for Mr. Weliamuna to take offence at all. This last sentence that he concealed in his reply, states clearly that I give him all credit for his continued battle against corruption against all odds. In fact my final sentence in the article at issue was: "There is certainly plenty of work for Transparency International, before Sri Lanka becomes a credible signatory to any Action Plan or Convention against corruption." This too does not in any way belittle the work being done by Transparency International of which Mr. Weliamuna is the Executive Director here, although admittedly it states there is much work to be done. It is significant that Mr. Weliamuna has totally ignored the fact that I began the paragraph that he considers offensive with the word "if", which is usually the beginning of a conditional clause, and does not express certainly. Therefore, I am surprised that in the guise of a reply to this single truncated paragraph, Mr.Weliamuna has gone on a hunting trip of his own, casting many aspersions and making what are clearly insinuations about my intent and purpose in writing this article, and abuse of my profession. When I said "If Mr. Weliamuna had any faith in the UNP's commitment to fight or end corruption..." it was clear that I did not state or allege that he is or was a member of the UNP. One fails to understand how he came to that conclusion. There was no need whatever for Mr. Weliamuna to make the reply to my above comment, an opportunity to give himself a certificate about his not being a follower of any of his clients, and that he was never a UNPer or SLFPer nor sought any appointments to public office (not even a corporation) seeking political favours, and that neither TI nor he had obtained any unlawful favours from any political party at any stage. I consider all this irrelevant to the issue at hand, and I am surprised that he finds it necessary to say all this about himself and Transparency International, in response to my comment which made no references to these matters at all. I did not make any insinuations under the cover of journalism, about the political affiliations of Mr. Weliamuna, about which I know nothing to this date. I do not need any condescending advice from Mr. Weliamuna about the importance of protecting whistle-blowers and carrying on the fight against corruption. I have always been against corruption in all its forms whether government, corporate or NGO - and also came out in public against the political corruption and institutionalized violence at a time when many others did not dare to speak out against it. While grateful to Mr. Weliamuna for acknowledging my considerable experience in journalism, I take him at his word that neither Transparency International nor he has any political affiliations or agendas. Such affiliations or agendas were not even vaguely the substance of my comments, about which Mr.Weliamuna has been so angered as to write such a tirade against me, without the least attempt to truly analyze what I said. He can remain assured that, whether it is to his liking or not, I am fully aware of the importance of addressing systemic issues in corruption; the necessity to encourage the fight against corruption in Sri Lanka; and, the need to pressurize any government, whatever its hue, to make the fight against corruption a reality. And for that purpose I shall remain forthright in my comments, too. - Lucien Rajakarunanayake (This correspondence is now closed - Editor) |
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