Ceylon Today Editorial

Marketing cricket the wrong way

03 September 2016

It is no secret that the change of name from Sri Lanka Board of Control for Cricket to Sri Lanka Cricket which sounds better on something wanting to be a private organization. That is exactly the explanation given to the public by then President of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) Thilanga Sumathipala, who said that cricket would be run as a business. It has been run since under many heads that took charge of this organization, which now has hit bottom rung financially and is on borrowed funds. The following excerpt from a press release by SLC explains what led to this debacle: 'The Financial Crimes Investigations Division (FCID) of Sri Lanka Police has commenced investigations against eight individuals including the former Minister of Sports over financial fraud alleged to have taken place at Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) since 2010.'

The fourth ODI between Sri Lanka and Australia at Dambulla brought out another aspect to SLC that shows it is still not out of the woods, regards it being run on grounds of an efficient business. This is so while the President of SLC who promised it would be so is now at its helm.

Before a product is introduced to the market, it is thoroughly analyzed to ensure its excellence and that it would be manufactured to satisfy quality as well as quantity. Unfortunately SLC has not been doing its home work at Dambulla before the commencement of the ODI games to be played there. Dambulla grounds could hold up to nineteen thousand spectators whereas there had been around forty five thousand wanting to watch cricket that evening.

At least if they had taken into account what took place during the third ODI which saw crowds hanging on tree branches to take a peek at happenings on the ground, there would not have been reason to focus on that here. The way the Police handled or manhandled spectators who were denied the opportunity to be with their beloved players and follow their favourite game taking place in their own backyard was appalling. Nobody else but the SLC has to take the responsibility for that brutality unleashed on nobody else but their own customers, who were made to go hunting for tickets instead of being properly given access to them to watch the game.

Most of these spectators were from farmer families and may not have had access to a computer or the foggiest idea how to get online and purchase tickets. The game of cricket has been too dependent on the Colombo atmosphere and is in the process of tasting the outstation flavour attached to the game. Dambulla locals who were introduced to watching international cricket events had been denied the privilege of a day-night game for the last six years. And, then to be told, that a ticket they could not see, had been sold out would have been, nothing but a fable to them.

On top of that, when a right of theirs, to express their displeasure on being told that tickets were not available and the way the police handled it could be termed as a sheer breakdown of justice. The marketing theory of taking care of the customer epitomizes the responsibility of a marketer and that never came to play its part in true spirit of the game, here at Dambulla. The cutting down of a tree where the crowds had been perched during the previous game would have put pressure on them in a way. They had to be sitting there on branches of that tree there because the SLC shut them off. Had SLC done their home work they would have put up tiers and made arrangements to accommodate these villagers too, at a price.

The apology made by the SLC in no way prompts to have accepted that these people were denied of their privileges. They were denied access to tickets and were subject to Police brutality. The question arises whether we are on the right path of promoting the game in the remote areas of the country; are they not of privileged classes and is that why they are meted out such injustice? Come on that is not the way cricket was meant to be promoted with a politician heading SLC. Marketing has customers and all have to be accepted as privileged. Customers are lost when they lose privileges, in a democracy.

Daily News Editorial

SLFP at a crossroads

03 September 2016

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), one of the two main political forces in Sri Lanka turned 65 yesterday. In a remarkable coincidence, the man who now heads the SLFP, President Maithripala Sirisena, also turns 65 today. Born in the same year, the leader and the party have now embarked on a new journey that has never really been previously experienced in Sri Lanka – a journey of unity with main political rival the United National Party (UNP), which is itself turning 70 on September 6.

This convergence of ideologies would have been unthinkable 65 years ago, when S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike broke away from the UNP to form the SLFP. It really gained momentum by 1956, when SWRD successfully rallied the five forces Sanga, Guru, Veda, Govi and Kamkaru (Bhikkus, Teachers, Physicians, Farmers and Working Class) in a massive socio-economic transformation that resonates to this day. His tenure as Prime Minister was cut short by assassin’s bullet in September 1959. His widow Sirimavo Bandaranaike was then thrust to the political limelight and SLFP leadership. Riding on a wave of sympathy and popularity, she became the world’s first woman prime minister in 1960. Her periods of rule, especially 1970-77, is well known for being the golden age of Sri Lanka’s international relations.

It was inevitable that their offspring would follow them on this political journey. Both Chandrika and Anura (though not Sunethra) entered the political arena and the former had a meteoric rise to become the country’s first woman Executive President by 1994. Near the end of her 11-year rule when a party stalwart suggested that she retain the SLFP leadership for the rest of her life, she flatly refused saying that would go against the SLFP’s democratic traditions. She pointed out that it was not a “family party”. It is that democratic tradition that allowed Mahinda Rajapaksa to become the leader of the SLFP and also contest the Presidential Elections of 2005, which he won by marginally beating the incumbent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. However, Rajapaksa had other ideas and virtually turned the SLFP into a family kingdom helmed by his brothers, relatives and sons. There was a growing frustration among genuine SLFPers that the party was veering away from the democratic ideals cherished by its founding fathers.

Matters came to a head when he got the 18th Amendment passed to abolish the two-term limit for the President and indicated his desire to run for an unprecedented third term. Among those who were alarmed by the danger posed to democracy through this action was none other than Maithripala Sirisena, the then General Secretary of the Party. This set in motion a process, shrouded in secrecy, to pose a challenge to that dictatorial tendency. Much to the surprise of Rajapaksa, it culminated in Maithripala Sirisena emerging as the Common Candidate at the 2015 January Presidential Election and the rest, as they say is history.

In Maithripala Sirisena, we have an astute politician who is almost diametrically opposite to Mahinda Rajapaksa. A son of a farmer and an agriculturist himself, his greatest trait is his willingness to work with his political rivals for the betterment of the country. Hence the idea of a Government of National Unity that many thought would be an impossible dream. His commitment to achieving lasting peace and reconciliation, two concepts that Rajapaksa eschewed, has been proved by recent actions in this direction. Since the National Unity Government came to power, Sri Lanka has also been able to extricate itself out of the quagmire of international isolation.

President Maithripala Sirisena has epitomized the SLFP’s “common man” identity, but there is a faction within the SLFP that is not prepared to accept his leadership. Stung by defeat and fearful of the investigations into acts of corruption, Mahinda Rajapaksa and some of his faithful have cobbled together a so-called Joint Opposition (some of whose leaders are not even SLFPers) that has publicly pledged to topple the Government even before 2020 if possible and bring the Rajapaksas back to power. They are vague about how exactly that can be done in the absence of a General Election, but it is a direct threat to democracy.

It would be churlish to say that the SLFP is not already divided, but the challenge is to avoid further fragmentation which could leave the party members confused and helpless. President Sirisena has thus started a campaign to cleanse the party of elements whose actions have been detrimental to its interests. The SLFP, and indeed the UNP, are not parties based on a single person’s personality and ideology which is a factor that Rajapaksa seems to have forgotten. As the SLFP Ministers in the Government have said, it is not too late for JO members to come around or else they face the danger of being on the wrong side of history. As both the President and the SLFP look forward to their 66th year, the party’s future clearly lies in democratic pluralism that eschews personality cults.

The Island Editorial

What UNSG forgot

 

03 September 2016

UNSG Ban Ki-moon has concluded what his office may describe as a successful tour of Sri Lanka. He squeezed as many meetings as possible into his tight schedule and whether he was able to ascertain anything substantive from his powwows is anybody’s guess. He is sure to deliver the message prepared well in advance before leaving the country.

This comment, however, is not about the UNSG’s visit or the statements he has already made or is likely to make from his office. It is about something he forgot to do here. He should have tendered an apology to the people of Sri Lanka on behalf of the UN.

The UN chief and other panjandrums wouldn’t have had to take the trouble of coming all the way here to press for probing accountability issues etc if the UN had not failed here. The war which was thankfully ended in 2009 had lasted for nearly 25 years with the UN doing precious little to help tackle a terrorist group hell bent on destroying a UN member state.

UNICEF pathetically failed to liberate the child soldiers from the clutches of the Tigers. There were some UN officials like Olara Otunu, who courageously took up the cudgels for the child combatants and strove to pressure the UN to adopt stringent measures against the outfits including the LTTE for forcible child conscription. But, the Security Council chose to skirt the tough measures proposed by human rights groups; only a list of shame was issued as if terrorists had any sense of shame!

The UN also did not care to prevent its member states such as the UK, Canada, France, the Scandinavian countries etc from harbouring LTTE activists who raised funds and coordinated terrorist activities internationally. But for the funds the LTTE received from its activists operating freely in those countries it wouldn’t have been able to destroy so many lives and graduated from a ragtag army to a conventional combat force with air and naval capabilities to plunge this country into a conflagration, only the last phase of which the UN is now probing at the behest of the western bloc.

The UNHRC issues condemnatory statements on this country at the drop of a hat, but never did it utter a word against the LTTE. After the resumption of hostilities in 2006, Prabhakaran had the UN compound in Kilinochchi stormed and the UN flag pulled down and desecrated. Then he had two UN workers abducted for allegedly helping a group of civilians leave the LTTE-held terrain. The UN Colombo Office kept the abductions under wraps and chose to act illegally; it had clandestine talks with the LTTE in a bid to secure their release. The then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was kept in the dark about the incident until we exposed it much to the embarrassment and consternation of the LTTE backers in the garb of UN workers in Colombo, who had even tried to arrange for a meeting between Annan and the LTTE in the Vanni on the pretext of helping tsunami victims. This shows the extent to which terrorist groups have infiltrated the UN system through various rich, influential fronts.

The UN again failed to ensure the safety of its own staff here. While the war was raging with the LTTE using civilians as a human shield, the UN struggled desperately to secure the release of its staff and 75 of their dependents including 40 children and 35 women, whom the LTTE prevented from leaving the war zone, though 15 of those children had contracted respiratory diseases.

Such was the impotency of the UN vis-à-vis LTTE terrorism. Today, we are not short of UN bigwigs and civil society Rip Van Winkles championing human rights and calling for war crimes probes. The UNSG should have apologised to Sri Lankans for the pathetic failure of the UN to be of any help to them during the war years.