Ranil applies brakes on media freedom

Ranil Wickremesinghe’s views on media freedom are two-faced.  One, when in the opposition and one when in power.  One sports a smile and the other a scowl.  This two-facedness, if you will, is not Mr Wickremesinghe’s preserve.  It’s part of the political culture.  In general those in power mimic those they replaced and those who are replaced mimic those who replaced them.  On most counts. 

 

"I will teach journalists a good lesson!"

It is typical for the Opposition to champion media freedom and for those in power to curb the same, directly or indirectly.  It is also typical for those in power, especially those who feel insecure, to vilify critics by claiming that they are serving the interest of ‘the enemy’ (variously defined of course).   During the Rajapaksa regime those who criticized the government were labeled traitors in the pay of separatists or foreign powers intent on dividing the country.  During the regime of Chandrika Kumaratunga critics were called ‘Sinhala Buddhist chauvinists’ or ‘war-mongers’.   Today’s critics are called ‘Rajapaksa loyalists’. 

So there’s really no ‘venasa’ (change) in Ranil Wickremesinghe’s occasional attacks on and not-so-veiled threats against journalists and media houses.   Not too long ago he referred to a journalist as a dog and called for the control of certain ‘dog-media-institutions’ thereby clearly indicating that he’s moved from good-governance to dog-governance; quite unbecoming, especially for a man who his wide-eyed loyalists consider ‘a brain and nothing else’ (thanikara molayak). 

Just the other day he ranted once again, targeting his longtime bugbear, the genial and quite nondescript editor of the Daily Mirror, Kesara Abeywardena.  This is what he said:

"Last Monday's Daily Mirror called for the removal of Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera. I know the editor of the Daily Mirror. He once wrote saying I too should be removed from UNP leadership. We will have to see what we should do if he does not resign from his post. He is possessed by Mahinda Rajapaksa. Daily Mirror carried anti Tamil, anti Muslim articles. Now they want ministers to resign. We must teach journalists a good lesson."

What was Kesara’s crime, though?  Did he publish a news item where he craftily threw in a quote by some political maverick making a speech in an unrelated context, selectively extracting the line ‘Mangala should be removed?’  Did he write an editorial calling for the Foreign Minister’s removal?  No.  All he did was to publish a political commentary titled “Why Mangala must exit and Amunugama must enter”.   The columnist, Dayan Jayatilleka, to be fair, makes a cogent argument for the Foreign Minister’s removal.

Dayan has his preferred political outcomes.  His commentary is informed by the same.  He is clever with words and he knows enough history, political science and sociology to make his conclusions sound like they are the only ones that are logical.  There have been times when I’ve disagreed with Dayan, but on this occasion I concur with him totally.  But let’s assume that he is way off the mark. Let’s assume that he is just making a case for an outcome that serves his political objectives.  The fact is, however, that his is only a comment. 

A comment, Mr Wickremesinghe.  It’s free, Mr Wickremesinghe.  He is offering an opinion on facts which he has not distorted.  Weighted maybe, but that’s allowed Mr Wickremesinghe.  You should know this.  Editors, especially liberal editors, reserve space for regular columnists from across the political spectrum.  Kesara gives space to people who are rabidly opposed to Dayan Jayatilleka and who regularly trot out what I would call nauseatingly servile pieces about your administration, Mr Wickremesinghe.  I don’t know of any occasion when someone objecting to such views called him names and declared that Kesara would be taught a lesson. 

What does Ranil Wickremesinghe want, I wonder.  The entire media to come together and call him ‘saviour’, salaam him at every turn, sing hosannas and crack down hard on his detractors? Is that the ‘media freedom’ that this good-governance government envisaged, never mind what was promised? 

Ranil has issued a threat in no uncertain terms.  He’s basically told Kesara ‘Resign or else!’  He’s read the riot act and he has the riot police ready. That’s the message he’s given and not just to Kesara but anyone who dares question his judgment.  Well, speaking of judgment, he was found lacking when he appointed Arjuna Mahendran as Governor, Central Bank.  He did fire some shots at those who criticized Mahendran, ably supported of course by his loyal sidekick Lakshman Kiriella, the Minister of Higher Education whose judgment too has been called to question after it was found that he had appointed dozens of advisors with hardly any educational qualifications and even tried to justify the use of public funds to pay the salaries of these ‘party loyalists’.  Ranil’s tirades did not stop the media.  It did not stop commentators.  Arjuna Mahendran had to go.  At this rate, the call will not be for the exit of a bad-judgment-appointee but the appointer himself, Ranil should understand.  Arrogance was a key factor that saw the ‘exiting’ of Mahinda Rajapaksa.  This too he should not forget. 

He says that the Daily Mirror has carried anti-Tamil and anti-Muslim articles?  Maybe that’s how he reads and maybe that’s an indication of his ability to read, but then again others can say that the Daily Mirror has carried ‘anti-Sinhala’ and ‘anti-Buddhist’ articles.    After all, the Daily Mirror gives as much or more space to anti-Sinhala and anti-Buddhist commentators or, if you want to be sweet about it, those who attack Sinhala and Buddhist extremists and slip in crass generalizations to attack the entire collective.  Hasn’t Wickremesinghe seen any of these pieces?  

Those who know Wickremesinghe’s ways will not be surprised at this manifest inability to stomach any criticism and especially calling his judgment to question.  What might surprise a lot of people is the deafening silence of the bleeding-heart media-rights advocates who could barely hold their tongues at the slightest perceived wrong done to journalists.  What happened to the Editors’ Guild?  What of the Free Media Movement?  What of their lords and ladies abroad who regurgitate their whines in international forums and fire off strongly worded missives to anyone who might be willing to listen?  How about the rights-bloc (shall we call them?), those who cheered the yahapaalanists all the way?  How about those self-righteous above-them-all columnists who rant and rave about Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism (but are quiet on Tamil, Muslim and Christian varieties) in the Daily Mirror and elsewhere who also talk about media freedom?  How about Dr Ranga Kalansuriya?  How many such tirades from Wickremesinghe will it take for them to wake up or will that never happen because they are simple in pretend-slumber?  

Let’s stop there.  There’s no point doing the horage-ammagen-pena-ahana number (asking the crook’s mother about the crook’s whereabouts). 

Let’s get back to Ranil Wickremesinghe.  On the 16^th of May, 2004 the ‘Sunday Observer’ published an article titled ‘Move over Ranil, your time’s up’.   It was a political comment.  It was an exit call.  Wickremesinghe didn’t say a word.  He didn’t call for the particular editor’s blood.  He didn’t say ‘we must teach journalists a good lesson’.  He was quite the lamb.  He was in the Opposition then.  Says a lot doesn’t it? 

Malinda Seneviratne is a freelance writer.  Blog: malindawords.blogspot.com.  Email: malindasenevi@gmail.com.  Twitter: malindasene.

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The greening of the media

The absence of media freedom and the violation of the rights of media personnel were a constant lament articulated by the then Opposition during the previous regime.  The restoration of freedoms and the upholding of rights consequently was a key element of Maithripala Sirisena’s election campaign.  He picked up the UNP’s gripe and ran.  The UNP, for its part, in pledging support to Sirisena pledged to help him set things right in this regard.

That was ages ago.

If anyone entertained illusions that the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe dispensation was interested in doing anything to stop the rot if not cure the malady altogether these would have been laid to rest when the much talked of and many times promised Right to Information Act was first put on the policy back-burner, then completely removed from the reform discourse.  

And now with elections called the true colors are surfacing.  It is reported that the UNP’s Chairman, no less, has instructed all state media to toe the party line.  Having even without such instruction pandered to party interests in doing everything possible to promote a split in the main Opposition, such institutions now have got the official green light to blank it out altogether.  

If that were not enough a leading newspaper house has been taken over.  It was not yesterday that this country moved from ‘censorship’ to ‘ownership’ of course. That said, we were made to understand that this lot would do better.  After all, these are the very people who cried ‘foul!’ when all that happened and who, during the presidential election campaign, vowed to enshrine media freedom and the rights of media personnel.  The journalists of that newspaper who have been effectively silenced, if asked about media freedom under Ranil Wickremesinghe would no doubt break into uncontrollable guffaws and thereafter snort in disgust.  

The silence of media watchdogs such as the Free Media Movement and the Working Journalists Association as well as other rights outfits that tagged ‘media’ to their resumes for obvious donor-baiting reasons is deafening.  We are yet to hear the US Embassy issue a condemning love note to Ranil Wickremesinghe.  International watchdogs that worked tirelessly to censure the previous regime for such ‘wrongs’ have similarly disappeared into the woodworks.  

And finally we have the curious case of a previous editor of a newspaper that prided itself for operating in the public interest being charged for pilfering monies collected from the public ‘to keep the newspaper afloat’. The Companies Registrar has received a complaint from a contributor.  Those associated with the newspaper have gone silent.  Whether or not the Government will bail out this individual will also reveal the true colors of the UNP with regard not only to media freedom but corruption.  This newspaper, for the record, backed Sirisena to the hilt.  

So this is it.

Media freedom?  Forget it!  Balanced reportage? Trashed!  Fair coverage?  Be serious!  Change?  Past tense!  Yahapaalanaya?  Cheap rhetoric!

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Who is scared of Colombo Telegraph?

We live in a world where the Bible and Quran are used to justify anything and everything, a world where the teachings of the Buddha are (mis)interpreted to buttress political projects quite antithetical to the teachings of Siddhartha Gauthama and a world where the works of Karl Marx are mined for ‘appropriate’ quotes to support preferred political position.  In such a world, selectivity, deliberate downplaying and happy inflation abound.  The internet, for all its promise, is made as much of information as misinformation.  It can empower and it can also lead astray.

So this is a world of (mis)information overload where effective regulatory laws really don’t exist.  It is a world made for slander and lying where those with bucks and guns can mine selectively, conjure up files upon files of fantasies and, let’s face it, vilify with impunity.  And there are enough takers too, enough people who revel in garbage production and enough demand to lap up the produce with glee.  The discerning would have a good sense of true weight of ‘story’ and by and by figure out which sources are reliable and which are not. 

The most important point is that you can’t really shut people from going where they want to go.  Those who want pornography will visit such sites. Those who want gossip will find it.  It all depends on what people want and how serious they are about getting reliable information.  For example, if you want information about the ills of smoking, it won’t be enough to look for anti-smoking websites.  What appear as anti-smoking sites in the first several pages of Google, for instance, are operated by various sections of the tobacco industry.  Even the ‘opposition’, thus, is regulated.  If you have bucks, it can be done.  On the other hand, the truth, as they say, is ‘out there’ and it is virtually impossible to block all roads leading to it. 

This is why site-blocking is a puerile exercise.  Anyone can say ‘any old thing’ slander included.  What is blocked can be accessed through proxy servers; works for pornography and works for mischievous or slanderous sites that paint themselves as neutral, political commentators.  

Colombo Telegraph (CT) is not a porn site.  It is a political news/commentary site.  Those who run it have their political slant.  They do allow the ‘other side’ (shall we say?) some space, but for the most part privilege columnists with undisguised antipathy towards the current regime.  They indulge in what could be called gutter journalism, hitting below the belt in ways that do themselves much disservice, for example the recent tasteless attacks on Rajpal Abeynayake, the Editor of the Daily News.  The management of comments is equally unprofessional.  And yet, there is enough good-sense stuff in CT to attract a good cross section of people interested in Sri Lanka’s political firmament.  Indeed, it is a convenient place to visit if you want to know what those who are opposed to the regime think.  That entire club meets there, so to speak. 

But CT is not just platform for regime-haters.  CT also puts out information that is of absolutely import in defending Sri Lanka against various machinations from rogue-players in the international community.  CT has ‘broken stories’ that have been used extensively by those opposed to ‘imposed regime-change’.  This should also be recognized.

CT has been blocked on many occasions by various internet service providers in Sri Lanka, both state-run and private entities.  It has to be consequent to orders from somewhere close to the top of the regime, obviously.  Only the blockers and those who order blocking will know the ‘why’ of it all; we can only comment on the meaninglessness.

The United States of America doesn’t block in this crude manner.  It purchases dissent for the most part or regulates/manages it.  That’s being smart.  Cost-effective.  The US knows that what cannot be stopped should be managed.  That’s why we get ‘conflict management’ as opposed to ‘conflict resolution’.  Washington probably knows that it is better to have the opposition visible than have it go underground.  It should not be forgotten that avenues to vent anger and opposition are an important part not only of a vibrant democracy but in consolidating power, especially since virtual space is the preferred battleground of slothful critics.  Keyboard warriors show where the fault lines are and thereby serve regimes that are terrified of even the slightest threat to perceived invincibility.    

The internet, for all its liberating appearances, is a tool more effectively used by the powerful.  In Sri Lanka’s case, since ‘threat’ is more from outside and since real power is also resident elsewhere, there’s little that can be gained by blocking CT, either domestically or internationally.  It only betrays regime-jitteriness.  

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Factoring ‘integrity’ into media freedom

The Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka has issued a statement regarding a brutal attack on the Editor of Uthayan, T Thevananth ‘while covering an event at the Jaffna University’.   The missive, signed by Secretary Sundera Nihathamani De Mel, claims that the event was one where students were ‘commemorating those who died during the three decades long northern insurgency’. 

There are claims that this was not a ‘Maaveerar (Martyr’s Day)’ event, but a Hindu festival, Karthikai Deepam where lamps are lit and it was just a coincidence that the two (the first associated with the LTTE of course) fell on the same day, generating confusion as well as making for multiple (erroneous and mischievous) interpretation.  

Authorities claim that the LTTE is a banned organization and therefore LTTE-related commemorations are out of order.  Commemoration, however, does not require a party tag and no law can stop grieving, never mind the fact that grief is routinely used to bolster political projects.  Whatever the politics of the moment, Devananth has a right to observe and report.  If, as the authorities claim, the students provoked the fracas by throwing stones and Devananth was a victim of the melee, it is unfortunate.  Still, no one can argue that he should not have been there, regardless of his political affiliations, what he wishes to celebrate or lament, none of which is material to the issue at hand. 

In a separate incident another ‘journalist’, Sujeewa Samarasinghe was taken for questioning on Tuesday night (November 27^th), held for several hours and released.  Now Samarasinghe is not exactly a journalist; he is Sarath Fonseka’s Media Coordinator, a legitimate occupation. 

Like all people, including journalists, Samarasinghe has to abide by the law.  If he transgresses, the law enforcement authorities have every right to apply relevant legal procedures.  If this was not done on this occasion it is less a matter of suppressing media freedom than one of treading on citizens’ rights enshrined in the constitution.

The distinction is important because people have multiple identities and one cannot pick and choose which ID to wave at which particular moment.  That’s convenience and is patently devoid of integrity. 

Devananth knows and Samarasinghe knows which identity-sliver was relevant.  Media rights advocates, if they have integrity (and the competence) should similarly strive to distinguish what’s what.  It doesn’t happen that way though.

The best example would be Sunanda Deshapriya.  His political affiliations and outcome-preferences are more important than his ‘Media ID’ but those who treat him as an authority on media freedom (rightly) do not worry about such things.  What is unconscionable is that such people ignore also his considerable track record as a petty thief and a fraud.  This is where the name ‘Sunanda Deshapriya’ just cannot hobnob with the word ‘integrity’ and not his close association with LTTE operatives, before and after the LTTE was militarily defeated.

Integrity is important.  Without integrity, media personnel are little better than petty political propagandists.  Take the case of BBC World Service Journalists Chandana Keerthi Bandara and its Colombo reporter Elmo Fernando applying for Rs. 1,200,000/- each as interest free loans from state banks to purchase cars or vans.  These are signatories to BBC contractual caveats pertaining to integrity, including acceptance of gifts which could compromise independence and objectivity in reporting.  Bandara, moreover, is associated with the dubious outfit that calls itself Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, with quite a reputation for spinning tall tales which naturally compromises the efficacy of commentary that is based on fact. 

What this does is that it makes the work of genuine advocates of media freedom (organized or otherwise) harder.  When such people talk of attacks on journalists (such as Devananth), it takes away something.  Both victim and advocacy are poorer for it. 

For now, though, let it be clear that just as no one, including journalists, is above the law, there is absolutely no way that any infringement on rights (of journalists or others) can be condoned.  There is a thing called due process.  People who have legitimate occupations must have the freedom to get about their work.  A cobbler has the right to mend shoes.  A journalist has the right to write about anything he/she considers newsworthy or requiring commentary.  He/she has the right to go where ‘news’ may be ‘happening’.  He cannot be stopped.  Devananth was stopped.  This is wrong. 

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On freedom of expression a la Sunanda Deshapriya

Sunanda Deshapriya: Hoofed out of the CPA for pilfering funds (CPA called it 'Clarity-Lack')

Sunanda Deshapriya is reported to have been snubbed in Geneva when offering his two cents’ worth subsequent to the screening of ‘Lies Agreed Upon’, a rebuttal to the inglorious Channel 4 production, ‘Sri Lanka Killing Fields’.  Given the man’s fondness for bucks, one can only wonder how much he got for this two-cent interjection, but I doubt he expected the earful he received from the President of Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed.

Deshapriya, whose track record warrants the insertion of an extra ‘a’ in his name with a hyphen separating the a’s, in case people have forgotten, was hoofed out of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) for doing things that ‘lacked clarity’ (the sanitized term for ‘theft’ preferred by the CPA, which, by the way continues to remain silent about allegations of financial hanky-panky and keeps things under wraps despite moralistic posturing about transparency).  In Geneva, however, it was not about bucks, but patriotism (of all things!).

Deshapriya is reported to have asked Nasheed what right he had to speak about Sri Lanka.  The Maldivian President had informed Deshapriya that not only does he visit Sri Lanka for medical treatment, but is fluent in Sinhala and very well informed about things and processes in the country.  He added that it is generally expected of citizens to defend their countries and not hobnob with the enemy. 

Well, Sunanda does much more than hobnob in the current incarnation of his mercenary persona, but that’s not really news.  What caught my attention was his question to Nasheed. 

The implication of the question is that non Sri Lankans don’t have any right to talk about Sri Lankans.  Now this man, who calls himself a ‘journalist’ (and a senior one at that!) and is described as such by ill-informed ‘journalists’ such as Sara Nic, seems to have forgotten that what applies to Nasheed applies to others as well.  So let’s play with the idea.

I am imagining Sunanda telling off people like Susan Rice, Navi Pillai, Louis Arbour, David Miliband, Bernard Kouchner, Robert O Blake, Barack Obama, Ban ki-Moon, the jokers he appointed to conjure a ‘reality’ about this country, Patricia Butenis and other former Sri Lankans now happily domiciled and ‘citizened’ in other countries.  In fact I am imagining Sunanda standing before a mirror and engaging in finger-pointing. 

Sunanda to Sunanda-MI (Mirror Image):  you have by your admission (to Sarah Nic) admitted that your stories (good word-choice, by the way) are not ‘flesh and blood’, meaning they have no substance; you’ve robbed money from the CPA; for all your talk of transparency and accountability, you continue to balk when asked to submit relevant documents pertaining to financial matters in the Free Media Movement during your stewardship as ‘Convenor’.  What right do you have to talk about Sri Lanka?

Sunanda-MI to Sunanda: you are one to talk, brother:  have you forgotten how you always pandered to the LTTE’s agenda, whitewashing in any way possible its crimes against humanity?

Sunanda looks at the mirror.  The mirror-image looks back. They hang their heads down in shame, as though on cue or on account of a sudden bout of self-realization.

Sunanda will be Sunanda and that’s fine with me.  What worries me is that those who took over the Free Media Movement continue to enjoy sweeping things under the carpet.  They know that Sunanda is guilty of double-billing-pilferage. They know that he suppressed documents relevant to an investigation into financial fraud.  They’ve said a proper investigation would be too costly, i.e. ‘at least 1 million’.  I offered to find that amount (IF they can’t get a pro-decency funding agency to help them).  Not a word from the FMM. 

Maybe the FMM is speechless, which is pretty sad considering that ‘media’ is its middle name.  Maybe it’s just that touching Sunanda would force the current leadership to submit itself to similar touching.  Maybe they are as ticklish as Sunanda is.  It is all sad.  As I’ve pointed out (see ‘Does the FMM love old wine,’ in the Daily Mirror of September 15, 2011: http://print.dailymirror.lk/opinion1/49866.html) my only concern is that advocacy organizations that engage in odd operations only make true advocacy difficult. Sunil Jayasekera seems to have lost his voice.  I hope he finds it.  If not, he might end up in Geneva or some other part of Europe or North America having conversations with his mirror image.  On the other hand, considering what a great career Sunanda has made out of mis-journalizing, that might be a mouth-watering prospect.  

As for Sunanda Deshapriya, he could release evidence of tossing to other foreigners (friends included) the question he put to the President of Maldives.  Will he? Naah!

[Courtesy, Daily News, September 16, 2011]

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On Sara Nics’ simplistic delve into South Asia ‘complexities’

Sara Nics is a new member of the South Asia Wired team. That’s how Radio Netherlands Worldwide profiles her.   The nutshell-version adds that Sara, ‘as a multi-media journalist, Sara has reported from the frosty forests of the Great North Woods, the hallowed halls of Oxford, the sewage strewn footpaths of Kenya's Kibera, the cold waters of the Gulf of Maine, and the green hills of Uganda’.  Sara is supposed to be ‘happy to explore the complexities of South Asia’!
  

‘What a privileged region we are,’ I muttered to myself.  ‘So undeserving,’ I added. 

I don’t know when Sara Nics began trying to unravel South Asian complexities, but her piece about media freedom in Sri Lanka does indicate that the person-blurb is spot on with respect to at least one element: she is ‘new’. 

Who does this wide-eyed radio journalist pick to interview on the subject of media freedom but the man who has harmed media rights advocacy the most, Sunanda Deshapriya.  His long association with the Free Media Movement (FMM) and happy status as the go-to-guy on all issues pertaining to media rights, gave him profile, yes, but what Nics is clearly clueless about the man.

Deshapriya is a known rogue, who was hoofed out of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) for pilfering funds (the CPA, itself under a cloud for shady financial operations called it ‘lack of clarity’ but doesn’t have the guts to come out and tell the public what was meant by the term).   I don’t want to repeat what I’ve already said about his shady operations concerning money, especially but not limited to his adventures in the FMM.  He was not fleeing repression or death-threats, he was running away from a possible jail term. Simple.  Clearly this Sara Nics doesn’t believe in homework. 

Deshapriya true to form turns necessity into virtue.  He pumps Nics with a fairytale and she purchases.  That’s what ‘new’ does, I suppose.  He tells Nics, ‘I am apolitical’ and she believes him.  He was never apolitical.  He was always political.  He was politically aligned with the LTTE, ever ready to whitewash its crimes against humanity and to secure any and every kind of positional advantage vis-à-vis the Government of Sri Lanka within his capacity.  He was no journalist; he was and still is a propagandist for terrorists and their lackeys.  The next time Sara Nics meets him, she could ask him who killed his driver and how come this ‘journalist’ got tongue-tied in naming names. 

Deshapriya makes Nics understand that his stories are not really full of flesh and blood because ‘(he is) a marked person’ who doesn’t want to associate with anyone openly and doesn’t want others getting into trouble.  He is marked, yes.  For theft.  He cannot get flesh and blood stories, because he’s always been skeletal and half-baked in his reportage.   He tells Nics that 70 journalists have fled the country.  Now that’s rubbish.  From where did he get this number?  If they’ve fled, they can stand up and say ‘yes, I fled for such and such a reason,’ can’t they?  There are no names mentioned because there aren’t that many. Lying only makes it difficult for any person who may have a legitimate reason to fear for his or her life to sound believable.   

Deshapriya tosses the number 34 at Nics and she catches neatly. That’s ‘the number of journalists killed in Sri Lanka’.  Why can’t Deshapriya name them? After all, they won’t be ‘harmed’ would them?  

Nics quotes someone called Fred Carver, ‘Campaign Director’ of some dubious outfit called ‘Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice’.  This Carver person says that many Sri Lankan journalists self-censor.  Correct.  So does the BBC, didn’t he know?  And Channel 4.  It’s called ‘manufacturing’. 

There’s no such thing, Sara, called absolute media freedom.  We don’t live in Media Paradise, not here and not in England or Switzerland.  There’s always work to be done and those who have integrity and commitment keep working.  The work is only made harder when jackasses spout palpable rubbish and the naïve lap it all up. 

Carver wants there to be avenues for Sri Lankan journalists to apply for asylum.  That’s good.  There will be all kinds of people claiming to be journalists and claiming persecution.  If the relevant authorities in asylum-giving countries are anything like Sara Nics, they’ll get a free ticked to what they believe are greener pastures.  It is not a nice thing to prey on naiveté of course, but Sara Nics and her ilk are hardly babes in the woods. If they want to play sucker, so be it. 

I want Sara Nics to become ‘old’ but history shows that Deshapriya is an ace at squeezing wide-eyed journalistic oranges from the West to their last naïve drop. 

Sara Nics wants to explore the complexities of South Asia.  South Asia will not have any trouble in exploring her. She’s not complex at all.  She’s quite simple, really. 

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