Peace for the World

Peace for the World
First democratic leader of Justice the Godfather of the Sri Lankan Tamil Struggle: Honourable Samuel James Veluppillai Chelvanayakam

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Twitter Q&A with Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to the President of Sri Lanka

LW
Image courtesy Business Today

 -18 Jun, 2013
GroundviewsThe Presidential Spokesman and International Media Unit (i.e. @AnuradhaKHerath) announced on 14th June something that’s never happened before in Sri Lankan politics – a Q&A with Lalith Weeratunga, the President’s Secretary over Twitter, slated for 19th June, from 2.30pm to 4pm.
A live search of #askLW is embedded below to follow in real time the Q&A on Wednesday and the questions leading up to it.
  1. Raj Ruba @RajRuba
    @cfhaviland SL govt. feels jealous about the domination of TNA in N.E & result of Tamil CM +
  2. Meg @MegTegal
    -Why hasn't the gov. taken action against the demolition & attacks on Mosques and Churches by extremists groups over the past YEARS?
    Retweeted by Nalaka Gunawardene
    Expand
  3. sunanda deshapriya @sunandadesh
    you say13 A is a obstacle to admin; Do you oppose meaningful power-sharing as political solution to Tamil grievances?
  4. Anoma de Alwis @AnomadeA
    - What do you think of Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, calling social media as a national security threat in post-war Sri Lanka.
  5. Nalaka Gunawardene @NalakaG
    Govt publicly stated positions often remind us of 'Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'. Why this sharply split personality?
  6. Nalaka Gunawardene @NalakaG
    ICT Agency came with built-in 'sunset' clause. Why hasn't that happened? Will the sun ever set on this limited period agency?
  7. Nalaka Gunawardene @NalakaG
    : I read your speech on ICTs at LKIIRSS last Oct. How can govt that doesn't tolerate any dissent really promote ?
  8. Sabith @Sabithl
    Whats governments and @PresRajapaksa 's official stance on private medical collages? Do you believe we need one in near future?
  9. Dinouk Colombage @Dinoukc
    @PresRajapaksa SL budget allocation for education remains the lowest in the region. How can the country develop?
    Retweeted by Shammas Ghouse
    Expand
  10. Meg @MegTegal
    - What's your opinion on Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara's Cabinet paper to make hate speech punishable by law (Penal Code and not PTA)?
    Retweeted by Shammas Ghouse
    Expand
  11. Charles Haviland @cfhaviland
    Ex-top diplo Dayan Jayatilleka says sum power must B devolved 2 regions in SL 4 justice. So why gov moves 2 REDUCE devolution?
  12. Meg @MegTegal
    - What's your opinion on Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara's Cabinet paper to make hate speech punishable by law (Penal Code and not PTA)?
    Expand
  13. Charles Haviland @cfhaviland
    Prez Secrtary Lalith Weeratunga holds live Twitter Q&A as @PresRajapaksa Jun 19 1430 SL. Invaluable trove http://groundviews.org/2013/06/18/twitter-qa-with-lalith-weeratunga-secretary-to-the-president-of-sri-lanka/ …
    Retweeted by Polly Truscott
    Expand
  14. Meg @MegTegal
    -Why hasn't the gov. taken action against the demolition & attacks on Mosques and Churches by extremists groups over the past YEARS?
  15. Dinouk Colombage @Dinoukc
    @PresRajapaksa SL budget allocation for education remains the lowest in the region. How can the country develop?
    Expand
  16. Meg @MegTegal
    - has no authority to make arrests and conduct raids. Yet they continue to do so with impunity, why hasn't the gov taken action?
  17. Dinouk Colombage @Dinoukc
    @PresRajapaksa Will the govt. reduce its expenditure on the military and increasing on health and education in next years budget?
  18. Charles Haviland @cfhaviland
    Prez Secrtary Lalith Weeratunga holds live Twitter Q&A as @PresRajapaksa Jun 19 1430 SL. Invaluable trove http://groundviews.org/2013/06/18/twitter-qa-with-lalith-weeratunga-secretary-to-the-president-of-sri-lanka/ …
    Expand
  19. Charles Haviland @cfhaviland
    With top policeman Vaas G now detained, perhaps time 4 REAPPEARANCE of Ramasamy Prabagaran who'd accused him? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17356575 …
    Retweeted by Nirmanusan B
    Expand
  20. Dinouk Colombage @Dinoukc
    @PresRajapaksa Is the government concerned that senior policemen are being arrested on murder charges?
  21. Charles Haviland @cfhaviland
    With top policeman Vaas G now detained, perhaps time 4 REAPPEARANCE of Ramasamy Prabagaran who'd accused him? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17356575 …
    Expand
  22. Charles Haviland @cfhaviland
    A top police official now held as murder suspect. Sum say he part of "culture of sanctioned killings". Justice 4 his other poss vics?
  23. Groundviews @groundviews
    Looking back, do you wish you were more open about your role in @PresRajapaksa's Helping Hambantota fiasco? http://www.lankastandard.com/vault/helping-hambantota-investigation/ …
Ironically, the announcement of the Twitter Q&A with Weeratunga came on the same day Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the President’s brother, in a spark of unrivalled genius, called social media no less than a a national security threat in post-war Sri Lanka.
Unlike Gotabaya Rajapaksa and as Sri Lanka’s top civil servant, Weeratunga has openly spoken about the potential of ICTs for post-war development and reconciliation. Rather endearingly,Weeratunge noted in late 2012,
“I have somehow resisted in getting into the Facebook and resisted getting into Twitter.I’m not in Linkedin, I’m not in any of these social media things because I don’t want to make my life more complex than what it is now. I can’t handle a phone, so I might as well not get into these things… Well I don’t exactly know this business of Twitter but I’m told that some 140 characters or less are involved in it.”
He went on to note,
“When talking about social networking tools I recall the young fellow from Polonnaruwa I met. When Jackson Anthony produced the movie “Kuweni” which was launched about an year ago, he had used this boy to do the marketing. And the boy had done marketing through the Facebook. He was very proud about it. Social networking tools, personal profiles with statements, and photographs can help to understand people from different cultures and geographical boundaries. Well these are the positive things”
Weeratunga deserves a lot of credit for agreeing to a Q&A format well beyond the Government’s ability to control, censor or contain. However, the real test and measure of success is how well he will respond and to what he will respond. One and a half hours is a very long time and Weeratunga joins three Twitter Q&A’s, with varying degrees of success, linked to Sri Lanka.
Assistant Secretary, South And Central Asian Affairs at the US State Department and former Ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert Blake just over a year ago had a Twitter Q&A session for just thirty minutes, during which time he didn’t answer a single question on Sri Lanka. Earlier this year, the UK Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt also did a forty five minute Q&A over Twitter, which Groundviews has archived in full. In between, on 18th December 2012, Valerie Amos, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator conducted a Twitter Q&A, which was a disaster. As we noted then,
…it evident that Baroness Amos and her staff are not really interested in addressing difficult questions on Sri Lanka, whether over Twitter, other media or face to face. And so this circus will move on – online events held only to notch up a year’s quota of new media interactions to make the UN appear vibrant and cutting-edge, yet with little or no thought given to meeting expectations these events create or generating considered responses to hard questions that when unanswered, ferment even more discontent and anger against an institution that has failed in Sri Lanka, and how!
One sincerely hopes the UN’s idea of a Twitter Q&A isn’t the model even remotely emulated or employed by the President’s Office on Wednesday.
Groundviews is archiving every single #askLW tweet for posterity, and has already made public a fully indexed online portal to access all the tweets anchored to the Q&A with Lalith Weeratunga.
Screen Shot 2013-06-18 at 10.54.21 AM
Please ask questions, and join the #askLW debates.
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