Lanka Citizen

From the Sunday Times politics column (07.08.2005), commenting on the 20 milllion rupee cost of publishing CBK, Chandrika’s first ‘authrozied’ then disowned biogrpahy:

“The UNP committed the same mistake when in office commissioning the likes of Earl Gray (no, he was no aristocrat Earl, just a card-carrying member of the Conservative Party , who was paid close to a Rs. 1 million a month through some World Bank grant to work for then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. He was Wickremesinghe’s political consultant, speech-writer, campaign manager, peace secretariat consultant and head of the UNP media unit. He would spend three weeks in Colombo and one in London each month.

Gray, together with two other foreign nationals Jim Robertson and Ashley were his assistants, managing the Rs. 800 million advertising budget and even tasked with drafting the UNP manifesto. So, now we know why the UNP lost.

There were no biographies at the time, but even foreign advertising agencies like Bateys was commissioned to promote Sri Lanka tourism - ask any travel agency what work they did at the rate of US $ 2 million per year. Like in quickly having her memoirs out in book form, the President is in a hurry to wrap up some deals as well — of course, all this is for the country.”

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