Video: Ranjith S. blames social media for rumours

Telecommunication and Information Technology Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said yesterday he had no intention of quitting the government accused the social media of spreading rumours that he would cross over to the opposition.

He told a media conference at the SLFP head office that he was with President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday morning and with Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa in the afternoon.

“There is a saying ‘No smoke without fire’. But this is a fire bomb without a hint of any smoke. But the danger of this kind of wild lies is that they have the capacity to destabilise society and misguide the people. Therefore, it is extremely necessary to put a mechanism in place to end this social menace,” the minister said and added that the social media, an asset to society, should not be misused.

Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara said some social media follow the Gobles theory and tell lies hundred or more times to establish it as truth.
“The opposition has gone wild realizing that President Rajapaksa’s victory is assured and is spreading fallacies to confuse the people. The social media without accountability or responsibility use the cyberspace for personal agendas. It is extremely difficult for law enforcement authorities to locate the persons who operate or addresses of social media like print and electronic media institutions. Therefore they use the social media at will. However, it is highly imperative that these antisocial operations must be stopped at any cost,” he said.

The minister said 90% of the business community in Sri Lanka was against President Rajapaksa as he stopped privatisation of state assets.
“The local business community wants revenge against Mahinda Rajapaksa because he represents a certain class of the proletariat. The class of have nots and the class of those who are against privatisation. The rich and powerful are dead against the strengthening of the state instead of strengthening the private sector. Therefore, they all want to see President Rajapaksa defeated at the presidential election. We must not let this happen,” he said.

The minister said the thinking of the upper class was richly manifested in a recent news item which appeared in the Financial Times which said in Sri Lanka the intervention of the Government in business and trade was higher than necessary. (Sandun A Jayasekera)

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