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We can’t massage lies: Weeratunga’s lobby claims dismissed
View(s):Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, told editors and senior journalists in January last year that Sri Lanka could get nothing done in Washington without lobbyists. According to a Congressional aide contacted by the Sunday Times, nothing is further from the truth.
“It’s one thing to hire a lobbying firm, to help with communication, but if the Government they represent isn’t making the right kind of changes, the right kind of reforms, it doesn’t matter how good the firm is,” he said, from Washington, DC, requesting anonymity. “They can’t massage lies.”
“The current government has been quite successful in communicating what it is doing without having any paid lobbyists, he said. “Most members of Congress and their staff, especially those working on foreign affairs, will always meet with Embassy officials. It’s patently false that the only way an Embassy can get a meeting is through a lobbyist.”
Mr. Weertunga said last year, “There are 800-plus lobbying companies in Washington, so you can just imagine the work that they have. You can’t go and just talk to Congressmen or Senators unless you go through a lobbying firm, unfortunately.”
“It is this time that I realised, particularly in the US, this whole business of lobbying is the order of the day,” he said, having just returned from a trip to Washington. “Knowing the staff in Embassies and High Commissions, I feel the way things happen, even if you have 40, 50, 100 staff…unless you have top class communication experts doing it all the time…”
“They just don’t give their ear to you unless you go with someone you know,” he said. “It all depends on what is the lobbying company which can really pitch you.” But judging by what happened during the past few years, Sri Lanka is still searching for the right one.