It is timely that at last somebody no less than S.L. Gunasekara has come forward to bell the cat because people do not take the risk of commenting openly on subjects which are sensitive. His piece in The Island of the 27th July about the despicable manner in which the politically servile try to associate themselves with the unprecedented popularity of the President is an eye opener. While fully endorsing and thanking Mr. Gunasekara for his letter, I wish to add to his remarks which have been missed.

An embarrassed President himself remarked the other day that the "Maharajaneni" posters are found pasted even in garbage bins. Then again on some other occasion,  he said not to try to hoodwink him by carrying out this kind of contemptible publicity. (mawa gonata andanna lesthiwenna epa). There was also a directive to all candidates from the government party contesting the western provincial council to desist from using the president’s picture in their campaign posters.

It is not only the posters and bill boards where even unworthy government ministers try to exploit the popularity of the President; there are some unscrupulous so called businessmen who try to take advantage of this situation. To cite an example, a local private T.V channel is telecasting daily and repeatedly an advertisement at prime time of a teenage girl singing on stage a hosanna to the President at a function held in his honour where the President and the first lady are also present in the audience.

It is nothing but abusing the unsuspecting President’s kindness towards a child for business purposes.