The media is not to blame, Prime Minister!

• There was no word from the Prime Minister explaining why she turned up for the event late, keeping the Chinese Ambassador and the officials waiting for an hour

Last week, the government faced a diplomatic blunder when Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya accepted a consignment of school uniforms from China and ended up thanking the ‘Republic of China’ which Taiwan is officially known as instead of the ‘People’s Republic of China’,in the presence of the Chinese Ambassador and other officials.  
Taiwan has been China’s arch rival and Sri Lanka too has no diplomatic ties with Taiwan and in fact does not recognise the breakaway state.  
To top it off, Prime Minister Amarasuriya turned up an hour late for the event, keeping the Ambassador waiting at the Colombo Port. The Ambassador eventually went back to the Embassy and returned when the Prime Minister was about to attend the event.  
This matter was exposed by our sister paper The Sunday Times over the weekend. The Daily Mirror reproduced it, giving all credit to The Sunday Times.  

The Daily Mirror learns that while a ‘slip of the tongue’ is possible by any individual, what was not expected was that instead of owning up to her mistake, the Prime Minister instead saw it fit to use up her Parliament time to blame the media for her mistake.  
On Tuesday, in her statement in Parliament, the Prime Minister said that while the government has taken steps to provide the full school uniform requirements for 2025 with the support of the Chinese government and while unfortunately the government was working tirelessly to resolve issues, opposition groups were trying to sabotage their efforts.  
The Prime Minister further went on to criticize the coverage given to this event by “certain media groups”, alleging that it was an attempt to create issues between Sri Lanka and China.  
“The opposition and certain media institutions aligned with them are trying to create the impression that our government’s international relations are weak. However, all such attempts have been consistently defeated,” she said.  
Well one would have expected Prime Minister Amarasuriya to utilise her time in Parliament admitting her mistake but it was most unfortunate to see her blame the opposition and media for her slip of the tongue. In addition there was no word from the Prime Minister explaining why she turned up for the event late, keeping the Ambassador and the officials waiting for an hour.  
To err is human and while we accept it, blaming others for one’s fault is not. The Daily Mirror learns that Prime Minister Amarasuriya had no intention to cause a diplomatic blunder and even regretted her mistake and apologised to the Chinese Ambassador thereafter.  
The matter should have graciously ended there. But instead the media was always blamed for reporting the truth.