Dr Brian Senewiratne Our Hero Amongst The Sinhalese
By Usha S Sri-Skanda-Rajah –February 28, 2015
Usha S Sri-Skanda-Rajah
Dr Brian Senewiratne is our hero and more precisely our hero amongst the Sinhalese. So much so I had written an ‘Ode’ to him in 2006 and my husband wrote about him in October 2011 calling him a true consummate humanitarian – both of which I want so much to share – especially when I read some of the flak he gets for fervently defending the Tamil people in Sri Lanka and drawing world attention to their plight. It’s during these times I feel sick in my stomach and want to shout out loud to the whole world and to the Sinhalese people what a great man and a rare Gem he truly is.
I have always been interested in politics and government and was a keen follower of the Tamil Satyagraha movement; an interest triggered off at school during my Government and Politics lessons. I used to admire the Federal Party leader S.J.V Chelvanayakam [1]; I watched him in awe as he took his walks in Galle Face Green, he was then already suffering from Parkinson’s disease. When I was a little girl I remember one of his sons, Vaseeharan was my uncle’s good friend; and they used to study together in our veranda. SJV was the darling of the Tamil Nation and mine too and Brian to me was the Sinhala equivalent.
There was a time when I only heard of him, read about him and of course admired everything about him from a far for I had never met Dr Brian Senewiratne at that point. I couldn’t believe that there even existed one such rare specimen of Sinhala origin, that I know of, who genuinely cared for the welfare of the Tamils as much as he cared for the wellbeing of his own Sinhala brethren; someone who could feel so passionately for the rights of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka the way he does.
I have so much respect and reverence for him that I cannot bring myself to calling him Brian, even after we have become so very close; sometimes I do try but don’t feel comfortable doing it.