An open letter to D.B.S. Jeyaraj

 Friday, 20 December 2013

I have not received any response to my earlier e mail re the subject Tussle in North between governor and Chief Minister. Hence I am sending this open letter to you. Please publish this e mail response to you and send me your response. 

Your 10 page essay is like that of a paid advocate defending murderers. In your wisdom, you have given copious criticisms of the elected Tamil Justice Wigneswaran, but none for the ex military Singhalese governor. Your integrity is questionable.. Don’t you think Chandrasri and Rajapakse also need your wisdom? You seem to presume that Chandrsri and Rajapakse are infallible and can do no wrong and only Justice Wigneswaea and TNA have to correct themselves.

The truth is that it is the story of the Singhalese wolf and Tamil lamb. What you are doing is trying to find justification for the wolf to devour the Tamil lamb. You have assumed the role of a sycophant. Pray tell me what do you gain by your type of journalism. Rajapakse tried to deny the people of the North , their rights to autonomy, but was forced by India to hold the elections. Having held the elections, he is now doing all in his powers to scuttle it, and people like you are giving him as smoke screen.

Below are reasons why Governor Chandrasri should have gone long ago and now should do so without further delay.:

On September 21, 2013 the Northern Tamils voted and said NO loud and clear, to the administration of Governor Chandrasri and Rajapakse government. They said enough is enough. Chandrsri had been the military commander of Jaffna and had been instrumental in many Tamil deaths. He was commandant of the concentration camps where 300,000 Tamil civilians who surrendered were incarcerated behind barbed wire and Singhalese armed guards in inhuman conditions without toilets and running water. After the LTTE surrendered on May 19, 2013, Chandrasri served as Governor of Northern Province, during which time many Tamils were abducted in white vans and killed mercilessly by army and paramilitary thugs. Chandasri is an accused war criminal against whom there is a prima facie case, which has to be investigated. You are pretending not to know these facts. Why should not TNA as the people’s representative ask for his removal.? You cannot deny that he is a military man

Chadrasri, as governor had openly supported government candidates, which is highly improper. Any respectable man would have resigned as soon as the election verdict was known, but this accused criminal clings on like a leech and makes mattes difficult for he Chief Minister. His departure is long overdue. You have an agenda in holding a brief for this criminal Chandrasri, and you should come clean. He has Tamil blood on his hands and should go.

You blame the diaspora as if TNA and Wigneswaran are not capable of making their own decision. This is a pet subject and litany of the Singhalese extremists, which you are parroting.. According to the constitution, a governor can be removed by the provincial council. The NPC has passed a resolution to that effect; so should you not advise Chandrsri to go ? Why not ? Does not the will of the people prevail ?

You know the standing of Justice Wigneswaran and Chandrsri. The former is a man of impeccable record. The latter is an accused war criminal given immunity my the corrupt Rajapakse government. Why do you expect Wigneswaran to keep going for dialogue with Chandrasri for everything.. Why don’t you ask Chandrsri to have dialogue with Justice Wigneswaran. Should the elected Chief Minister go to the governor every time a decision has to be made. Shouldn’t the governor let the Chief Minister run the province for the benefit of the people,

What is wrong with NPC establishing departments of housing and transport ? Why is Chandrsri up in arms against it. Is he correct in summoning NPC staff and warning them not to carry out orders of the Chief Minister. Chandrsri should have had a dialogue with Chief Minister if he had any doubts. Is it not wrong for the governor to give counter instructions and undermine the discipline of the staff. On the contrary, you have given an unsolicited clean character certificate to Chandrsri.

You mention that the NPC Chief Secretary R. Viyayalakshmi, who is only taking orders from Governor Chadrsri and refusing to co operate with the Chief Minister, is granddaughter of Vaithilingam Durasamy. Does that give her a halo of sanctity and infallibility. Is she not an opportunist pandering to Singhalese chauvinism. ?

You are saying because TNA decided to support Sarath Fonseka as President, which was because they had to chose the lesser evil, now TNA cannot ask for the removal of an accused war criminal. You are going out of the way to hold a brief for the accused criminal Chandrasri. What is your motive.?

As a fellow Tamil I am ashamed of your behavior. You say that President wanted to do this and that. The whole world knows what a dishonest man he is, changing his word and going back on his promises. You are painting the president as a nice well meaning man whereas he is cheating the Tamil people. Why cannot Rajapakse appoint a Tamil or a Singhalese civilian as a governor with the concurrence of the Chief Minister ? It is you who are engaged in cheap journalism.

You are saying that army and the ex military governor have to be eased out slowly. Did Rajapakse promise to do that ? He has publicly said that he will not remove the army from the north. So you are conveying wrong and misleading information to the reading public. You say that other provincial councils have averted friction. Are you so dumb as not to know that the whole problem is that Singhalese do not want to give powers to a Tamil province. In your wisdom don’t you realize that Chandrasri is a military man, and Rajapakse should never have appointed him as governor of Northern Province. At least after the election he should have been removed. You are giving lame excuses for sabotaging anti Tamil actions of Chandrasri and Rajapakse

Are you not aware that Rajapakse was trying to scrap provincial councils to prevent Tamils having a little autonomy and India had to force him to hold NPC elections. Don’t you know that Chandrsri is hell bent on preventing NPC from delivering their promises to the Tamil people. This is triumphalism. Acceeding to people’s request cannot be described as ‘caving in’. That is democracy. What is his problem in acting on the wishes of Tamil people in their own traditional home. Are the Singhalese justified in showing their arrogance to the Tamil minority and do you have to hold ‘pantham’.

If Chandrsri wants to show that he has the whip hand and he will run the show, then what is the use of having elections. Where is the devolution and where is the reconciliation.
What is your objective in asking the Chief Minister to go cringing after Chandrasri when he is causing so much problems. An elected Chief Minister deserves more respect. Don’t you think that Tamils need to be treated with some self respect. Justice Wigneswaran was justified in refusing to sit and co chair meetings with a man like Douglas Devananda, who has criminal records .Douglas Devanada wants to sanitise himself by sitting with Justice Wigneswaran.

I can only request you not to indulge in partisan and low level journalism to earn a living.. You should change the tone of your writings in future to avoid damaging the Tamil cause.

S. Makenthiran