Now that the Rev Selvadurai Jeyanesan never became the Bishop of the JDCSI which he so badly wanted to be, this confidence trickster who milks millions worldwide under false pretense seeks to revenge-thrive on evil rumours against the JDCSI and Jaffna College authorities. He began this campaign several months ago when he felt his bid for bishopric was going to be tough. 
(November, 02, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) An utterly false and mischievous rumour was let loose amidst the JDCSI Diaspora community that Jaffna College funds were being used to fight court cases against the Jeyanesan rebels. It is understood even the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds who for some strange and intolerable reasons conduct their affairs like a secret society – more Masonic than the Masons themselves – appear to have got hooked on this thoroughly implausible tale. The latest tactics of the trustees appear to be to force the Jaffna College authorities into submission to their conditions by resorting to some kind of blackmail still unwilling to understand and appreciate that the funds belong to Jaffna College and this is no American charity.The Trustees of Jaffna College Funds are a fiduciary organization that obtain, hold and manage funds that belong to Jaffna College. They are obligated to the Jaffna College Board of Directors and none other and through this legally incorporated board, to the people of the Jaffna District of Sri Lanka.
It is of course very much in the American psyche to believe tall stories and Jeyanesan, the ace confidence trickster with a bogus doctorate in theology and the shamming charmer has exploited this to such great advantage for himself that he has milked millions out of foreign church people and several other individuals and organizations not only in the US but in Europe and Israel as well. None of them are accounted for, and he takes a ‘who cares head-in-the-clouds tra la la la’ attitude in this respect.
Another wrong impression that gathered grounds during the past year or so was that it is the JDCSI leadership that is involved in filing court cases against the rebels while the opposite is true. On Monday 29, 2007, the Jeyanesan dissidents in Colombo lost yet another case they had filed as plaintiffs when they tried to challenge the authority of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India (JDCSI) in respect of the ownership and management of its church in Colombo.
They had even filed court actions in India against the Church of South India with no success and with such regularity as an anopheles mosquito carrying the vicious virus bent on getting its sip of blood. In other words, it is the Jeyanesan dissidents who are using funds meant for “widowed mothers, orphans and the war-replaced” in court actions that do not help them at all.
Some weeks ago, the JDCSI was forced to seek the assistance of the court for a Declaratory Order when the Jeyanesan dissidents tried to lay claim to its assets. It appears the Wider Church Ministries of the United Church of Christ (WCM-UCC) the successors of the United Church Board for World Missions (UCBWM) who took over from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM)have had their facts all knotted, distorted and twisted about the American Ceylon Mission. They seem bent on offering support for the JDCSI to split up giving credence to the increasing belief that the Americans may perhaps be suffering toxic trauma with too much chemicals in their food and environment and are therefore incapable of responsible decisions. Their thinking capacity must be chemically crumbling or considerably corroded. How else can one explain the stand of the WCM-UCC in respect of the JDCSI? Is this as bad as President George Bush being in Iraq and now wants to go to Iran or worse? The WCM-UCC is committed to unity and yet seems so determined to cause a major split in the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India.
In the nearly two hundred years of relationship the American missionaries have had with the people of Jaffna there has never been an effort made by any mission organization to seek out a fraudster and a cheat and support him against an institution that has developed so well and become a natural part of the people of Sri Lanka. There was an exceptional situation when the Batticotta Seminary was closed in 1855 but that was a mission policy decision in the US and an unfortunate one at too, but no traitor from Jaffna was involved in that move. It is not so today and Jeyanesan appears to hold regular conspiratorial cabals in Canada where all his five surviving siblings and their families live.
Apart from certain disgruntled JDCSI elements in Canada who have lost their clout, it is known that Jeyanesan has also maneuvered and manipulated a team of Sri Lankan Tamils in California, USA most of them doctors and Hindus into supporting his projects in Batticaloa having approached them as a priest of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India. They are totally unaware of what he has been trying to do to the JDCSI because he failed to become its bishop. They wouldn’t even know these funds never go to the JDCSI and for its work but to Jeyanesan’s accounts in various parts of the world.
What he offers to them as his efforts in Eastern Sri Lanka are a set of showroom projects that are receiving repetitive funding helped by operations as dark as the ink a quid emits to escape his predator. It is very possible, for example, he may have received funding for a set of computers several times over but each donor will be under the impression that he paid for it. How else will he know that he was being duped as the others too are because there are no accounts to reveal the real position?
There was also the case of two warehouses of goods gifted from overseas sources for distribution to various areas of needs soon after the tsunami that were converted to cash despite protests from some of his co-workers in that area. Jeyanesan’s excuse was that the people for whom they were intended would sell these goods to hawkers who infested such warehouse surrounds like hyenas to obtain their Colombo pavement supplies at great bargains. Which parent will deny his child an infant formula in such a situation? And for that matter basic food rations, water or even a tent during that monsoonal period?
Arrogantly defying the discipline of his church to which he should have been fully submitted, over a period of ten years or more Jeyanesan has tapped so many sources for finances and none of them have been transparent nor has he accounted them to his principals, the JDCSI in any form. He was desperate to become the head of the JDCSI for the mere reason that he could tide over this problem. Having failed in this bid, he now wants a church of his own to continue with his fund collecting activities and not having to account for them. He has his followers at his beck and call and also provides shade and succour to those who want to give vent to their feelings against the JDCSI, some of them for the strangest of reasons.
One such feels that his chances of becoming the bishop of the JDCSI one day in the future have been nailed for ever. It is certainly too much to ask for two bishops in the same family especially after three sisters have had their children sponsored for Vellore medical scholarships for three successive years, one of them a bishop’s!
The general feeling is that no point is served in reporting Jeyanesan to the Inland Revenue or the Crimes authorities because corruption being so high in Sri Lanka, Jeyanesan could buy them with his millions meant for “widowed mothers, orphans and the war-replaced” and whatever action taken against him by individuals in the community or a group may be counterproductive; worse, even invite violence against them.
The circumstances under which a man who demanded the accounts of the Kilinochchi YMCA was shot dead some years ago when Jeyanesan was the circuit priest there is often referred to as an incident that effectively shuts up voices that are capable of challenging him. He has also some frontline heavy-muscled buddies from his cassocked gentry capable of violence. They proved this when they forcibly took over a worship service in Colombo forcing the resident priest, a lady, to sit glued to the altar chair throughout the service.
There are several incidents when he served as the circuit priest at Kilinocchchi that are shrouded in highly worrying mysteries. The finding of the burnt account books that were in his keep and demanded for inspection, the jeep that went up in flames one night and a vicious near-fatal attack on one of his priest colleagues considered as a possible candidate for the bishopric are just three of them. A Jeyanesan colleague even had the cheek and temerity to react to the fire by claiming it was providential.
During the recent ordination Jeyanesan conducted as the alleged head of the newly formed Church of the American Ceylon Mission hardly any of the candidates for priesthood have had proper seminary education. Some of them indeed are his storm troopers equipped with brand new motor cycles to be something like a flying squad to attend to his needs. Jeyanesan seems confident that with money he can achieve anything and even worse, his standing is reckoned only in terms of dollars that he can throw around; his hangers-on must certainly have canine instincts. Being the head of a church is an altogether different matter that is obviously beyond his comprehension.
Some months ago a package of crisp US dollar notes, a box of chocolates packed neatly with two of Scotland’s famous brew of single malt special failed to obtain the desired objective; he was foolish to apply his own formulas to other people. This was an attempt to bribe a top Church of South India official to help him get the bishopric of the JDCSI. When one becomes convinced that money can buy anything, his conduct tends to lack good judgment and could even lead to hasty and horrible decisions. Since he was in such great hurry to get the bishopric at any cost with the Rev Dr Daniel Thiagarajah running close and his age being a factor, it was evident Jeyanesan was desperate to be chosen without any delay.
The uttermost cause for the failure of his bid for bishopric was the courageous stand taken by an angry young priest, the Rev Sebastian Anthony for comprehensively commendable reasons. On the floor of the 2005 Diocesan Council sessions he stated the reasons why he was determined to ensure Jeyanesan never took the maroon. If not for his attempted misdemeanor against his wife when the Rev Anthony was away from his home, Jeyanesan could have made it.
A year earlier at the Bangalore Synod of the Church of South India Jeyanesan assailed a dumbstruck Mrs Jebanesan stating that her husband, Bishop Jebanesan would go into hiding like Saddam Hussein in a year and a half confident he would be bishop by that time. “If your husband is mad,’ he lambasted her, “do you think we are mad?” The last few months of Bishop Jebanesan’s bishopric were plagued with many threats and the sources of these harassments were hardly ever in doubt.
Jeyanesan is often paraded by some overseas people as one who had the option to flee Sri Lanka and make good in another country just like his siblings. They are mostly folks he met on his fund-raising tours. It shows how knowledgeable or rather ignorant such people are about ground realities where Jeyanesan held court for over a decade albeit without subjecting himself to the discipline of the JDCSI.
“A calling filled with deadly danger” was the title of a feature by a certain A Muller who said, “Rev Jeyanesan wants to stay in the battle-zone of Sri Lanka” since he believes that ‘the church has the task to care for the poor, the orphans and the widows.” Muller emphasized that even though “the 51-year old pastor has had the opportunity to escape to Canada, just like his six brothers and sisters, he had another option and that is to supervise “the work of the St John’s Church in the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India.” Said Jeyanesan: “But I stay in Sri Lanka in order to help the church and the poor.” He considers this as a privilege to him. Muller also stated in his feature that Pastor Jeyanesan belongs to the Church of South India and it is in the name of its diocese in Jaffna, he had the status and respectability to travel around and accepted as a priest of an established church.
Muller added: “The call that the church has is a call full of danger. The church has to be prepared to be wounded.” Ironically, it is this very Jeyanesan who has wounded this church and as if that is not enough is determined to split it and even made proclamation that the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India is not alive as from July 3, 2007. This is the only outcome that will help him to keep the millions he has collected to date and or campaigned for without having to account for them.
Today this man works as a traitor to this very church whose name he has used to amass his millions. As has been his practice, the JDCSI was kept in the dark about funds sent to him from Down Under too. An appeal for funds supported by a Lions Club in Australia stated that a sum of Australian pounds 9,300 was sent to Rev Jeyanesan. In addition a further sum of approximately 2000 was sent to him making their overall total contribution around Australian pounds 16,000.
Speaking for this Australian fund, Trevor Thevarajah said that their next project will also be to support the Rev Jeyanesan. He said: “When I spoke with him yesterday, he said that there is an urgent requirement for school uniforms and mattresses for these children. They were washed away during the Tsunami. The uniforms cost around Australian pounds 3.00 and the mattresses are around three times that price. The requirement is for about 400 uniforms and about 1000 mattresses. So collecting for these will be our next project. Please respond generously.”
Strangely enough among the relief items he sold off for cash from the two warehouses were also pillows and mattresses.
Toni and Brian Becker from the United States who met Jeyanesan in Israel and stating that he has risked his life to live in east Sri Lanka for 20 years, have publicly informed that a Sri Lanka Relief Fund has been set up at First Community Bank of Poplar Bluff bearing the account number 00174653 to support Rev Jeyanesan’s ongoing work and ministry to the poor, orphans, and widows of the east coast. This note also stated that all funds collected will be sent directly to Rev Jeyanesan. His dear friend, Eric J Parkinson, a Jewish lawyer, has web-advertised that those who want to know how to get involved with his work in Sri Lanka should contact VeAhavta, a nonprofit organization in San Luis Obispo, California. VeAhavta even sponsored a month’s tour for him to speak to churches and other groups in California, Indiana, Ohio, Toronto and New York and none of such activities were authorized by his church.
A person from the Netherlands who signed as Laurens van der Tang on behalf of Ceylon Christian Care whose websites suddenly disappeared from cyberspace announced as follows June 5, 2005:
“Friends: We are glad to inform you that Rev S Jeyanesan has been successful in the examination and defence of his thesis and is to be conferred with the title “Doctor of Theology” on the 4th of June 2005 in Canada. The subject was of his dissertation was theology and mission in conflict areas. Henceforth he shall be known and called as Rev Dr Jeyanesan. This is a tremendous achievement, especially in light of the enormous amounts of work that Rev Jeyanesan has had on his shoulders in the past years. May the Lord continue to bless his labours?”
Apart from the incredible nature of this proclamation, the announcement that the doctorate would be conferred in Canada without stating by whom makes it a preposterous pretense to hoodwink people. Canada is not only the home of his many siblings and their families but also the citadel of bogus doctorates awarded to many members of the Tamil Diaspora from several suspect sources and also including the Karate University in Japan. The Rev Jeyanesan could very well be the first non-Canadian Tamil recipient of a bogus doctorate in Canada.
In a report in the Ceylon Christian Centre website, a strenuous effort, and a strange one too was made to give the impression that Jeyanesan keeps his books efficiently and is controlled by an independent auditor. His accounts should have been with the JDCSI and the independent auditor is the responsibility of the diocese and not that of Jeyanesan. Why was an effort made to refer to an independent auditor at this particular time along with the announcement of a bogus doctorate both by the same suspect organization from the Netherlands which also gifted Jeyanesan with nearly fifty thousand US dollars?
A man who has never submitted the accounts and the funds he had collected in the name of the JDCSI to his employer, and has handled large sums from various quarters must have his own financial agents and advisers. Who are they? Are they financial consultants, real estate agents or investment specialists? They cannot just be auditors. Why did he fail to instruct the donors to send the funds direct to the JDCSI?
As was laboriously campaigned, this top of the class Pajero-driving priest’s life was never exposed to any danger. Ceylon Christian Care claimed that he “is a leading person within the CSI, Sri Lanka. He is also a contact person for both the Singhalese government and the Tamil leaders.”
Jeyanesan is certainly seated atop a cave of millions with foreign funds in steady flow. He had set up a home in Chennai with his wife taking care of it to have their children, a son and daughter, educated there before moving to North America. The daughter attended one of India’s prestigious medical schools and is today doing her post-graduate studies in the US. With his family away, he draws on the residents of the Girls Home in Batticaloa to run his home and take care of his various needs. He evidently engaged himself in the generous use of funds at his disposal because he was so sure of becoming the bishop of the JDCSI and also had the urge, capacity and the source to give generous support to his family.
Son of a local school headmaster with a large family from a rural township in Valigamam, North Sri Lanka, he and his siblings have done exceptionally well in their generation itself despite all the problems of the country and their displacement entirely from Sri Lanka to Canada. On the refugee trail from Sri Lanka to Canada, one of his nephews got drowned in Thailand.
Most Tamils went overseas at great cost and supported their people back at home with their hard-earned funds. Jeyanesan on the other hand stayed in Sri Lanka and supported his siblings, their families and his children abroad with funds that he generously made available to them. He is constantly on travel, so much so, someone once commented Jeyanesan will soon earn his name in the Guinness Book Records as the largest earner of Air Miles.
Victor Karunairajan, a journalist with extensive East-West experience has had an exciting career having worked with Anglican, CSI and Catholic institutions, a Buddhist organization and a socialist government in as many as seven countries. He has been a parents' leader of Jaffna College which he served as member of its Board of Directors and for four years, a member of the Jaffna Diocesan Council. Recently he wrote and published a book on the Dances of India which was very popularly received.
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