Is it the American psyche to support autocrats and agents of corruption in the developing countries?
They are therefore, it seems, straining as hard as possible with threats virtually amounting to blackmail to sort this problem out and make contacts and relationship with the mini Marcoses and Imeldas and even mini Somozas added to them. The latest information from the US is that if Annappah Jeyarajah is not facilitated to leave for the US in two weeks time, their annual meeting will be cancelled. How juvenile these Americans can be even after their politicians have made so much mess in the developing world by such an attitude?by Victor Karunairajan
(October 15, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) Just like Washington has promiscuous enthusiasm for Third World autocrats who wreak havoc to the countries of the region, Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and the detested Somoza family in Nicaragua being just two of the many examples of it, this paradigm seems very much ingrained in the American psyche.
In recent times two US organizations that are linked to us, one for nearly two hundred years and the other for about 130 years, the Wider Church Ministries of the United Church of Christ (WCM-UCC) and the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds (TJCF) respectively seem to have opted for such a pattern. May be it was always there or more precisely at least for some years now when these organizations may have worked hand in glove with those among us smart enough to exploit certain privileges for themselves as well. Crumbs do have their effects and get the results desired. But of course at the price of honour, pride and dignity!
Key people in both these organizations would have maintained relationships in a manner that served narrower and strident interests. If, for example, the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds should publish a list of people who have benefited during the last four decades in the form of scholarships, travel and other perks, equally whatever they have given as grants to organizations outside and without the knowledge of the Jaffna College Board of Directors, such information will have shocking eruptions and tsunamic reverberations.
One will certainly want to know how that assistance had, has or would be helping the educational development of the people of the Jaffna District which was the founding ideal of Jaffna College. It was for this purpose, the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds was launched as a fiduciary trust in the US with the initial funding for the trust raised in Sri Lanka
If not for the fact the Executive Minister of WCM-UCC Dr Cally Rogers-Witte had conducted herself both foolishly and arrogantly, Father Sellathurai Jeyanesan would never have dared to cause a split in the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India (JDCSI). How she has behaved and even conducted herself despite being clearly made to understand that her contention about the American Ceylon Mission was totally flawed marks her as imprudent and arrogant.
So much so, she is now known in the JDCSI circles as “Calamity Cally,” and calamity she sure is without an iota of doubt. She has caused colossal calamities to the JDCSI and nearly wrecked a handiwork of two centuries. Fortunately, providence had other plans and may be a purge was inevitable. How this writer wishes this lady be vigorously pursued by the JDCSI authorities and sued with an appropriate court action for damages!
The WCM-UCC is also believed to get a sizeable annual fund support from the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds who were not established to support US organizations. This is immoral, unethical and totally unacceptable.
Just like Calamity Cally is “Godmother” to Father Sellathurai Jeyanesan who has millions to be settled with the JDCSI, the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds have their “Godchild” as well. He is Annappah Jeyarajan who served as the treasurer of the JDCSI but fled with Father Jeyanesan without accounting for millions of rupees and also not submitting all the financial documents pertaining to that office.
US customs authorities found Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, thanks to President Ronald Reagan, carried away with them an incredible loot of the wealth of the people of the Philippines including boxes of gold bars. In the same vein it appears we have here a minimarcosian operation here!
In matters concerning Jaffna College, there is not the slightest doubt that the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds can only deal with the Jaffna College Board of Directors. But instead, they appoint their agents from Jaffna unilaterally and totally ignore the Jaffna College Board of Directors. All these years they possibly were able to key in and programme people from Sri Lanka to suit their needs and plans but suddenly must have found this would not be possible anymore.
They are therefore, it seems, straining as hard as possible with threats virtually amounting to blackmail to sort this problem out and make contacts and relationship with the mini Marcoses and Imeldas and even mini Somozas added to them. The latest information from the US is that if Annappah Jeyarajah is not facilitated to leave for the US in two weeks time, their annual meeting will be cancelled. How juvenile these Americans can be even after their politicians have made so much mess in the developing world by such an attitude?
Mr Jeyarajan is not a member of the trustees board and participation at this annual meeting is more a formal tea party in Boston to keep some people happy with travel and other perks. But holding an Annual General Meeting cannot be avoided as threatened; it is the law in the State of Massachusetts. The trustees could fool some people most of the time and there are those who prefer that relationship for the dividends they get but only by selling their soul. Some of the very people who exploited Jaffna College and the JDCSI are active in the anti-JDCSI camp.
Anyway, what has Annappah Jeyarajan got to do with the Annual General Meeting of the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds? It would be somewhat like the UN General Secretary inviting the driver of the Udara Rata Menike, the Up country Express Train, to represent Sri Lanka at the General Assembly with his added qualification of illegal transporter of tea chests? A felon will always dance to the tune of his provider.
There is absolutely no question about how the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds, a fiduciary trust, should conduct themselves. Both the TJCF and Jaffna College are incorporated bodies in their respective countries and their commitment to each other is clearly defined. The TJCF cannot remove itself in any way from its obligations to Jaffna College; its very existence is being in active partnership with the Jaffna College Board of Directors. As a matter of fact, the responsibility of directing how best funds are used and how the trustees can meet such needs has primacy with the Jaffna College Board of Directors.
The responsibility of the trustees is solely to obtain, hold and manage the funds to meet the needs of Jaffna College. The TJCF through Jaffna College, is under obligation to serve the educational needs of the people of the Jaffna District in Sri Lanka. The Trustees also overlooked such obligations in respect of the Uduvil Girls College, an institution, unlike Jaffna College, belongs to the JDCSI. Instead of dealing with the Jaffna College Board of Directors, the Trustees tried to have direct dealings with its principal, Mrs Shiranee Mils.
She too has fled from the JDCSI to the camp of Father Jeyanesan and has literally refused to work under her employers, the Board of Directors of the Uduvil Girls College, an organization that functions under the JDCSI.
In the case of Annappah Jeyarajan he has not accounted for the funds of the JDCSI and audited accounts have not been submitted to the Jaffna Diocesan Council. This is long overdue now. He has appropriated the fixed deposit certificates kept in his custody as treasurer of the diocese and this amounts to over forty million rupees.
Annappah Jeyarajan has released loans to presbyters and several unauthorized persons totaling 1.4 million rupees. He had no authority to give away these moneys without the approval of the Finance Committee of the JDCSI. He has also released loans to himself, his brother and to laypersons in the village of Vaddukoddai.
There is the troubling question of certain tsunami funds that is creating a deal of concern. On the request of the Rev James Jeyakumar, a colleague of Dr Cally Rogers-Witte on behalf of the WCM-UCC for a post-tsunami housing project at Thumpalai near Point Pedro with the promise of reimbursement, Annappah Jeyarajan released nine million rupees from another fund of the JDCSI.
This particular operation was handled by Mr Jeyarajan and Mrs Shiranee Mills but the promised reimbursement has not emerged yet and it is also now known that Dr Cally-Rogers-Witte herself is unawares of this arrangement. The Rev James Jeyakumar serves as the Secretary of the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds and a friend of Father Jeyanesan.
Annappah Jeyarajan is the brother of the hoodlum priest Annappah Jeyakumar who himself has been blackmarked with financial frauds and other indiscretions unbecoming of a person in religious vestments. He is the deputy head of the rebel church which seems to enjoy the sympathies of both, the WCM-UCC and the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds.
Whether with Washington or for that matter any other place in the US, the American psyche seems clearly on the side of the disruptive forces of the developing world. Imagine Annappah Jeyarajan, an employee of Jaffna College being considered as the agent of the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds ignoring altogether the very organization that they must work with as partners!
Imagine WCM-UCC which stands for unity of the church, supporting vigorously a man who has fled his church with millions in his pockets just because he was not made the bishop! In the American psyche these autocrats and virtual plunderers of their communities and countries are evidently acclaimed at all levels of the US society. They are the smart ones and they have no scruples whatsoever. But then, they cringe, crawl and grovel for the crumbs at the level at which the Americans keep them to serve their ego. If things go awry, they will also not hesitate to saddamize them. - Sri Lanka Guardian
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