Right to Reply: In Defence of Mr Jayadevan

by Peter Ratnadurai

(November 16, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) For years the Sri Lanka Guardian has served as an open platform for writers from all hues of the island's political spectrum. To its credit, editors act as "facilitators" of freedom of expression rather than interventionists promoting a single "cause".
On 14 November 2008 the Guardian published a "write to reply" note from Dr C Rajaratnam, a servant of the government of Sri Lanka, addressed to Mr Jayadevan, a Tamil political activist based in the United Kingdom. The note was consistent in its attempts to demean and threaten the recipient.

Dr Rajaratnam wrote: "The art of a good writer is to make something out of nothing and nothing out of something. I must congratulate Mr.Jayadevan on his skills of writing." Such a statement is against the spirit of multilateral conversation that is necessary for conflict resolution.

For sake of space, we shan't scrutinize each and every statement of the above nature; readers would have understood the gist on first reading the note concerned.

Unfortunately, adamant attempts at "character assassination" have become commonplace in the era of internet communication. Any writer who ventures into this medium ought to expect a degree of "mudslinging"; we are sure that Mr Jayadevan was prepared for such eventuality.
However, we take particular exception to the following in Dr Rajaratnam's note:

"Let him be advised not to continue this mud slinging campaign against a Government Cabinet Minister who reserves the right to inform the Interpol through the C.I.D. to charge him under the British Terrorism Law for creating unrest and inciting the people by his advocating racial hatred and making allegations against a duly elected Government and President."

The above is a worrying deviation from the usual "school boy spats" consisting of name-calling and photo-morphing.

Mr Jayadevan is known to call a spade a spade; with little care for whom the spade belonged to. He is a rarity in a world of partisan politics where even murders are justified on the basis of "party patriotism".

In conjunction with the reference to Mr Jayadevan being a Sri Lankan passport holder, we feel that the note is a direct attempt to silence a distinguished political activist.

For the purpose of continued dialogue, we welcome Dr Rajaratnam's opinions while calling on him to desist from bully boy behaviour. - Sri Lanka Guardian