We specially remember Mayor Alfred Durayappah today

Note from the Editors of Sri Lanka Guardian: We understood that an Alfred Duryappah Foundation is being planned to help needy kids of the Jaffna Municipality twinned with a city in the south and to help kids of that municipality too in the name of a good man

By Satchi Sithananthan from Frankfurt

(May 17, Franfirt, Sri Lanka Guardian) On a July morning 1975, a dastardly crime was committed in the precincts of Sri Varadarajah Temple in Ponnalai in the Vaddukoddai electorate and not far from the home of Mr Appapillai and Mrs Mangayakarasi Amirthalingam. The victim of this heartless and callous crime was the good Mayor of Jaffna, Alfred Durayappah and one who was loved by most of the citizen community of Jaffna.

The way he spontaneously helped people in need is legendary. He could be easily approached, friendly, witty and jovial and extremely humble, a man who could not have had enemies.

This was all the reason why his killing was utterly base and reprehensible. In a way, it was a crime committed in consequence to certain politicians who could not stomach his popularity and the winning of the prized electorate of Jaffna against such stalwarts as G G Ponnambalam of the Tamil Congress and C X Martin of the Federal Party. He was also the first Member of Parliament from the north who enjoyed a national stature.

He had a great impact on Mrs Srimavo Bandaranaike and was largely influential in her determination to found the University of Jaffna. Over the Tamil Research Conference which Mrs Bandaranaike offered to hold it as a major national event in Colombo but refused by the organizers and held in Jaffna, a tragic incident was conveniently and viciously blamed on Alfred Duryappah.

Although he was the Mayor of Jaffna at that time, the politically motivated organizers did not invite him and when the crowd got unruly over some unconnected incident, the police had to intervene to control. At one point, the police fired in the air warning the crowd to get back but unfortunately a life wire got cut and when it touched ground some people were electrocuted.

Without checking what really caused this tragedy, Mayor Duryappah was maliciously blamed as responsible for it. During those years it was a common feature especially on the platforms of the Federal Party to make hostile and inciting speeches against those who opposed them and almost always they were based on lies with mischief intended.

Some Federal Party speakers were utterly rabid and that included Mangayakarasi Amirthalingam. It was a pity that the Tamil community remained silent without demanding decency and decorum on public platforms.

There were many young people who would get incited by these irresponsible politicians and indulged in acts of violence. We see such types even today among the young pro-LTTE protesters in Toronto, London, The Hague, Paris, Berlin and even Oslo. Nothing has changed in that respect; in fact it had become worse.

Velupillai Prabhakaran was one such guy playing around with guns and indulging in petty crimes from stealing bicycles and later robbing banks. He was a regular visitor to the home of the Amirthalingams in the mid-1970s and it is generally believed that it was during such visits, the idea to decimate Alfred Duryappah was planned and involved in it was also the older son of the Amirthalingams, Kandeepan.

Alfred Duryappah though a Christian he also respected the faiths of others and made a habit of his to visit the Vaishnavite Sri Varadarajah Temple regularly and this was pretty well known. He honoured his Muslim friends too in this manner.

But on that July day 1975, tragedy was awaiting him. Prabhakaran and two of his associates had decided that was the day they will pull the trigger on a good and kindly man. What he did on that day never stopped until finally after thirty four years of hundreds of killings by him and thousands of killings by those whom he led on this bloody journey, he has been finally silenced.

Apart from leaders from outside the Tamil community, he has killed whoever he felt was an obstacle to his crazy belief that he and he alone should be the sole voice of the Tamils and he alone should be the master of an Eelam State.

The killing of Alfred Duryappah was an act of a mad man. That being so, how come that he had such a following over the years and even demonstrations supporting him in some of the countries of the west? Why was he so important to them? Are the young people who have been organizing and conducting these demonstrations in London, Toronto, Paris and other cities aware that the killing tracks of Prabhakaran began in the sacred precincts of a temple where a kindly mayor who made a great difference to the civic citizens of Jaffna City had gone to worship?

This same Prabhakaran has also been responsible for the killing of the very people who nurtured him from a school dropout into public life but unfortunately not with an ideology but a revolver in his hands. Just as the adage goes those who use the sword perish by it.

Note: It is understood that an Alfred Duryappah Foundation is being planned to help needy kids of the Jaffna Municipality twinned with a city in the south and to help kids of that municipality too in the name of a good man.

-Sri Lanka Guardian