Douglas’s gravy train

Reply to Soori- Part 2

By K Sutharsan

(November 12, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The second part of Sooriyasekaram’s personal experience in Sri Lanka, whilst touching on issues in a constrained way, also exposes his deliberate attempt to point score on issues that are central to the current problems in Sri Lanka .

He says ‘I never encountered any problems except once when I was stopped at 11pm by a police man and fined Rs500 for not wearing a helmet while riding a motor bike. I could not get angry for he was extremely polite in discharging his duties and I was committing a very serious offence for which I could have got fined in London £500, which was incidentally my return fare to Colombo!’ The man who admitted that he cannot speak Sinhala was only fined by the polite policeman. This writer too had been to Sri Lanka many times and passed through the security checkpoints. Speaking in English, revealing your visit to Sri Lanka from overseas and ones plumy and polished look go a long way with the security officials. These pluses are not available for the ordinary resident Tamils except for some high society Tamils in Colombo.

Jaffna peninsula is in the government control since Jayasekuru military operation of 1992. Soori cannot solely blame the LTTE for the post 1992 situation. He clearly explains the deteriorating situation without touching on the real causes for the decay. He failed to touch on the heavy military presence in Jaffna where the army: civilian ratio is 1:3. Then the sensitive issue of army controlling the large acres of fertile land is conveniently ignored by him for political reasons.

‘At the request of the newly elected Mayor of Jaffna I have taken on the task of advising her on infra structure restoration on a voluntary capacity’ says Mr Sooriyasegaram. The recently elected Mayor of Jaffna Municipality whom I know though my family contacts, does not have the capacity to reach a unknown quantity like Soori soon after her election. Instead of admitting that it was Douglas Devananda who appointed him as consultant, he appears to take cover under the Mayor.

Sooriyasegaram say’s, ‘The man at the top (Jaffna Co-op), who had swindled millions or billions over many decades, has been sacked by Douglas and is now under investigation’. This is a typical spade calling a spade story. The very same spade Douglas Devanand is swindling the Tamil community by imposing illegal taxes, running lucrative businesses without paying any taxes to the state and bankrolling money by engaging in nefarious deals and he is now engaging to deal with another little rogue spade in the co-op. Douglas’s rogue businesses include taking large sums to release IDP’s from the camps. Soori claims himself a leftist, but failed to use his acumen to compare and contrast the big thief Douglas and the petty thief the Co-op manager. Who knows the Co-op manager would get away after paying a big pagar to Douglas.

‘People are not assertive’ says Soori. How can they be assertive? Their assertiveness had gone with the dictatorial rule of the LTTE. Then they are under the military control now, unable to freely speak or conduct themselves. Following the defeat of the LTTE, the unarmed paramilitary leader Douglas is trying to replace him and take pre-eminence and the people are well aware of this. The socialite Soori must demand for conducive situation to be created, instead of pampering, panegyrising and spinning comments in favour of his new Guru Douglas.

He say’s there is corruption in the judicial system in the North. It is everyone’s knowledge the judiciary in Sri Lanka on the whole is corrupt. It is not confined to Jaffna alone. He further adds, ‘A colleague of mine, an Attorney at Law has also returned to Jaffna permanently to serve the people. He has now been appointed to advise the Mayor to deal with legal reforms, also on a voluntary basis’. Reformation of the judicial system must come from Colombo and how can it be assigned to the petty sewage cleaning municipal council of the Mayor?

‘A colleague of mine, an Attorney at Law has also returned to Jaffna permanently to serve the people. He has now been appointed to advise the Mayor to deal with legal reforms also on a voluntary basis’ is his extended comment. Who is this attorney? Is he one of the hundreds of legal men specialising in asylum cases and are dependent on the legal aid funding in the UK. Poor Mayor is so handicapped that she could not get anyone else other than Soori’s friend from London to advise her! I can only say good luck to her and possibly she can use the lawyer one day to claim asylum in the UK.

Having portrayed himself as a naïve Sri Lankan who had visited the country after 45 years, Soori reveals his true political affiliation when he said, ‘Contrary to the image that has been painted about Douglas by many, I found that he is doing really good work among the people. I do not know the rights and wrongs of his past but he is the only Tamil leader today in the North who is with the people, facing their day to day problems. He lacks professional backing. A great deal of work can be done at grass root level to empower people’.

What a corrosive comment from an educated man peddling for power, who learnt wealth of talents in his western living for the past 45 years. He tries to take cover by saying that he does not know ‘the rights and wrongs of his (Douglas’s) past’. His rights and wrongs are universally known. If Soori is unaware, he should have made inquiries to find first before aligning with him. It is unfortunate that the solicitor consultant friend too did not know that Douglas’s hand is soaked in the blood of the Tamil people.

Then the question of not permitting the opposition parties to carryout their democratic functions and taking the laws into his (Douglas) hands in the north are well reported which Soori conveniently avoided.

A man who pretends to sleep is a dangerous person than the one who is really sleeping. Soori’s pretensions are well exposed in his article.

‘The fishermen do not have to pay any taxes to the LTTE any more! No more extortions either’ says Soori. I read in a very reliable Sinhala website that Douglas is charging taxes on the fisherman like the LTTE did before. When he goes to Jaffna next time he should make further inquiries about these revelations.


I brought to the attention of the right thinking public that Soori’s visit to Sri Lanka had hidden secrets. He tried to find his way out by his pretentious projection that he had visited Sri Lanka to do some honest work. He pretended he was naïve and he saw a paradise in Sri Lanka after 45 years. His innocence is exposed now and he admits that ‘Professor Tissa Vitharane addressed a public meeting in the Jaffna campus, organised at short notice against a lot of pessimism expressed by the VC and many others’. His comment failed to mention that he was instrumental for arranging this meeting for the Douglas Devananda and his men as revealed in my previous published comments.

‘I donated Rs10, 000 with which the school has bought personalised sports bags to all of them. I was told that they were well pleased and encouraged’. Of the £100,000 claimed to be indebted to Sri Lanka, Soori has only paid Rs10,000 to the sports body and Rs500 to the policeman. This is just a meagre £60 of the £100,000 due.

His confused portrayal of the Diaspora Tamils is slap on the face of every Tamil living overseas. He says ‘People living in the west, whose children are grown up to stand on their own feet, should seriously consider returning to Sri Lanka to live and work. I am convinced that you can make a big difference to Sri Lanka. To begin with, it will be a harsh and a less comfortable environment after having lived a relatively comfortable life style in the west. But if you compare the job satisfaction and happiness factor, you cannot beat the life in Sri Lanka’. Many Diaspora Tamils have gone to Sri Lanka during the peace time. It is unfortunate that Soori did not go during that time. Before advising the wider Diaspora community, Soori should first take his wife and children first and ask them to speak the real situation facing the Tamil people without any dictates from him.

Having enthroned Douglas Devanada in the place of Prirabakaran, Soori states, ‘I was quite surprised at the statistics from the last census. Majority of people in Jaffna are Christians. This must be a new phenomenon. The majority of people in Nallur are Hindus. Virtually no muslims in Jaffna! The best person to provide an explanation for this is Prabakaran when he rises from the ashes to address the next Marveerar Thinam!’

Then the hate mongering Soori goes on to attack those Tamils who do not support his Guru Douglas Devanda. He says, ‘Occupationwise – majority are the fishing community, then farmers, then white collar workers. There is also a sizable section of people, not employed but living comfortably at the mercy of Tamils living in the west, who prop up the TNA through proxy action. This explains how TNA picking so many votes in Jaffna w/o setting foot in Jaffna’.

The man who initially found it hard to show is allegiance to his Guru Douglas Devananda goes on to make his visionary judgement for Tamils in Sri Lanka. In that he subtly admits, ‘it is essential to bring the TNA and TULF also into this alliance to ensure they work with us’ (Who is us means?) His political message is detailed for the readers: ‘It is my view that unity in the first place between EPRLF, EPDP and PLOTTE must be forged so that they can all work at grass root level effectively. It is essential to bring the TNA and TULF also into this alliance to ensure they work with us and that they do not go into an alliance with the UNP. With such an understanding, I think, we have the best chance to push the President to implement the best possible devolution proposal within a united Sri Lanka. A political solution devolving substantial and meaningful powers to the provinces is what the people need and that is what they want. A bipartisan agreement between the government and opposition on such a devolution proposal is vital’.

His pundit view goes further by demanding the Tamil and Muslim parties to compromise their positions and play a subservient role to the majority Sinhalese.

Soori, I respect your democratic right to write and express your views. I have used the very same democratic right to expose your sullied mission to undermine the very same democratic rights with the marauder who is progressing to replace Pirabakaran whom he hated. If what Pirabakaran did was wrong and condemned by your Guru, it cannot be practiced in any way by him.

Will you ask your Guru to publicly handover the weapons in his possession and whether he is prepared respond to a public scrutiny about his human rights violations as a staring point before going further to investigate about the HR violations of the government and the LTTE?

-Sri Lanka Guardian