Who is the black sheep?

by Our London correspondent

(December 06, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) United National Party parliamentarian Dr Jayalath Jayawardene has become the scapegoat for the reckless behaviour of the President Mahinda Percy Rajapakse to visit London against the advice of the Sri Lanka High Commission and the intelligence sources. Disrespecting their advice not to risk a trip to London, the foolhardy President embarked on a mission even the Emperor Napoleon would have thought inappropriate.

The President’s visit coincided with the visit of Dr Jayalath Jayawardene to the EU countries. His first visit was to the UK where he was one of the key note speakers and participated in the discussion that followed in the House of Commons.

The meeting was exclusively attended by Sri Lankans. The meeting had no interests to British parliamentarians or the media. An appropriate forum to hear the opposite views to the Sri Lanka governments praises and almost all of those attending were from the majority Sinhala community.

At the time of anti-President demonstrations were held, Dr Jayalath Jayawardene was in Italy.

The government wanted scapegoats and Dr Jayalath Jayawardene was the easy pray. His outspoken stand for justice and fair-play put him in collision course with the government and his maverick politicians were hell bent on revenge taking on him. This is not the first time Dr Jayalath Jayawardene went through the life threatening experience. During Chandrika Banaranayake’s presidency too, he went through the harrowing experience over his outspoken stand.

On this occasion, the government and its mavericks used all available resources against him. In addition to threat of physical violence in the parliament, they used a Tamil source to point that Dr Jayalath Jayawardene is anti-patriotic and was scandalised in the media.

The Sri Lanka Guardian in its report ‘Who is the female writer from London giving false information about Dr JJ to the Colombo media (link) exposed the scandal involving female the Tamil writer without naming her for security reasons.

But the Sunday Observer published (5/12) in Sri Lanka revealed the name of the writer in its news titled ‘Anti-Lanka role exposed’ and stated that Mrs.Subramaniam castigated the parliamentarian at the House of Commons meeting. Mrs Subramaniam introduced in the write up as ‘a well known member of the Tamil diaspora in London....actively organizing humanitarian aid for internally displaced Tamils during the height of the conflict, particularly during the final stages of the humanitarian operation.’

The Observer also quoted her saying: ‘I told him (Dr Jayalath Jayawardene) I was there during the last stages, when the people escaped from the LTTE and witnessed how Sinhalese and Muslim communities got together to help the Tamils, so don’t utter nonsense.’

Who is this Mrs Subramaniam. She is the well-known (within certain circles) Mrs Rajeswary Balasubramaniam and also known as Mrs Rajes Bala, who always propagate herself as the writer and a women’s rights campaigner. Since 2008 she has established a cosy relationship with the Defence Establishment of Sri Lanka.

She has access to the President and many ministers and at the taps of the telephone dialling will access the Defence Secretary Gotabaya Ralapakse, Basil Rajapakse and the Army Intelligence head Brigadier Hendawitharane.

She is a regular visitor to the Sri Lanka High Commission in London and is managed by the Deputy High Commissioner and former intelligence officer P M Hamsa. She attends most of the campaign meetings that Sri Lanka High Commission instruct her to attend.

She was at the President’s tea party at the High Commission, a meeting that was arranged to substitute the cancelled Oxford Union meeting on December 2. 2010 at the Sri Lanka High Commission.

The President at the tea-party at the High Commission.

The reporter approached one of those involved in the meeting at the House of Commons on November 25, 2010. He provided a written statement on the meeting and asked not to reveal his name until such time necessary.

He stated:

‘I cannot understand why Mrs Rajesh Balasubramaniam has contacted the Sunday Observer and told such utter lies about Dr. Jayalath Jayawardana and the meeting at the House of Commons …….. (held) on 25th November 2010.

I took some notes at the meeting and these were the following points highlighted by Dr. Jayalath Jayawardana:

No Justice for Tamil People.

No peace in Sri Lanka.

APRC Process - "Eye Wash" - What has happened to the APRC?

Basil Rajapakse's 13+ proposal was futile.

The recent visit by British Parliamentarians was a guided tour. They were fed with nice Biriyani at the Temple Tree's.

Tamil detainee's were being mistreated.

KP factor and the 5 Star treatment he receives at the hand of the Government.

Inter Parliamentarian Union in Geneva (Linked to the UN) claim 10 Sri Lankan MP's of the TNA including himself lives were at risk.

Sarath Fonseka's detainment - No proper facilities were rendered.

The following points were made by Dr Wikramabahu Karunaratne:

He claimed that 100,000 civilians were killed in Sri Lanka – A Criminal Act by the Government.

North and East were under military dictatorship.

Even the South suffers from state terror and thugs.

He stated that Mahinda Rajapakse made instructions to Generals to procure weapons by any means. Sarath Fonseka's son-in-law's life was put at risk because the LTTE intelligence would have known about this and the fact that he was involved in the procurement process of weapons. Dr Wikramabahu Karunaratne found this ironic.

Dr Roger Srivasan (UNP organiser in UK) stated that sanctions ought to be imposed in Sri Lanka which was supported by Dr Jayalath Jayawardana and Dr Wikramabahu Karunaratne. However at no point did either of them mention that sanctions should be imposed in Sri Lanka.

According to information obtained through confidential sources in the Sri Lanka High Commission Mrs Rajeswari Balasubramaniam receives financial rewards from the Government of Sri Lanka and the airfares for her regular trips to the island are paid by the Mission.

According to the Sunday Observer ‘Subramaniam, a well known member of the Tamil diaspora in London was actively organizing humanitarian aid for internally displaced Tamils during the height of the conflict, particularly during the final stages of the humanitarian operation.’ Mrs Subramaniam is said to be well known within certain circles in the Tamil Diaspora and the claim that she did humanitarian work during the height of the conflict is heavily disputed by her associates. According to her alleys, she attempts to take credit for the work they had undertaken by purely aligning with them. One said ‘she is an absolute nuisance to work with’.

She was sent by the Sri Lankan High Commission to attend a meeting at the House of Commons attended some MP’s a year ago. Whilst the meeting was in progress, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Hon Simon Hughes MP entered from the back of the room to speak at the meeting. On seeing him Mrs Balasubramanian became hysteric and screamed at Hon Simon Hughes MP without any respect and regard for him or care for any standard of behaviour and said ‘I know! You are a Tiger, I know! You are a Tiger……….’. She caused so much embarrassment in the parliament and the organizers had to intervene to cool her down to prevent her making any vituperation against the MP.

In the London based Tamil Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) phoning programme (5/12) Mrs Rajeswari Balasubramaniam’s public conduct and her unlimited dealings with the GoSL came under heavy criticism by many moderate Tamils participants.