Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

03 February 2018                                    

Colombo Telegraph - Professor Hoole’s  Private News-site ?

I believe that all of us influence manifestations through our beliefs.

This morning my attention was drawn to the Colombo Telegraph article headed ‘Tamil Congress/TNPF Raises the Heat On EC Member Professor Hoole’

[Several election violations by the All Ceylon Tamil Congress and its ally, the Tamil Equal Rights Movement, have been stopped by the Election Commission. Together these two parties are contesting as the Tamil National People’s Front and are perhaps responsible for most violations in Jaffna.

Most of these complaints have been sent to Prof. S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole who lives in Jaffna and he in turn has passed them on to the Election Commission. The most serious of these violations has taken place at the Maviddapuram Kandasamy Temple on 31 January 2018 where the manifesto of the party was released.]

Professor Ratnajeevan  Hoole referred to the conflict on 15 January 2018 as follows:

[…This heritage against bringing religion into politics, has been quietly forgotten since the time Buddhism was elevated to an effective state religion in 1972. However, the law prohibiting undue influence remains, but unused to our detriment. For, enforcement would involve challenging important folk and the 1972 constitution.

Maviddapuram Pooja: Only the poor Kurukkal charged

Some Tamil wags ask “If the PM can get away with it, why not we?”  So it was that on 30.12.2017 that the Tamil National Forum had a pooja at the Maviddapuram Temple, the oldest in Jaffna. The Priest, Maha Rajasri Ratnasabapathy Kurukkal, is from a liberal tradition where his late brother, Maha Rajasri Shanmuganatha Kurukkal, incumbent in 2011, rose from his death-bed to issue a statement welcoming me, a great grandson of one-time temple mudalali Viswanathamudaliar Sangarapillai,  as a candidate for VC Jaffna. This he did although we are now Christians, to counter virulent sentiments expressed by Dr. Yogalakshmi Ponnambalam and Lawyer Kandiah Neelakandan (who “promotes”  national unity and  reconciliation as Governor at ONUR). They campaigned that Jaffna University should be headed by a Hindu.

As priests always do, blessing one and all, Ratnasabapathy Kurukkal blessed the tray with a yellow sheaf of the party’s policy statement under a bowl. This was followed by a public meeting on temple premises.  Five lawyers participated: Gajendrakumar, Viswalingam  Manivannan, Kandeepan, Jeyaruban, and Thirukumaran, besides a sixth woman-lawyer. They surely knew the law.] Colombo Telegraph article ‘Neither Principle Nor Law In Our Politics: A Plea To The Police & The AG’

Professor Ratnajeevan  Hoole who applied for the position of  Vice Chancellor of the University of Jaffna and who extensively wrote criticising the Administration of Professor Vasanthy Arasaratnam and his ridiculing the lawyers involved in the above matter, reveals his ignorance of the law in relation to the University of Jaffna – the Universities Act No. 16 of 1978  which prohibits the Vice Chancellor from taking Disciplinary Action against Academics. This ignorance becomes  obvious when reading the following excerpt from the article - Are Tamils Horrified By Or Tolerant Of Sexual Harassment? - published on 27 March 2016 by  - Colombo Telegraph which seems to not value the reputation of others concerned and is acting as if it is Professor Hoole’s private news-site.:

[Despite Vasanthi Arasaratnam’s claims to the press, no professor has been fired from the University of Jaffna for sexual harassment. Women have complained of sexual harassment in large numbers and she did nothing to protect them. In the case of Dr. Darshanan, her beautician’s son-in-law whose innocence was pleaded by his wife in a letter to the Council, she acted 4 years too late only when a student was on the verge of committing suicide. Even after suspending  Dr. Darshanan (who has not been fired and is still a senior lecturer but not a professor), she tried through Dean/Arts to get the suspension lifted. ]

I do  not carry the title of an Academic, even though Professor Henry Sathananthan from time to time referred to me as Dr Gaja. But  when I started providing advisory services to Dr  Darshanan the legislation showed itself to me and I discovered that the interdiction was unlawful due to Section 45 of the Universities Act . The Petition by Dr Darshanan, instituting  Fundamental Rights action in the Supreme Court, was accordingly amended to list individual Council Members as Respondents and the following paragraph included to dispute the authority of the Vice Chancellor:

[In terms of section 45 and section 5.2 of chapter 22 of establishment code of the UGC and other provisions of the University's Act No. 16 1978 the Disciplinary Authority of the Petitioner is the University Council of the 2nd Respondent University. The University Council is composed of the Vice Chancellor who is the 1st Respondent and the other members who are the 4th to the 28th Respondents above named. Section 45 is annexed hereto marked as P18 (A) and pleaded part and parcel hereof.]

I have been highlighting  this in my regular articles which are sent to Professor Hoole also. As in the law of contract – once we send out a communication with belief – it  is taken as ‘received’ by Natural Forces.

 In my article dated 04 February, headed Confidentiality or Transparency ? I included the following in relation to the Sri Lankan Constitution:

[Article 14 (1) (e ) states:   

Every citizen is entitled to the freedom, either by himself or in association with others, and either in public or in private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching;]

Professor Hoole states in relation to the alleged election offense:

[I told Senior DIG (Elections and Administration), C.D. Wickramarathne, about the need to prosecute persons because the current practice of asking violators merely not to repeat it, leads to repetitions. He promised to implement the law.]

According to my knowledge – gained, including by reading Professor Hoole’s article,  there is no current law that has been broken by these politicians. In fact by referring to the 1972 Constitution, which provides for Buddhism to be the foremost religion of Sri Lanka, Professor Hoole confirms that religion is a Political issue in Sri Lanka. Wikipedia presents the following definition:

[Politics is the process of making decisions that apply to members of a group. It refers to achieving and exercising positions of governance — organized control over a human community, particularly a state. Furthermore, politics is the study or practice of the distribution of power and resources within a given community (this is usually a hierarchically organized population) as well as the interrelationship(s) between communities.]

 In Sri Lanka therefore Non-Buddhists have every right to promote their religion including as a political group. So long as the person / group so promoting expresses on the basis of belief – s/he / it has the blessings of Natural Powers. There can be no just law against belief in any form.

It looks as if Professor Hoole is trying to enforce some other law (American? Or British?) in Sri Lanka.

In his letter dated 16 Aug.2017, to the President and other Politicians, Professor Hoole included the following:

[I have pled not guilty. In court in Mullaitivu, I have learnt while cross-examining the policeman who issued the ticket to me in Sinhalese that the Mankulam Police Chief Marlon Perera had not even queried the policeman with the false radar reading. Such is the state of law and order in Sri Lanka. The first court date being 13 July, I went to Colombo for the Commission meeting on 12 July by bus, not wishing to run into the thieves in uniform again. However, relevant to this letter is that I objected in court on 13 July to the police leading evidence in Sinhalese, to their writing traffic tickets in Sinhalese, and the Tamil, English and Sinhalese versions of the ticket not being consistent. Fortunately, the strict judge has followed the law by providing a translator. But the people suffer in criminal cases where the police prosecute in Sinhalese. Most cases involved fishing in prohibited areas, and selling/transporting liquor or sand.]

My Colombo Land case was heard mainly in Sinhalese and recorded in Sinhalese. I do not read or write Sinhalese. We paid high fees to have the documents  translated into English. Yet an important document – regarding an action filed by the 1^st Defendant was not translated and after terminating the services of  our Barrister Mr  Parathalingam P.C. who, despite being our representative appeared without any communication with me – to represent our opponents in the Appeal being heard in High Court of Jaffna – I prepared the arguments and submission for the Colombo matter.

Then one day, here in our Coogee home – my eyes went to the address in the documents relating to the above mentioned action filed by the 1^st Defendant. I asked my husband who can read Sinhalese to read the name out to me. According to that it was one Mr. Periyasamy who was living at that address and not the 1^st Defendant Mr. Piyadasa who claimed prescriptive rights to our property. Since then the new respondent who bought the property from the original defendants, has offered out of court settlement but I have declined. To  me the lesson learnt was if one Believes, the system of Truth works to support that person. Important as the Colombo case was to me, I took on the challenge because I was deeply upset that our Barrister failed to respect the system of Belief.  The verdict has already been delivered with the offer to settle out of court. I may lose as per the judiciary but the system of Truth will bring me the rewards in Its own sweet way.

As a member of the Election Commission – Professor Hoole had the responsibility to demonstrate respect for the law as interpreted by the official at that time at that place. That is basic. Mere knowledge of law does not endow one to disobey an officer. Belief in that institution endows one with the right to submit one’s Truth and belief based interpretation. But the ultimate decision is by the head of that institution.

If indeed the Priest of Maviddapuram temple was charged as per the law – the matter rests there. Influencing the Police and openly claiming to do so amounts to harassment and abuse of power. The Election Commission has the duty to discipline Professor Hoole as well as Colombo Telegraph.

If DIG (Elections and Administration), C.D. Wickramarathne does institute action against the above Hindu politicians – that would open the pathway to suing the DIG and the Executive Government – for violating Article 14 (1) (e ) of the Constitution.  What a victory that would be for Tamils as a Community and to all minorities !