By S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole –

Role of Comments

Reader-comments are an important element of Colombo Telegraph (CT) articles. They are indispensable because they allow corrections to mistakes and untruths in articles and permit elaborations on articles. CT imposes a 5-day limit on comments which prevents distortions being sneaked in through untrue statements after an article has ceased being on the front page. A downside is that unfair comments may be made on the fifth day thereby preventing an author-response. CT has to find a way to overcome that.

Another problem is when a determined detractor writes in numerous distortions as separate comments making it an insurmountable obstacle for an author to address all of them. This allows some unfair comments to remain unchallenged. Some ethics guidelines, if not rules are necessary. The 200-word limit on comment would be a burden if not for the fact that a response can be broken up into multi-parts of 200 words each.

Background: Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Arrest and the Ethics of Comments

This article flows from my article on Ranil Wickremesinghe’s arrest on the charge of abusing official funds. I believe it is an important contribution because it delves into the role of political influence in Maithree Wickremesinghe’s academic rise.

However, because of RW’s numerically large (minority) political following and his being the darling of the West, several forces have jumped in with careless narratives to clean him up. One narrative by S. Venkat Narayan (once Senior Editor of India Today it is claimed) raises more questions than his article answers. He is described as a Sri Lankan journalist. I have never heard of such a person in Sri Lanka. As soon as RW is arrested and jailed pending trial, this Narayan declares “[RW took 10] government employees. So, you use them for a private trip. And they arrested him. But this is not a corruption [sic.] at all. […] Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe was not engaged in any corruption.” He added that he is “sure Ranil Wickremesinghe’s lawyers will defend him and he might be let off.” We all know, any simpleton would know, his lawyers would defend him. His article is dated 23 Aug.. How does he suggest he would be let off when RW was already refused bail and sent to remand prison on 22 Aug.. Would one claiming to be a Senior Editor at India Today treat corruption as a countable noun? The fishy nature of the article carried in the well-known Tribune, dating from 1881, must have had its editors wanting to distance themselves from the article to add the footnote, “This content is sourced from a syndicated feed and is published as received. The Tribune assumes no responsibility or liability for its accuracy, completeness, or content.” Why even give it to us then?

The foreign press has jumped in in support. All too eager to whitewash RW, mistaking the UK ceremony for a graduation for a professor, The Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Malaysia’s Malay Mail called the function a graduation ceremony whereas she already had a doctorate and needed no graduation unless he was getting an earned, evaluated doctorate. Indeed, formally “Graduation signifies that an individual has met the requirements of a specific educational program, demonstrating mastery of the prescribed curriculum.” Al Jazeera also called it Maithree Wickremesinghe’s graduation ceremony whereas she already had a doctorate. P.K. Balachandran who usually works in Sri Lanka reported that the CID “had charged that the former President went to the UK in September 2023 on a ‘private’ visit to attend his wife Maithree Wickremesinghe’s graduation ceremony at the University of Wolverhampton.” Likewise The Daily Mirror quotes the CID’s B-Report that Wickeremesinghe went to attend his wife’s PhD graduation ceremony at the University of Wolverhampton.” If true, the charge sheet would be wrong.  The Associated Press also claimed that it was her graduation ceremony, as did Pulse Today, and The Tamil Guardian.

As correctly stated in my article, based on the Wickremesinghes’ letter of invitation, it was on Commencement Day for the graduates during the buildup to their graduation ceremony. The lunch was in celebration of Maithree’s award of an honourary professorship prior to and preparatory to the Commencement.

However, Reuters got it right: “[Wickremesinghe] had been investigated over a visit he made to Britain to attend a special graduation lunch to celebrate his wife’s honorary professorship at a university there.”

RW’s old friend from the ceasefire days, Erik Solheim, jumped into the fray declaring that “the accusations against Ranil are without merit. Even if they were true, they will not constitute any criminal or even unacceptable behavior in Europe.” When did he investigate? Ot was he repeating what someone fed him with?

He was prevaricating for his friend. He painted RW “as the leader who stood up to rescue Sri Lanka when the nation faced its worst political and economic crisis in 2022.” Untrue again. RW was so desperate to be President at the time that he jumped in at the first opportunity when no one wanted the job. The IMF, India, China, the World Bank and the ADB, why even Bangladesh, came to the rescue by giving life-giving loans. The key $2.9 million from the IMF allowed Sri Lanka to survive. Who the President was did not really matter.

Solheim described the accusations against the former President as “without merit”, adding that even if proven, they would not constitute criminal or unacceptable behaviour under European standards.

Untrue again. Regardless of Solheim’s claims, the EU in 2014 tightened anti-corruption legislaton.[…] In amendments to a draft anti-fraud law, MEPs clearly defined the offences for which member states would have to introduce criminal penalties, such as fraud […] but also other fraud-related offences, including passive and active corruption, misappropriation of funds, money laundering and obstruction of public procurement procedures. EU-wide penalties  for these crimes would be at least 5 or 10 years’ imprisonment.

The damage thresholds (or value of the advantage obtained by the offender) above which prison sentences kick in are defined in financial terms (€100,000 or more). To put in perspective, RW is accused of misusing Rs 600 million ($2m; £1.4m) which in Sri Lankan salary terms is huge,astronomical  corruption deserving imprionment by European rules making RW deserve imprisonment.

Solheim should stop trying to fool us. We were not born yesterday.

As a student in the UK, I remember PM (1976-1979) Barron James Callagham using an ordinary Hackney Carriage from the government pool, compared to RW’s multiple BMWs. I truly admired Callaghn for his simplicity.

American Rules

Having worked in the US, there was a time when I would go on work-related conferences with my wife tagging along on a vacation,sometimes with our infants in tow. I would buy their tickets and rent a single room on a federal grant. The hotel usually would give a double room upgrade for free. My university asked for meal receipts or let me charge $25 per meal which was enough for both in 1985. Travel to and from airports was on my office because her joining did not cost more.

Around 2015 the government introduced drastic changes. So long as my wife joined me in a capacity unrelated to my work, I would have to pay 50% of the room-charge (even if a single room) and half the taxi-fare and meal costs.

Rightly, standards are ever rising, but the Wickremesinghes seem to have learnt from the Rajapaksas.

The IRS on Deduction for Spousal Travel

The US Inland Revenue Service in Treas. Reg. 1.162-2(c) provides that where a taxpayer’s spouse accompanies the taxpayer on a business trip, the travel expenses will not be deductible unless the spouse’s presence on the trip has a bona fide business purpose. [Deductible here means that part of your income which will not be taxed].

IRC Section 274(m)(3) provides that no deduction is allowed for travel expenses paid or incurred with respect to a spouse, dependent, or other individual accompanying an employee on business travel, including officers or employees, unless all three of the following conditions are met:

* The spouse, dependent, or other individual is an employee of the employer;

* The travel of the spouse, dependent, or other individual is for a bona fide business purpose and;

* Such expenses would otherwise be deductible by the spouse, dependent or other individual.

Maithree does not pass these three tests for RW to claim that his trip with his wife was official.

The Last Word on Comments by SJ, aka Prof. S. Sivasegaram

Background: SJ as Commenter or Commentator?

A commentator is a person who professionally provides live, expert analysis and descriptions of an event, such as a sports commentator. A commenter is one who posts a casual remark or opinion, especially online in response to an article, post, or video. The choice depends on the context: commentators offer detailed, expert commentary, while commenters provide brief, personal comments. Most of us are commenters while SJ is a commentator in CT. We will look at some of his methods here.

Sowing Doubts without being Specific: Maithree W’s Termination

SJ’s sowing doubts without being explicit prevents our nailing him down. He utters Open Untruths to take away the value of an article. I doubt … etc., prevaricating merely to win an argument. For example, he says, “I doubt if MW got her promotions by irregular means.” His doubts are irrelevant. The facts are in my testimony and the Google scholar listings of her publicstions, read togther with RW’s power status.

Vishwamitra’s Colombo Telegraph article (5 July 2025) is critical that no prosecutions followed the discovery of the Chemmany graves. Whitewashing previous governments, SJ pooh-poohed the multiple murders in his comment that there had been only one murder. “The murder of one young female” as he put it, was involved in Chemmany at the time of sentencing. I pointed out the convictions covered the murders of Krishanthi’s mother and brother too. All those inaccuracies are because, as he has written in his excuse, he is “an average student of history coming from somewhere with little or no history.” Tinco, to be exact. After denying my connections to Maviddapuram, he has even claimed to be my relation. My God. No! After promising to check with his source as if he would return with proof, he never got back.

Here he claims that Maithree Wickremesinghe was reappointed after her termination circa 1996 – whereas it was when I was on the UGC.

Snide Remarks based on Opinion with No Factual Basis

“I doubt the author’s competence to comment on the quality of MW’s publications,” asserts SJ. That phrase “I doubt” again! He can doubt anything. Only facts matter.

However, what was SJ’s own competence when he went as a Tamil language subject expert to [now Prof.] M.A. Nuhuman’s promotion to Professor at Peradeniya. When the required subject expert is not internally available at a university, it is necessary to go to another university for an expert.  SJ faked being a Tamil language expert with, as revealed when I asked at the Senate and was told, experience in working on a Tamil keyboard. But a keyboard had little to do with Nuhuman’s work. He is a gross faker!

But here, when there was no Tamil language expert at Peradeniya,  SJ was part of the cabal that resorted to this sort of gimmick to avoid outside subject experts who would not necessarily collude in giving undue promotions when an expert was not available in Peradeniya. SJ needed to help others cheat to have his way in cheating for his own promotion to Senior Professor as he did. [I do not mean to slight Prof. Nuhuman in any way, but do say that the promotion committee was unlawful because SJ was not a subject expert].

Going as a Peking-Wing Communist, SJ has cheated the impoverished people of Sri Lanka of millions from his undue promotion to Senior Professor.

As for my competence to judge MW’s credentials, today we live in the era of data bases by Google Scholar and the ISI index. I can count papers without reading them. Giving maximum points for each to be not unfair to a candidate, one can accurately tell when a candiate fails the test. Of course to say if a candidate passes, one must be able to read and evaluate the papers as a true subject expert.

I judge that MW failed by counting her papers. But how did SJ pass Nuhuman? What is his competence? SJ is so arrogant and full of hubris that he thinks he is expert enough in Tamil to judge accomplishments at the level suitable for a professor.

Diminishing Promotion Criteria to Qualify favorites – MW and Himself

SJ therefore tries to put down taking circulars, the appointment ordinances, at face value: “One could avoid being rigid in assessing academic quality,” he says. He cannot afford a rigid assessment of his credentials. So he cites examples of people who made it to professor in the old days when the most senior person was made professor regardless of research record. But since the 1990s research accomplishments and service are key to professorial rank which comes with a large salary.

He is invested in watering down the requirements bypassed by Maithree and himself because he is an academic cheat. He was appointed Professor when he returned from the UK. To be made senior professor, the requirement was 8 years as professor. He did not have 8 years as professor but claimed his work at Imperial College was at the rank equivalent to professor. That claim of his Imperial College experience was untrue and part of his fakery.

When his Imperial College supervisor JH Whitelaw, FRS, died, the Royal Society published a memorial essay on May 30, 2016 where it is stated on page 393, “with the return to Imperial [College] of his [Whitelaw’s] former research student, Sivasegaram, as a postdoctoral fellow, a long-term effort was started that extended over some 15 years until his retirement.

Here is Google’s definition of what SJ was: “A postdoctoral fellowship is a temporary research-focused appointment following doctoral studies that provides further training, experience, and independence in a specific field. These fellowships, funded by governments, foundations, or universities, offer researchers an opportunity to deepen their expertise, conduct independent projects, publish findings, and pursue grants, often serving as a crucial step towards an independent career in academia or other fields.”

Unfofortunately, that major step towards becoming a Professor did not come SJ’s way till he returned to Sri Lanka and cheated his way in as a Professor.

Our friend had claimed at Peradeniya to have been in a position equivalent to that of a professor for 15 years whereas a postdoc is usually one who is unable to obtain a regular faculty position. At the time I was working with CIMOGG with Attorney Elmore Perera to expose academic fraud through public interest litigation. Senior Assistant Registrar for Academic Establishments, David, panicked and begged me not to expose his negligence.

Conclusion

Introducing ethics standards in comments in CT is necessary but would be a challenge to accomplish without curtailing academic freedom. I wish the CT Editor God Speed in this important but Herculean task that awaits him.