The new nominees by Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran (CVW) to replace the sacked Ministers T. Gurukularajah (Education) and Ponnuthurai Ainkaranesan were sworn in before Governor Reginald Cooray. The new nominees are Ananthi Sasitharan and K. Sarveswaran. Ananthi was involved in making many of the complaints against the four Ministers, while Sarvesvaran’s brother Suresh Premachnadran led the street protests against the ministers in support of CVW.
C.V. Wigneswaran – Northern Chief
The hurt over CVW’s conduct in was not merely political. There was a lot of pain in the Protestant Community over Gurukularajah’s sacking as if he is a crook. Gurukularajah was the son of the late Rev. Thambyrajah who founded and lived with his children in Navajeevanam, a home for orphans in the then undeveloped lands of Paranthan which he transformed into luscious paddy fields. A brother of Gurukularajah’s joined the clergy. Another ran Navajeevanam during the war years. Gurukularajah himself served ably as Director of Education in Kilinochchi. He was, importantly, found guilty only of administrative lapses, yet his sacking was lumped with that of Ainkaranesan who was found guilty of corruption.
In an effort to put on a face of being at peace with the Federal Party (ITAK or FP), Chief Minister CVW paid a visit to the office at Martyn Road Jaffna, of his nominal party, the FP, on the 26th. Welcoming him, and as a pointed reminder of his neglected loyalties, party General Secretary Mavai Senathirajah told him, “It is my pleasure to welcome you to these premises on your first visit.” CVW insisted that he had been there before and the conversation trailed off with Senathirajah asking when and receiving no firm answer.
At that meeting, CVW told Senathirajah of his intention to offer Ananthi the portfolio on women’s affairs. It is noted that Ananthi, widow of disappeared LTTE-er Sasitharan (a.k.a. Elilan), contested for her seat at the NPC on the FP’s nomination but was suspended from the FP after she burnt the effigy of M.A. Sumanthiran, MP. It is said that at the next election, she will contest under the Tamil Congress’s Bicycle symbol as she is sure not to be given the FP’s nomination.
Senathirajah told CVW that he has to follow party discipline and not boost a suspended member. CVW is on record as saying elsewhere that he was nominated by all constituents of the TNA and not just the FP, and that his use of the FP’s House symbol is accidental because the TNA as an unregistered political party was merely using the FP’s symbol as a matter of convenience.
Upon seeing CVW’s adamancy, Senathirajah promised to get back after consulting his colleagues. Subsequently it was suggested to CVW on the telephone that Provincial Council member Emmanuel Arnold be made the minister. But no agreement was reached. Arnold, said a Jaffna Roman Catholic resident,
“is immensely popular as head of the St. John’s College Old Boys’ Association and among Roman Catholics in the old Jaffna Electorate. He has high potential to be MP if the First Past the Post system is reintroduced with electorates. I am sure this is part of Senathirajah’s thinking. I commend Senathirajah for his long-term thinking”
However CVW did not accept Senathirajah’s recommendation.
Such well-publicized peace-pipe-smoking meetings between Senathirajah and CVW were belied by press reports that CVW on the 28th late evening met with the Federal Party’s detractors. That evening saw a gathering at CVW’s home to which only those who supported CVW in this spat were invited. NPC Member M.K. Sivajilingam forcefully said that he wanted a Mullaitivu man to be a minister and that is why he had declined the portfolio offered to him first by CVW. NPC member from Mullaitivu, Kandiah Sivanesan, echoed these views reminding CVW that while speaking at the NPC on the current dispute on 14 May, CVW himself had voiced the need for a Minister from Mullaitivu. In the event, however, that did not happen and not one of the five members from Mullaitivu was appointed. Nonetheless, Sivajilingam accompanied the new ministers to their swearing in. Unconfirmed reports say that CVW too took some oaths because of the additional portfolios he has taken on.
Be that as it may, the two new Ministers’ period of office is to be just three months. Openings for peace-making as well as revolting will remain as CVW’s supporters vie for office and the new inquiry against the two ministers who escaped CVW’s guillotine is prolonged.
“With this, CVW is more firmly obligated to the Tamil Makkal Peravai and Suresh Premachandran’s Mandayan Group,” noted an analyst who recently organized a discussion on the corruption scandal.
Signs of the impending eruption were seen as CVW readied for the new inquiries he is launching against Fisheries Minister Balasubramaniam Deneeswaran and Health minister Dr. P. Sathiyalingam who had both been cleared by CVW’s initial inquiry. CVW justifies this seeming double jeopardy on the grounds that witnesses did not show up.
Testified one of Dr. Sathiyalingams, supporters
“Tackling Dr. Sathiyalingam would be a tough-sell because of his leadership during the Mullivaikal massacres when he as the government medical officer treating the wounded drew attention to the killings through bombings of hospitals by the government.”
However, that high reputation is presently eclipsed by the new charges of corruption against the good doctor. Thundered CVW at the meeting with his supporters last night, “Even if the two ministers do not show up at the inquiry, the inquiry will proceed and I will take firm action according to the report.”
M.A. Sumanthiran fired a counter-salvo in an interview on 16 June 2017 with the Nation:
“The matter all started with allegations against one Minister. The Council passed a resolution calling for an inquiry to be conducted into the allegations against the said Minister. Wigneswaran … instead appointed a committee of inquiry to look into corruption allegations against all the Ministers even though there were no allegations against the other three. He picked the inquiry panel members.
“He then published advertisements in the newspapers calling on the public to make allegations against the Ministers. In the subsequent inquiry report, the committee found one Minister guilty of nine or 10 charges of corruption, another Minister of circumventing administrative regulations and exonerated the other two. The committee recommended the removal of the two found guilty. All he had to do was implement the recommendations.
“Yet, he kept the matter hidden for two weeks … and decided to take action against all four Ministers, when two were clearly found guilty and two were not. …
“He has since asked the two found guilty to resign and he has suspended the other two. He has taken action against all four. All five Ministerial portfolios are now brought under him. …
“He is trying to cover up the wrongdoing of the two found guilty by attempting to take all four out.”
Sumanthiran added just today 29th, upping the ante, “There are complaints against departments directly under the Chief Minister. That is why the ITAK has asked for an investigation into complaints against all the five members of the Board of Ministers including the Chief Minister.” Some Tamil newspapers wrote that there are 38 charges against CVW himself.
Said a Tamil American associated with Wigneswaran’s visit some time back to the US that he could not understand CVW’s erratic ways of seeking funds and inexplicable loyalties to one staffer:
“I am surprised at his play for power. He could make excellent speeches but is too poorly organized to run any administration. He missed many appointments and even a flight, messing up an important meeting in Boston. It is his administrative inability that makes him so dependent on the Australian Nimalan Karhtigesu.”
Between the Tamil American and an FP loyalist, Colombo Telegraph gathers that Wigneswaran took his protégé, Australian Tamil Nimalan Karthigesu, to the UN and adamantly wanted him employed on a Rs. 1 billion project readied for the NPC. The UN refused Wigneswaran’s request based on Karthigesu’s qualifications or his lack of them. The Australian was asked to leave the room while negotiations were on because he had no standing at the meeting. That meeting with near-assuredly positive outcome, was a fiasco. The NPC lost that money because of Wigneswaran’s stubbornness over insisting on Nimalan Karthigesu’s participation in managing the complex project. Colombo Telegraph reliably learns that it was Nimalan Karthigesu who arranged for Australian experts to assist the handpicked locals to test the Chunnakam ground water and declare it oil free.
The FP-CVW dispute is far from over. The immediate concern will be over whether CVW can appoint his new inquiry committee or, at the NPC too as with Parliament, privilege requires a Select Committee appointed by the FP dominated assembly. The difference is over who picks the people doing the new inquiry.
“Not another expert panel like the Chunnakam experts I hope,” said a civil engineer who always insisted, simply based on appearance and smell, that the Chunnakam ground water was tainted and was subsequently vindicated by other reports from independent experts.
That “Chunnakam Waste Oil in Ground Water” Court case at the Mallakam Magistrate’s on 27 June 2017 was given a “long date” to 29 September because related matters were under hearing at the High Court. (By Muraleetharan Puvinathan)
Punchi Point / July 4, 2017
Mr. Shiva Shankar Sharma
2. You say – ‘In reality during most of the island’s history it was the Tamils ruling and Sinhalese serving. The island then was not in a mess. It was the British who changed this and made the Sinhalese rule and the island is now in a mess. ‘
If reality turned and bit you in the backside, you wouldn’t know what reality is!!
Tamils have NEVER had any legitimate indigenous authentic rule in this island. The times when Tamils ruled here were the times when Tamils had invaded the island, setting all hell loose. There are 16 recorded Tamil invasions.
The mess was created when the British took the pathetic insignificant Tamil minority, numbering not more than a hundred thousand in the early part of the 19th century and put them in newly created power positions. Prior to that the British had imported a few Tamils to try to administer the maritime provinces from the Madras Presidency, but that was a total failure. Then they imported more Tamils to work for them, in the coffee and tea plantations, and Muslims too came to do business and trade. Suddenly this tiny had basically 3 new ethnic categories, the Ceylon Tamils (i.e the non-plantation Tamils), Plantation Tamils and Muslims.
Now we have the non-plantation Tamils trying to rob 40% of the land area and 75% of the coastal line to carve out a homeland for them, which they call Tamil Ealam. Even the name Ealam is robbed from the Sinhalese. That’s THE reality.
https://tinyurl.com/y878vcch
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SJ / July 5, 2017
PP
Have you any idea of the more recent archaeological revelations about early settlements in the north east?
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Dr. Gnana Sankaralingam / July 7, 2017
“Tamils never had any legitimate indigenous authentic rule in this island”. This is true of the Sinhalese also. Was Vijaya the so called fore father of Sinhala race who as per Mahavamsa was chosen by Buddha and sent to Srilanka, a legitimate indigenous authentic ruler. Vijaya and his 700 criminal gang are the first historically recorded Kallathonis who killed Kuveni who gave them refuge and usurped her land. Prior to this episode, there were several such tribal heads in the country, and none of them were Sinhalese. Mess in Srilanka was not created by British or any other, but Vijaya. Had Vijaya who was not allowed to land in South India, did not come to Srilanka, the country would have been in peace, ruled by indigenous people. It is Kuveni’s curse that Srilanka has been invaded several times since then, last one being in 1987.
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Punchi Point / July 9, 2017
Why are the Tamils so hung up on the Mahavamsa? If you believe in reading it as it is, then Prince Vijaya’s grandfather was a lion and he married a demoness.
The Mahabharata war predates Buddha by several centuries, according to some scholars by a couple of millennia. Sinhalese are mentioned as siding with the Kurus in the Mahabharata war, so the Mahavamsa story where Vijaya lands here on the day of Parinibbana cannot be true. According to some, Mahabharatha war is also just myth, but that the text mentions the Sinhalese is enough to make the point clear that Sinhalese existed before the landing date of the Vijaya character in the Mahavamsa.
If anybody is kallathonies in this island it is the Tamils and the Muslims. If Tamils were indigenous to this island, then you would show some indigenous traits, in your language and show some genetic admixture with the Veddas. Nothing of that is present in the Tamils, everything is exactly the same as in Tamilnadu, and want to talk of being indigenous to this island!!?? LOL Also where in Mahavamsa does it say that Vijaya or any of his 700 men killed Kuveni?
How about giving references to the what the ‘aryan genes’ etc are in the other article? https://tinyurl.com/yale34pz . Did you find any references to a people called Dravidians in any ancient Tamil literature?
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Sinhala_Man / July 8, 2017
It is true that Mr. Shiva Shankar Sharma has been unnecessarily provocative, but must we also go to these lengths to counter what he says?
Punchi Point, I think that it is good that you have countered what Sharma has said, but must we also go to these extremes? Why not steer clear of words like “pathetic insignificant”?
Can’t we forgive the misguided attempts by some declare Ealam, and can we not desist from throwing at them that 40% of land area; even more irritating is 75% of coastline. Tamils felt that they were not treated fairly, but an Ealam with those figures was never seriously on. Of course some among them may have wanted to grab all that they could, but we, too, had people who wanted to decimate all Tamils.
It would do us all a world of good if we used more moderate language. The issues are complex as it is. Let’s all try to be more rational; let’s stick to our points of view, but let’s not provoke unnecessary stubbornness.
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Punchi Point / July 9, 2017
Sinhala_Man,
1. Mr. Shiva Shankar Sharma is spamming this site, misquoting and directly falsifying genetic studies. He is also inventing history as it pleases him too. His comments are very racially and caste-wise prejudiced, exhibiting an extreme hatred and wickedness towards the Sinhalese people. He is not giving references to any of his claims, but keeps posting the same comments in all the articles. There is no substance in any of his comments and he won’t followup on anything. He is a textbook example of a Tamil fanatic engaged in anti-Sinhalese propaganda, and using the internet to spread his anti-Sinhalese venom, by trolling and spamming.
Mr. Shiva Shankar Sharma (and the some of the fanatical anti-Sinhalese gang of Tamils) thinks that genetic studies are needed to find out who the Tamils in SriLanka are and that if Sinhalese and Tamils share what he calls Tamil DNA, it automatically means that the Tamils have been here at least as long as the Sinhalese. He goes further and distorts genetic studies and states that ” Sinhalese are recent low caste immigrants from Tamil Nadu, while the SL-Tamils are indigenous” :) !! To begin with there is no need for any genetic studies to find out who the SL-Tamils are, as there’s enough documentation for that and nobody needs any genetic studies to find out who the Tamils in Srilanka are, as the Tamil language is more than enough marker for that. The genetic study he keeps misquoting was done using results from several earlier studies. He conveniently leaves out the fact that his favorite genetic study done on ethnic groups of Srilanka, didn’t find any Vedda genetic admixture in Tamils. Quite a mystery isn’t it, if Tamils were the Yakshas and Nagas and have been here from time immemorial?
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Punchi Point / July 9, 2017
Sinhala_Man,
2. Why I stated that Tamils are an insignificant pathetic minority is that their claims don’t weigh against their actual size or historical achievements (which is zero). Nobody had even heard of another Tamil kingdom besides the ones in south India. Also, any people ruling this island particularly the north and east are bound to have had numerous military encounters with the powerful kingdoms in the opposite coast. Could such a tiny minority ever have the military capacity to do so? Could they have ruled this island, let alone the north-east? Just imagine the powerful Tamil kingdoms and the wars theyhave fought among each other and also against the Sinhalese. Do you think it would have been militarily possible for the SL-Tamils, to fight 10 – 70 times bigger populations and the defend such a vast coastal line, sandwiched between the powerful Cholas and Pandyas on one side and Sinhalese on the other side? If they were capable of that, then they should have been a significant force, comparable to at least the Sinhalese. If so, why doesn’t even one ancient document mention this imaginary Tamil kingdom?
When Cholas invaded Srilanka in the 11 th century, they recorded their victories in inscriptions, but they never mention about fighting anybody else than the Sinhalese in their wars against this island. If Tamils had any significant settlements here with kingdoms and emporiums as they claim, then at least the ancient Tamils would have mentioned these settlements moreover Tamils here would have produced something which would have left even a small trace of an ancient Tamil kingdom. The first Tamil rule started as a Pandyan occupation in Jaffna area in the late 13th century. Itwas not an indigenous kingdom, and for most of existence came under either Pandyans or Vijayanagar Empire.
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kulan / July 6, 2017
Will Sumanthiran & Sampathan regret for bringing CVW as Chief Minister.
It appeared in Tamil papers recently CVW commenting on a a Provincial council member’s role in a killing.
What about himself supporting a criminal Guru. In the North too Bodu bala sena type leadership is created
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Cruso / July 6, 2017
CVW is not suitable for this post. He thinks that hes is a former judge therefor he knows everything. He is an educated fool. Once he compared Jesus Christ with the rapist premanantha samy whom CVW worshiping. We will send this guy very soon Angoda. How can he support mandayan party who killed people and put the civilian in trouble. CVW is too old to handle the issues within the party. Now people are talking that he is trying to dismiss other two ministers and trying to give the post Jaffna people. Why cant he give one post to Mullaitive. He is a hypocrite and we are not believe him any more. He is trying to create extremism among Tamil people to start terrorism again.
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Thanga / July 7, 2017
Wigneswaran is a complex character. People call him a spiritualist, but his actions belie that claim. Even his ardent supporters concede the fact he is an inefficient administrator who has alienated the support of the ITAK and more than half the members of the council. His temporary truce with ITAK leadership was a tactical move to derail the no- confidence motion against him,
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SJ / July 7, 2017
Thanga
His replacements in the ‘cabinet’ have done little by way of patching-up.
He will be sooner than later forced to do what he was reluctant to do in mid-2015: throw in the towel and join the TNPF. His masters in the West want him to do exactly that (so does Sumanthiran for other reasons), but reality at home is militating against it.
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Lone Wolf / July 8, 2017
I still have not found full report of the investigation on line. Where is it? From what I have read I understood that the secretaries of the two “guilty” former ministers also were found “guilty” and were going to be removed. However the secretary of education appears to continue as before. Why? Are the former ministers going to be taken to court?
As long as I have not had the opportunity to study the report of the investigation myself my doubts about the results will continue.
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SJ / July 8, 2017
LW
You should by now know that text is always revealed selectively.
Once people are elevated to some kind of sainthood or made icons of sorts, one dare not question their actions.
CVW has yet to explain many of his improper deeds starting with appointments to key posts in the NPC and more recently the 50,000 (Canadian) Dollar question. He did not take the money, but was aware of it. He never came clean on the matter even after the question was raised in the NPC.
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Punchi Point / July 9, 2017
SJ,
Archaeological revelations like what?
I don’t see how anything can be found that can go against the historical facts already known, namely that the Tamil country was in south India and that the Tamil state formation was there. Tamils ruled the Tamil country, not anywhere else. Its very well documented in all the literature and political and military history of the region. The three crowned kings (muventar ) Chera, Chola and Pandya were the only Tamil royalty (Pandi being the Tamilized form of Pandu, so actually they were not really Tamils. That’s beside the present issue so I’ll leave it there).
In addition, something which cannot be just explained away is that the Tamil language formed in south India from Proto-south-Dravidian, passing through different stages of evolution and it was only after modern Tamil was formed, around 12-13th century that the Tamils made settlements here with the purpose of settling down. Even until quite recently, Tamils were a population who had not completed their migratory process. They maintained that they settled here from the opposite coast (Ref. Yalapana Vaipa Malai). Even today, Tamils fetch the cultural elements which make them into Tamils i.e the elements of Tamil identity, from Tamilnadu, citing references to literature and cultural concepts produced there (eg. Thirukural, Manimekalai, Silappadikaram, Tolkappiyam, Viracoliam, other sangam literature etc) or the achievements of the Three Crowned kings, or myths about how their language came to being, eg. the myth of Agastya.. If the Tamils had an indigenous and independent presence here then they would have developed their own myths, literature etc, not to mention their own language.
Therefore, any objective scholarly analysis of archeological findings will have to be interpreted in the light of these known historical, anthropological, political and linguistic facts. Anything else will be academic fraud.
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SJ / July 10, 2017
Chera, Cola & Pandya were much later than the Sangam era of South India.
Do not imagine what is in my mind.
With such attitude one cannot educate you in history or archaeology, or even common sense.
My reference was to potsherds and artifacts of a much earlier period that point to Tamil presence in the Northern parts of the island.
That in itself is no case for separatism, but a pointer to civilization in the island preceding the legend of Vijaya by several centuries.
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Thanks for your definition of academic fraud: you are committing it.
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Sinhala_Man / July 10, 2017
[Edited out] Comments should not exceed 300 words.
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