By S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole –

Prof S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole

I recently wrote on the NPP’s final rally in Pasaiyoor and the Federal Party’s final rally in Muthirai Chanthai, beating the midnight deadline on articles for tonight. It is unfortunate that there should be such a deadline because one can write any lie and not be challenged till after the election. At the NPP rally I saw a massive crowd and reported that.

Just barely before midnight, I saw in tomorrow’s Daily Mirror the following, cleverly datelined the 11^th:

“For some strange reason President Anura Kumara Dissanayake brought a few thousand people in buses last evening all the way to Jaffna and spoke to them here, when he could have gone to their own districts and addressed them there. Travelling costs would have been much less. Stranger still, Sinhala people were given a translation of his speech in Tamil,” he said, posting a message on X.”

That is untrue. I was driving around the venue for easily 30 minutes up to 3:00 pm because the police would not let me park and finally they took me to an unused compound where I parked and walked back. The only bus I saw was a dark blue bus that presumably brought men from the Navy. I do not know where the buses in the Daily Mirror article came from.

A Jaffna University don who came for the meeting told me that he saw may be about 3 buses where he had parked and that they were all Northern Province buses with Tamils. He laughed saying you can in no way bring 10,000 people in 3 buses.

I understsnd that Sumanthiran’s Facebook pages also carry some photographs. Even after the meeting there were no buses to be seen as the roads were packed with people.

For me, the significance of this story of bussing is that the party that held our loyalty through integrity is losing that foundational trait. SJV Chelvanayakam is said to have been travelling by Berth in a night mail train. His companion (often described as M. Sivsithambaram which I doubt since he was with the Tamil Congress then) described how he went to bed but SJV knelt by his bunk and was praying. It is that faith and integrity that made us follow SJV. The party should remember that and know that the Federal Party is bound to its principles of integrity. The next generation of leaders like Chandrahasan Elangovn and Kesavan Sajanthan I believe will not lose touch with SJV’s ideals that ennervated us.

In some ways what President AKD is doing is to shake us free of the idea that there is unfettered discretion in exercising lawful authority. That is why he does not use fleets of BMW like Ranil Wickremesinghe or a personal ambulance, even though he has the authority to abuse his powers with impunity. He does not revel in using his authority lawfully to surround himself with hundreds of guards. On the 10th in Pasaiyoor he went into crowds by the guardrails and shook people by their hands. Perhaps nerve-wracking to his bodyguards but exhilarating to us to know that we may talk to the President and shake hands with him.

Society must be weaned away from the idea inculcated in us over the years that those of us in authority have absolute discretion. I will give two examples.

First, at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital  some young interns have been told thst they cannot go to their villages to vote because there is no one to look after their wards. That is unlawful and no one has the unfettered discretion to abuse interns by not letting them vote. If it is so urgent to care for patients, the senior doctors can step in. They have no discretion in whether or not to apply the law that is do foundational to a democracy

Second, a more serious example from St. John’s College Jaffna where a priest, Rev. Daniel Jeyaruban, is president of the Teachers’ Guild. It is natural for a person in that position to complain against iniquities like teachers not being adequately paid for extra duties while the Principal (Mr. Thuseetharan) makes almost Rs. 400,000 a month. But the Church Missionary Society Board on which Bishop Dushantha Rodrigo sits, together with the Board President Sethukavalar,  the School Manager and Rev. Dhanan Senathiraja got together, suspended him without pay or inquiry and banned him from stepping into the school. He will soon see Christmas without 4 months’ pay. Most egregiously he could not, even as an Anglican priest of good standing, attend the Combined Schools Carol Service last week because it was on St. John’s premises. Worse, he could not attend the Talent Search Competition on 8 Sept. 2024 because it was at St. John’s where his daughter came Number One for her outstanding performance in music. How heartless of the Church that a man cannot see his daughter perform and be selected as Number 1! There has been no inquiry, presumably hoping that Fr. Daniel will go away when his funds dry up. Being a good employer will make a good subject for the Bishop to preach on and learn as he prepares his sermon.

We retained St. John’s as private to show how enlightened and exemplary Christian administration is. Now President AKD has to teach Bishop Rodrigo the rudiments of how to treat people, especially a priest, decently without abusing authority. MA Sumantiran too, as a former Methodist Church official and Lay Preacher, can learn the importance of integrity.

Authority has no unfettered discretion, whether by the Bishop or a Principal or a Priest, or hospital Director. Integrity is indispensable to a Church and to political parties. May God let his light shine upon President Dissanayake’s Countenance and grant him the wisdom that he has seemingly withdrawn from the Anglican Church and its institutions, and the Federal Party.

Before the Presidential elections, one Kishore had paid people Rs. 2000 each and was getting ready for a meeting at Puttur Junction on the A9. The Federal Party folk then paid the crowd Rs. 2500 per head and had taken about 40 of them to the meeting at Muthirai Chanthai where Sajith Premadasa spoke. It is sobering that that would never have been countenanced by SJV.

My advice to Sumanthiran, Sajanthan and Elangovan who are the future of the Federal Party is this – learn that SJV was mild in manners and weak in body but drew his strength (and his following) from his unshakeable integrity. “God Speed” to all three of you. Without integrity there is no point in preserving or supporting the Federal Party.