By Colombo Telegraph –
The colombotelegraph.com has received the following letter from a reader. We ask why Mr. D.B.S. Jeyaraj who is a prominent columnist and commentator well known for his extensive sources and in-depth analysis of Tamil issues waited until now to reveal the story of the Sampanthan-Fonseka secret pact. We forwarded the reader’s letter to Mr. Jeyaraj, but there has been no response from him.
Letter from a Colombo Telegraph Reader
D.B.S. Jeyaraj has a new post on his blog that sensationally “exposes” the agreement between the TNA’s R. Sampanthan and Sarath Fonseka ahead of the 2010 presidential election. In it, he has reproduced the text of the agreement and added context, having “probed the matter”. This post is dated 4 November. It would interest your readers that Jeyaraj’s “expose” comes after the Colombo Telegraph first published the US Embassy cable containing this agreement, obtained via Wikileaks, on 3 November. While it is possible that this is a pure coincidence, it is very strange timing that Jeyaraj should suddenly come upon this story within 24 hours of the cable and the agreement being published on Colombo Telegraph.
The mine of information made available due to Wikileaks has been available for months, but no one in Sri Lankan journalism appears to have been bothered to do the hard work of going through the material and publishing its contents in the public interest. Now that Colombo Telegraph has done this, it is no doubt good news that other commentators are picking up on these important stories. But it would have been nice of a senior journalist of the caliber of Mr. Jeyaraj to have acknowledged where it came from.
Read the Colombo Telegraph article here; WikiLeaks: Sampanthan-Fonseka secret pact revealed
Sanath Balapatabendi / November 5, 2011
Congratulations to the Colombo Telegraph reader. Well thought out and well put, so politely. D.B.S. Jeyaraj, as one would say, is chewing the cud. He has exhausted (or even outlived) himself. Therefore he resorts to repetition which some say is the soul of journalism. But I say, that is his bread and butter or thosai and sambar. So let him repeat, re-write, re-enact, replay and re-emerge as as a journalistically recycled person. After all, he has demonstrated over the years what metamorphosis means. First he backed the LTTE, Anton Balasingham et all. Then he changed, like the sweeping cold winds in Canada, to become a mouthpiece for the Rajapaksa administration. That was how he got access to KP, his erstwhile punching bag. Who knows, he will keep changing and changing. There is no point in saying Don’t Be Silly (DBS) Jeyaraj. He is too old for it.
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beau / November 5, 2011
There are lot of journalists playing th violin to presidents ears. These people are being paid by president or if not his publicity machine. Jeyaraj is one and Rajasingham is another. Lankaweb is full of paid writers and no one can even say a word against MR there. I am sick and tired of these biassed journalists who would not survive in SLK if they are not in MR camps.
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Henry / November 6, 2011
This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy
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ardneham / November 6, 2011
DBS has a set of seriously-oriented readers – and followers among the diaspora in the West and he repeating CT
colums is a doing a service to his readers. Most do not know of Colombo Telegraph as much as they do
Transcurrent. This is the simple reason and nothing to do with “timing” I guess.
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Sam TB / November 7, 2011
@ARDNEHAM, this is what the reader says; ” Now that Colombo Telegraph has done this, it is no doubt good news that other commentators are picking up on these important stories. But it would have been nice of a senior journalist of the caliber of Mr. Jeyaraj to have acknowledged where it came from.”
DBS should have given the credit to Colombo Telegraph!
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