Dr. Chula Rajapakse MNZM  Wellington , New Zealand

The year under review literally began with a bang, a big bang that leftover three hundred dead and many more wounded. Yes, it was the Easter Day 2019 bombings. At a Sri Lankan gathering in Lower Hutt that evening a fellow Sri Lankan, a Sinhalese Buddhist if you would permit me, opined to me rather guiltily, don’t know whether an extremist Buddhist organization was behind this”. I immediately dismissed this as being unlikely considering the scale of the bombings, four almost simultaneous attacks at four different sites and suggested that it had to be from an organization with international backing. This was well before anything was known about the attackers.

However, in a very short while it dawned on me that if this suggestion was made to the NZ media it would go viral and if and when proved wrong, we would be playing catch up for a long time.

I was determined therefore to have first access to NZ media and considered it my obligation by USLA to do so. Knowing the way NZ media works, that very night I drafted a letter to the TV stations and News Papers and Radio outlets expressing NZ ‘s Sri Lankan community’s shock and horror at the event and expressed the hope that, if well managed, it would be a one-off event like the Christchurch Bombing” of just a month ago. I made my self available for any interviews to express these.

The following morning I followed up with calls to these agencies stating the same and managed to secure interviews with TV1 & TV3 six a clock main news that day, leaving no room for any mischievous speculations. President Palitha de Silva, I believe also fronted up before several radio stations. The rest is history.

I am pleased to submit that this illustrates the need for a vigilant USLA, to project the truth about significant events in Sri Lankan & so protect SL and USLA membership from unfounded allegations that ultimately reflects on ourselves.

The rest of the year has been less demanding.

This year also saw a change in administration in SL with the installation of a new administration whose thinking is more in keeping with USLA’s, over its lifetime. However, this itself brings about more challenges from the powerful might of the Tiger Diaspora with its abundant war chest ever conniving to use it on journalists to generate well-manicured information & events appearing to be fair and objective but deep down highly partisan, & inimical and detrimental to Sri Lanka’s interests. This is also encouraged by Sri Lanka’s political opposition and it’s diaspora, mindful more of the political gain for themselves and not it’s a detriment to Sri Lanka.

Such an event happened in December 2019 a few weeks after the installation of the new President. I refer to the apparent abduction of an employee of the Swiss Embassy in Colombo, immediately presented to the media and public as a return to the White Van” era. This concern was raised to me by even a USLA a stalwart the next day. Thankfully, this time the government of the day went to great lengths to expose the event as a shameful staging to discredit SL. This finding appears to have gained international credence, sparing the need for efforts from USLA.

Another event worth noting that may generate work for USLA, in the coming year was the withdrawal in March ’20, from the sponsorship of the infamous UNHCR resolution that censured Sri Lanka’s Ranaviru without any basis, essentially for the crime of rescuing SL from three decades of Tiger Terror. Much as it has been a cause for all patriotic Sri Lankans to be thankful for, it would be an even greater anathema to others. As we speak, no doubt, the Tiger Diaspora’s ill-gotten war chest must be working overtime to generate rumor and allegations, with no basis, but presented cleverly couched in a veneer of objective analysis, to tarnish this achievement and with it Sri Lanka.

Time will tell.

Dr. Chula Rajapakse MNZM 9.3.20 Wellington , New Zealand