{"id":46034,"date":"2015-07-22T12:00:05","date_gmt":"2015-07-22T19:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=46034"},"modified":"2015-07-22T13:15:43","modified_gmt":"2015-07-22T20:15:43","slug":"an-appreciation-don-randall-mp-a-friend-who-was-there-when-often-no-one-else-was-there-a-friend-indeed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/07\/22\/an-appreciation-don-randall-mp-a-friend-who-was-there-when-often-no-one-else-was-there-a-friend-indeed\/","title":{"rendered":"An Appreciation \u2013 Don Randall MP -\u2018\u2018A Friend, who was there, when often no one else was there \u2013 A Friend indeed\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chanaka Bandarage<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Sri Lanka Support Group deeply regrets the sudden passing away of Don Randall, Australian MP.<\/p>\n

Don died of a massive heart attack on Tuesday 21 July2015,while driving his car in his electorate of Canning.\u00a0 He was driving to attend a duty as an MP.<\/p>\n

The whole of Australia is shocked about the sudden demise of Don \u2013 a man with a very Big Heart.<\/p>\n

Don was a very important person to Sri Lanka. From the mid 1990s up to his passing away two days ago, Don was undoubtedly the best friend of Sri Lanka in the Australian parliament.<\/p>\n

When some Labor and\/or Green MPs and Senators unfairly criticised Sri Lanka or presented somewhat incorrect facts about Sri Lanka, Don stood tall in the parliament confronting\u00a0 them. \u00a0He was often the lone voice for Sri Lanka in the Australian parliament.<\/p>\n

A fearless fighter, Don confronted MPs who failed to realise that Sri Lanka was facing a brutal terrorist war.\u00a0 Don tabled Motions in the parliament, among other things, denouncing the LTTE.\u00a0 He warned that there may be LTTE terrorist links in Australia.\u00a0 He also worked hard in establishing business links between Australia and Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

In late October 2014, Don wrote to the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights in Geneva that he was happy about the elimination of Tamil Tigers from Sri Lanka.\u00a0 He stated he was sad that they killed two of his very good friends; Lakshman Kadiragamar (the then Foreign Minister) and Major General Janaka Perera (former Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Australia).\u00a0 Don stated that the killing of Janaka\u2019 s wife, Vajira, in the same bomb attack was a tremendous tragedy.\u00a0 In his lengthy submission to the UNOG-OHCHR, Don stated that during his travels to Sri Lanka, he spoke to Tamil people in the North of the country and they spoke to him very highly about the huge infrastructure development that the Government had commenced in the North and East of Sri Lanka, after the war ended in 2009.\u00a0 He praised the Government\u2019s resettlement of about 290,000 Tamil IDPs within a record time of several months.\u00a0 He mentioned the successful de-mining operation which Australia funded (for which he lobbied).\u00a0 Don admitted that some Tamil people criticised the Government for not solving their problems on time.<\/p>\n

Don was the Chairman of the Sri Lanka – Australia Friendship Group in the Australian parliament for many years.\u00a0 He led Australian parliamentary delegations to Sri Lanka.\u00a0 To the writer\u2019s knowledge, in the last five years alone, he visited Sri Lanka three times.<\/p>\n

A keen golfer, it was Don\u2019s great desire to play golf at the Nuwara Eliya golf course, one of Sri Lanka\u2019s best golf courses.\u00a0 He was able to fulfill his desire in 2013. \u00a0Every time he returned to Australia from Sri Lanka, Don came with nostalgic stories. When the writer met with him a few months ago, Don related the experience of spending a day at a Tea Planter\u2019s bungalow in Sri Lanka\u2019s hill country, where he studied the art of picking tea leaves and processing them in the factory.\u00a0 He had simply cherished that experience.<\/p>\n

Don ran his own small charity in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

Don was a great friend of the Sri Lankan community living in Australia. He maintained close personal friendships with several Sri Lankan Australians.\u00a0 They included Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and Burghers. \u00a0Don routinely attended Sri Lankan functions in Australia.\u00a0 If invited, he seldom missed a Sri Lankan social or cultural event in his native state of Western Australia (WA).<\/p>\n

Don actively attended Sri Lanka Support Group functions in Australia.\u00a0 He worked tirelessly to make the \u2018Sri Lanka Way Forward \u2013 After the War\u2019 <\/em>Seminar held in the Canberra Parliament few years ago a tremendous success.<\/p>\n

To the writer\u2019s best knowledge in the past 15 years Don did not miss a single Sri Lankan Independence Day celebration in Canberra.<\/p>\n

Don was a dedicated MP for his constituents in Canning.\u00a0 One of his rivals, Labor MP Gary Gray, who holds Don\u2019s neighbouring seat of Brand, said “I have seen first-hand how hard he worked for that community. He worked tirelessly for his local community groups, veterans and aged care services, and for improved local infrastructure,”<\/p>\n

“He was a thoroughly good and a decent bloke,” Mr Tony Abbott, Australian Prime Minister stated in a statement on Tuesday evening. \u00a0Foreign Affairs Minister and fellow WA MP Julie Bishop issued a heartfelt tribute to her dear friend and colleague\u201d who had a giant personality\u201d. She quipped With wide interests and an inquiring mind, Don worked to promote the national interest by building close links with a number of countries\u2026. He will be remembered for his commitment to community service, his wit, his frank opinions freely shared and his abiding loyalty to his friends\u201d. \u00a0Former Attorney-General and the Prime Minister\u2019s Special Envoy for Citizenship and Community Engagement, Phillip Ruddock tweeted Incredibly saddened by the loss of my friend and colleague Don. \u2026\u2026… I’ll miss him greatly\u201d.<\/p>\n

The untimely loss of Don is a great loss to Australia.\u00a0 It is also a great loss for the Sri Lankan community in Australia, and for Sri Lanka at large.<\/p>\n

May Don rest in peace.<\/p>\n

President, Sri Lanka Support Group (Global)<\/em><\/p>\n

srilankasupportgroup@bigpond.com<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chanaka Bandarage Sri Lanka Support Group deeply regrets the sudden passing away of Don Randall, Australian MP. Don died of a massive heart attack on Tuesday 21 July2015,while driving his car in his electorate of Canning.\u00a0 He was driving to attend a duty as an MP. The whole of Australia is shocked about the sudden […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chanaka-bandarage","category-sri-lanka-support-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46034\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}