Ratnajeevan Hoole flees Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 August 2011, 05:53 GMT]

Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole, the unsuccessful candidate for the post of Vice-Chancellor of the University of Jaffna supported by a section of pro-Rajapaksa elements, had to flee Jaffna as well as the island in the wake of a defamation case filed by SL minister Douglas Devananda in the Kayts court, news sources in Jaffna said adding that Prof Hoole is on his way back to the USA via UK. Even though Hoole accuses Devananda for his miseries, informed circles are of the opinion that the issue is much deeper, associated to international power polity. Hoole, known for re-invoking the colonial idiom of confrontation between Protestant Churches and native revival movements as his ‘sociological’ approach, gets the rare distinction of not getting the trust of both Pirapaharan and Rajapaksa, despite his opportunistic approaches or denunciations, the news sources said.

Ratnajeevan Hoole

Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed Ratnajeevan Hoole, a professor or engineering trained in the West, as Vice Chancellor of the University of Jaffna in early 2006. But he was not able to function as the LTTE opposed to the appointment. Hoole at that time approached Vanni but informed sources say that LTTE didn’t want to take a risk with him at a critical time. Hoole went to the USA during the war.

Hoole was given new hopes in 2010 by Rajapaksa supporters in the diaspora. On his way back to Jaffna in London, Hoole criticised the Tamil diaspora for preventing Rajapaksa speaking at the Oxford. Colombo created a new office for him at the University of Jaffna as coordinator to open an engineering faculty, so that he could prepare for the procedures of the Vice Chancellor appointment. Meanwhile, Hoole was a regular attendee of SL government and military functions in Jaffna. Hoole family’s internationally awarded ferocious exposures of human rights abuses also have come to an end with Rajapaksa ending the war.

After managing to get nominated as one of the three candidates for the Vice Chancellor post by the council of the Jaffna University, Hoole personally had a tea meeting with Rajapaksa in which, according to Hoole, he was promised of the appointment.

The appointment letter was to come the following day according to expectations. Rajapaksa-supporting websites grooming Hoole have even released news that he had been appointed. But for months the letter didn’t come and ultimately medical faculty Professor Vasanthi Arasaratnam, who stood number one among the candidates elected by the university’s council was appointed as the Vice Chancellor.

It seems chemistry didn’t work between Ratnajeevan Hoole and Rajapaksa-collaborating SL minister Douglas Devananda. Hoole openly accuses Devananda and the Saiva Ve’l’laa’las of Jaffna for standing in his way.

Hoole comes from an elite Protestant Ve’l’laa’la family. Often he used to highlight his family’s relationship with CW Thamotharampillai and Maaviddapuram Kanthasaamy temple. He is known for his opinion that the orientation of the Saiva-Ve’l’laa’la dominated revival movement in the colonial times against the progressive Protestant Churches resulted in the subsequent social and political evils of Tamils.

But very few think that the engineering professor’s amateurish sociology writings in this regard stood in his way, for many would have appreciated him for his Tamilness, enthusiasm for innovation and charisma, had he not come as a symbol of elite collaboration with Rajapaksa regime. Through the struggle the Eezham Tamils have long outgrown the kind of feuds that still haunt Hoole.

Again, very few think that Douglas Devananda, who has no power to even field candidates in the elections in the name of his own party, was able to dictate the great Mahinda Rajapaksa to break his promise to Ratnajeevan Hoole.

There was something else working at higher levels that made Rajapaksa to decide not to take a risk, informed circles familiar with ‘research’ foundations said.

Prof. Hoole is now on his way back to the USA, abruptly ending his engineering project to rebuild the north collaborating with Rajapaksa.

After failing in getting the VC post he was critical of the SL government, occupying military and particularly Douglas Devananda.

Devananda filed a defamation case in the courts at Kayts in Jaffna, against Hoole for an article written by him recently.

According to EPDP website, SL police questioned Hoole on 29 July, he was asked to be present at the courts on 31 July but he didn’t come. Hoole refuted the news but gave a statement to the SL police on 2 August responding to six charges against him. He was served with summons on 4 August to appear in the court on 5 August.

News reports allege that the nature of the charges was such that Hoole could have been arrested without bail had he not fled.

But Jaffna University sources say that Hoole was already planning to leave after failing in becoming the Vice Chancellor.

The Hoole saga is a good example for the elite of Eezham Tamils to grow more with statesmanship, basing and believing in mass struggle than in collaboration adventures.

Forced to leave, says Prof. Hoole

R. K. Radhakrishnan

Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole, a respected Sri Lankan Tamil academician and a prominent returnee after the military defeat of the Tamil Tigers, said on Thursday that he was forced to leave the country.

“Yes, I left through Colombo airport for London before [sic] I am arrested. I will work in the U.S. till lawyers can sort this out for me,” he told The Hindu via e-mail, when asked if he had fled Sri Lanka. “I will return because Sri Lanka [Jaffna in particular] is my home,” he asserted.

Prof. Hoole, one of the few Tamils who was vocal in his criticism of the Tamil Tigers when the outfit ruled the Northern Province had had to flee Sri Lanka then. This time he had to leave because of his differences with the lone Tamil Minister in Sri Lankan Cabinet, Douglas Devananda. Mr. Devananda had filed a defamation case against Prof. Hoole in the Kayts court over articles that the academician had written in the media, which were highly critical of Mr. Devananda's role in the North, and the ruling UPFA in general.

“My story is in the last three [editions of] the Sunday Leader. In the first of three articles, I saw what was going on during the Local Government elections [July 23] and reported it. That has upset Douglas [Devananda] in whose hands the government has… placed the full govt. apparatus, especially in Kayts [island],” he said in an e-mail communication. “The next Court date is the [August] 15th [fortunately for me, because this week is court vacation]. I was advised to be out of the island by then — not only by my lawyers but by all my friends in Jaffna,” he added.

Prof. Hoole had come back to Sri Lanka to help rebuild systems in the island after the conclusion of the war. “When he [The President] invited displaced expatriates to return, Prof. Carlo Fonseka approached him and he promised to have me and my wife reinstated as a professor if I was here. Although he issued the order when I came, it has not been implemented. My wife has been unemployed for a year. I was on an appointment until further notice,” he said when asked to clarify on him coming back to Sri Lanka.

Earlier, in 2006, Prof. Hoole, an engineering professor, was the Jaffna University Vice Chancellor. Because of his outspoken ways, the LTTE did not allow him to function and he went back to the United States.

VC panel

After he came back following the defeat of the LTTE, he was in the panel of three candidates for the Vice Chancellor post, but medical faculty Professor Vasanthi Arasaratnam, was appointed to the post. “I applied for VC by the appointed process. At that time when I was elected by the Council to the list of 3 from which the President selects one, various people have recommended me for appointment. That is the only time I have had to deal with him or communicate with him. In December at the only one-to-one meeting during the VC appointment process, he promised to appoint me at a personal meeting,” Prof. Hoole said.

Ever since he returned, Prof. Hoole has also been critical of the government's approach to the ethnic issue and has spoke in many fora. “True nation building is about celebrating our differences without suppressing them and addressing grievances. I am afraid that the government is missing the point in its ever effervescent and exuberant pronouncements about unity,” he told an audience at the Naro Udeshi Lecture at the Mahatma Gandhi Centre recently, his last lecture in Colombo.

Keywords: Sri Lankan ethnic conflict, Tamil academician, Eelam War IV, LTTE, Ratnajeevan Hoole

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article2347314.ece

பாவம் கூல், அவர அப்பர் ஏன்தான் இப்படி கேலி செய்கிற மாதிரி பெயரை வைத்தாரோ, சூடு தண்ணிபட்ட நாய் மாதிரி ஓடுகிறார், மூல வியாதியோ தெரியா, அவருக்கு தான்தான் பெரிய ஆள் என்று நினைப்பு, கல்யாண / செத்த வீடேன்றாலும் முதல் மரியாதை அவருக்கு தேவை,

Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole facing ‘jail without bail’ situation leaves Sri Lanka

by D.B.S. Jeyaraj

Professor S.Ratnajeevan.H.Hoole, UGC Coordinator for Engineering, University of Jaffna,has flown out of Sri Lanka to a Country in the west.

Prof.Hoole has left Sri Lanka against the backdrop of “legal action “initiated against him by cabinet minister Kathiravelu “Douglas” Devananda.

Douglas Devananda, secretary-general of Eelam Peoples Democratic Party(EPDP) is regarded as the most powerful Tamil politician in the North.

Devananda’s power&influence extends far beyond the portfolio of Traditional Industries held by him in President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s cabinet.

For instance,It is alleged that several senior govt officials, Jaffna varsity academics & judicial officers are controlled by Douglas Devananda.

AGA divisions of Delft,Kayts&velanai within the Kayts electoral division in Jaffna district are considered to be strongholds of the EPDP.

When local authority elections were held in the north on July 23rd 2011 the EPDP was able to win in only these three Pradeshiya Sabhas.

Prof.Hoole visited areas in the Kayts electoral division on election day & discovered many excesses & violations of election laws taking place.

He wrote an article“Pitfalls in the President’s Alliance with the EPDP–A Visit to Kayts on Elections Day”based on his first-hand experience.

EPDP news website of July 29th said Kayts Police had questioned Prof.Hoole concerning a defamatory article written by him about Devananda.

EPDP news website of Aug 1st said Prof.Hoole had agreed to come to the Kayts police station on July 31st but had not come after telephoning.

Prof.Hoole issued a statement refuting the news items in the EPDP news website. He said the Kayts Police had not contacted him as mentioned.

Subsequently Prof.Hoole was contacted&Inspector Silva & Sgt.Nandakumaran of Kayts Police recorded his statement in Jaffna on August 2nd.

Prof.Hoole in his statement responded to six charges made by minister Devananda in his complaint to Kayts Police about the article at issue.

Prof.Hoole said in a statement that minister Devananda by pursuing legal action was attempting to scare him&stop criticism of the EPDP chief.

On August 4th a Policeman went to Prof.Hoole’s office with a “summons” requiring him to be present at the Kayts courts on August 5th at 9am.

Nature of the summons indicated that Prof.Hoole would face a criminal charge & that he may be remanded in custody unless otherwise given bail.

It was also feared that the reason for a complaint being filed in Kayts instead of Jaffna was aimed at “jail without bail” for Prof. Hoole.

It was alleged magistrates have not found it easy at times to control the large numbers of EPDP cadres usually present in Kayts courts.

Since the hastily issued summons gave him little time for making adequate preparation,Prof.Hoole decided to seek a later date from courts.

He found several lawyers refusing to appear in the Kayts courts because of the influence allegedly enjoyed by the EPDP in the Kayts area.

Some lawyers were apprehensive about appearing at the Kayts courts in a case antagonistic to Devananda as they feared deadly repercussions.

Finally a lawyer instructed by senior attorney&ex-Jaffna TNA MP -N.Sri Kantha- represented Prof.Hoole at Kayts courts& sought a later date.

Prof.Hoole’s absence was deemed as contempt of court by the Kayts magistrate who issued a warrant against him on that count.

A warning was issued that an open warrant for Prof.Hoole’s arrest would be issued if he failed to be present in court on August 15th.

It is in this potential “jail without bail” situation that Prof.Hoole has left Sri Lanka.When he will return to Sri Lanka is the key question.

http://dbsjeyaraj.co...j/archives/2641

Respectful Advice To His Excellency The President, Mahinda Rajapaksa

Prof. S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole, Douglas Devananda

By S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole

As I enjoy a well-deserved rest in London, having fled there because of harassment and threat of arrest, TamilNet has issued a description of my travails with inaccuracies and the claim that I have fallen out with the President.

This is not surprising that when I was a candidate for Vice Chancellor of Jaffna, both Douglas Devananda and the Tamil Diaspora as represented by the New York Ilankai Tamil Sangam were campaigning against me using my Christian background and the same newspaper report in the Uthayan. The extremes of the right and left at some point coalesce.

However, I must say that I have never worked for the President or the PA. My relationship with President Rajapaksa has been as a public servant with the customary courtesy due to each other. Except for bumping into him at UGC and Education Ministry functions when he was Prime Minister, my real person to person contact was when I was elected one of three finalist candidates for VC and he invited me to tell me of my impending appointment as would be necessary to ensure it would not be turned down before making it.

After I was displaced as VC by LTTE threats and Tamil Sangam dribble in 2006, I was in the US in contact with my department at Peradeniya and the UGC and returned towards my three years’ release from Peradeniya in December 2008 only to be told that I was vacated from my post. I returned to the US.

As the war drew to a close and the President and G. L. Peiris made public announcements calling displaced Sri Lankans to return, I spoke to my friend Carlo Fonseka and he contacted the President who gave the assurance that I would be reinstated if I were there on the ground. So my wife and I did return on September 2, 2010 and the President issued a directive on September 13, to have us both reinstated in the system and appointed to Jaffna as ordered by the USAB in my case and in my wife’s case because the Human Rights Commission had declared her rights violated through her termination. This has not been done.

In the meantime on my own I applied for the Jaffna VC position and became one of the finalists despite Douglas Devananda working through his stooges on the Council to prevent my election. The President invited me to Temple Trees and promised me the appointment the next morning but as it delayed, I was told that he would make the appointment after the Local Government elections as Douglas was his only ally in Jaffna and it would ruin the PA’s chances if I was appointed. Finally Douglas’ candidate Vasanthy Arasaratnam was appointed without any warning and the election results have been a disaster for the President. I have never argued with him or raised it with him.

In the meantime I was in the position of Coordinator for Engineering “until further notice” but during my 9 months as Coordinator I had not been invited to any meeting in Jaffna on Engineering by the VCs who were stooges of Douglas Devananda nor had any of my recommendations even been responded to. At a Council meeting in May, Council Member Ramathasan who is not supposed to do any contract work for the university but does, claimed that I am enjoying the facilities of the university without doing any work – whereas I had left behind very comfortable offices with state-of-the art facilities in the US and now had to post even my letters to the UGC at my own expense because the university would not. My reports to the UGC testify to the work I did. My salary every month was obtained after complaining to the Labour Office.

Ramathasan in contrast was doing Rs. 300 million worth of illegal university work and living off the public. The Council then proceeded to discuss writing to the UGC that my services are not necessary. My wife had already been left unemployed for a year.

I have dependent children and feeling vulnerable, resigned in June with three months’ notice and began looking for work in Sri Lanka and abroad. Then my article on the local government elections appeared and Douglas used the government apparatus foolishly placed in his hands by the authorities to use a judge, Joy Mahadeva, who attends political functions like the Chankili Statue Opening with Douglas, to hear from the bench his criminal charge against me when there is no criminal defamation in our books. An MP attests that she had asked him to make her a High Court Judge. Would Douglas now help her is the big question.

The so called summons, which I am advised, is simply a notice to appear with no legal force, had reference B/157/2011 without a charge – only the B reference indicated a criminal charge. How can it be a criminal charge when criminal defamation is not on the statutes? A clue lies in that part of Douglas’ complaint that he and the Kayts voters were angered. So is it based on a charge of incitement to riot? I do not know because I did not attend court.

Many – including Douglas’ supporters, even Sinhalese in government – told me that he is a dangerous man to cross, against whom there are credible reports that he has murdered people such as my relations the Bojan sisters. A presidential confidante has been warned by someone in military intelligence that they cannot save that person if Douglas tried something. A government minister during the elections on a trip to the islands with an NGO person lamented to her about Douglas thus: “For the sake of elections, we need to work with a murderer.”

The message was loud and clear. I took a van to Vavuniya where I had some work when I was perhaps due in court and after that I came to Colombo and flew to London on Sunday 7^th as my articles came out. I was in a panic as web editions were out on Saturday night but … Thank God.

Tarrin Constantine a businessman in London states in writing that this criminal charge is the handiwork of Solicitor Rengan Devarajan who he says is a habitual alcoholic drinking even at work. He was asked to vacate his offices by his British landlord for defaulting on rent, has cleared office cheques through his personal account and owes tens of thousands of pounds to people including Constantine. He is hiding with Devananda after clients who were deported because he was drunk and failed to turn up at crucial hearings, had their relatives looking for him. His uncle in Jaffna, English teacher Panchacharam who was at Hindu College, laments that Devarajan was born into their family. Such is the quality of people sheltered by Douglas.

Devarajan has now joined Jaffna University’s Douglas Council, appointed two weeks ago after the last one lapsed. Although the Universities Act places the onus of appointing the Council on the UGC, the list from Douglas was announced by the UGC Chairman and placed later before the UGC with mistakes for pro forma approval. Even the pretence of adherence to the law is now gone. Ironically a very low caste principal was also on the list and the VC objected to Douglas that he was enrolled for the PhD degree. But the Council has always had degree candidates on the grounds that academic decisions are the Senate’s. Was caste then the real objection? (In my time I managed to get a highly qualified carpenter-caste person on to the list but he declined saying he would not be accepted). The principal escaped the hatchet when the UGC Chairman rushed and announced the list to avoid pressure as nominations from the unions and others started coming in.

Tamils have about 20% Christians and the Jaffna Secretariat area containing the university (covering Jaffna town, Nallur, Chundikuli Columbuthurai, Navanthurai and Pasaiyoor) has about 56% Christians. The Council before Douglas has therefore had 3 Christian appointed members out of 13 to maintain the balance. But after Douglas started making the Council, this has been reduced to 1. There is no Christian among the 12 ex-officio members and no Muslim although their population is growing in Jaffna.

The Council is something to watch because Douglas and Ramathasan chaired a meeting about a week ago at Ramathasan’s Euroville offices on building up the Engineering Faculty. Is Euroville now going to get the contract for the Engineering Faculty? Is that why I had to go? Will Devarajan come up with an argument for why Council members can work for the university?

Wishing the President well, I have to offer some advice with all due respect after the electoral debacle of last month. EPDP analysts are reported to believe that contesting as PA was the cause of the defeat while the President reportedly has blamed it on his accepting “that fellow” Devananda’s nominees. These are naïve analyses. The reality is that the Tamil people have been robbed of their dignity by Douglas and the government and yielded the TNA its massive win without campaigning. Some of the reasons:

1) The several robberies and murders in Jaffna which even General Hathurusinghe has placed on the EPDP. When EPDP cadres were prosecuted, the Chavakacheri judge who heard the case was transferred. And yet, the EPDP is the public face of government.

2) Trying to buy votes through distribution of goodies flouting election laws. Misusing even our Mobitel phones to campaign.

3) When the President’s security service personnel, government ministers, presidential advisers and almost everyone in Jaffna believes that Douglas Devananda is a murderer, the government still deals with us through him. A couple of days ago when a friend asked a minister why they are standing by when I am being chased off, he said further elections are due and nothing can be done till they are over. Is the message of the Tamil voter still not clear?

4) Douglas summoning medical directors, vice chancellors, the GA and everyone in authority to meetings as though he is the relevant minister and all of them running when summoned in fear of their lives. When people ask for roads to be widened, engineers are summoned to Sridhar Theatre and need to wait while Devananda shows off how important people need to wait for him. (The new Council appointees had their first meeting with Devananda last Tuesday night at Sridhar theatre).

5) The non-appointments of the best persons available to the university, the only major national institution in Jaffna. How can a written directive to appoint me and my wife to the academic staff without delay be ignored for almost a year despite court orders and a shortage of good staff? (A petition by over 50 senior academic staff including Council members has been signed asking the VC to obey court orders and not deprive the university of good teachers). Remember that in normal circumstances political stooges will never go against the president unless they are promised protection. There is also my non-appointment as VC as promised and the appointment instead of a person who was indicted by the Auditor General for financial mismanagement and violation of procedure costing the government several millions and who falsely claimed in her application to have a subject specialised Indian first degree when India has no subject specialised bachelor’s degrees.

6) The UGC not appointing the best persons available to the Council of Jaffna as specified in the Universities Act and instead Devananda appointing crooks and the very ordinary. The UGC’s unofficial Tamil member is also not the best the Tamils have.

7) The UGC passing Circular 876 asking universities to recruit from the Minister’s list. Are non-PA citizens not entitled to government jobs? Is that not a violation of our rights? The University of Jaffna gets only people approved by Douglas. Because of the way the VC is appointed she cannot now turn down other Douglas appointments. Actually doing this makes a mockery of the President’s speeches on making Sri Lanka an educational hub and our universities – centers of excellence.

Winning over the Tamil people is easy. Free us from the clutches of monsters like Devananda who corrupt even the judiciary. Treat us like humans for a change and do not assume that we will vote for free shoes at election time.

http://www.thesunday...inda-rajapaksa/

Edited August 14, 201114 yr by Nellaiyan

Why is this man thinking every one else is ordinary and he and his wife are the best persons ?

His obsession with caste and religion is also very disturbing.

His strategy of aligning with the mass murderer and challenging the local murderer, obviously didn't go very well.

From what he has written above, it looks like he has more socio-politico objectives than academic, if any..

It is dangerous to allow some one like hoole with such cultural engineering mindset to higher posts and let him build his network and circles, and endanger our traditional values.

IMHO Jaffna people are relieved, that he is not there.

Jaffna society isn't starved of academics. There are plenty of them.