Bishop Thiagarajah was very right in not responding to Mahindapala

Bishop Thiagarajah was very right in not responding to Mahindapala
Thursday, March 12, 2009 Leave a Comment

And Sri Lanka Guardian was right in not publishing Mahindapala’s feature

By Victor Karunairajan, Associate Editor, Sri Lanka Guardian

(March 13, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) H L D Mahindapala an elderly gentleman lives comfortably in Melbourne, Australia. His Tamil wife takes good care of him. We at Sri Lanka Guardian have at times accepted his feature contributions. We have also rejected a few for good reasons. We had a note from him this morning (Thursday March 12) that if we don’t publish a particular feature, Lankaweb will do it for him. He should have known better not to indulge in such a contention in what appears to be a threat.

We rejected a particular feature we received from him yesterday titled “Jaffna Bishop silent on his wife’s letter” which appeared in the Lanka Web this morning (Thursday March 12, 2009).

Image: The 61st Annual October Festival of the Church of South India, which was a Service of Thanksgiving for the Unity of the Church, was held at the JDCSI Cathedral Church at Vaddukoddai, Saturday October 11, 2008..

Our editor, Nilantha Ilangamuwa, however wrote to him promptly as a matter of courtesy. This is what he conveyed to him:

Dear Mr Mahindapala:

I discussed your feature with my two associate editors and I will come back to you soon about their reactions. One of them said that your feature overlooks an important factor in that Bishop Daniel Thiagarajah is fully involved in creating a uniting force among all the communities in Sri Lanka without in anyway getting mixed up with politics.

At this very moment there is a three-day Diocesan Council sessions taking place in Vaddukoddai in which even Sinhalese representatives are participating for the very first time in the history of the Jaffna Diocese.

Dr Thaya Thiagarajah is a trauma counselor who rushed to Wanni when she heard that her adopted son, a worker in the church may have been killed. What she saw there disturbed her immensely and is now determined to go back there and help the people who need the care and support of a person like her. Her reactions were very human and that she was able to share with others marks how her family is reacting to the tragedy in Sri Lanka with both the Bishop and his wife fully involved with the needs of the situation.

This is certainly not a matter for political points as to how one feels, views and expresses. This is a human tragedy and both Bishop Daniel and Thaya Thiagarajah have so much to give much more than what is expected of them. It would be sad to interpret this matter from a strictly political point of view.

As my colleague pointed out quite rightly we who are determined to bring all the communities together as one Sri Lankan community, cannot and should not make political high points out of what is a highly traumatizing human situation in Wanni. He said: "We have indulged in this exercise too long at great cost to our nation and there has to be an end to it. It has to be now."

In view of his feature appearing in the Lanka Web, we wish to very politely remind Mr Mahindapala that we are saddened that a man of his age, experience and wisdom gathered through his lifetime, should be indulging in hare-hunting in turbulent waters as the saying goes.

"Bishop Thiagarajah has his obligations to the entire community. He has not only to respect every one in his spiritual care and they happen to be Tamils and Sinhalese but also inspire a new hope and help seek peace and harmony in the country. He has been very clear in this mission to which he is totally committed."
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The Rev Bishop Daniel Thiagarajah was invited as a guest to a peace rally in Melbourne to deliver the keynote sermon. This was not the time to hound a guest for a political comment on Sri Lanka and it is not his field as well. Instead of appreciating that the good bishop granted him audience, Mr Mahindapala has thrown politeness, civility and honour to the wild winds and grabbed the opportunity to serve his baser interests. Furthermore, there are conventions that govern a guest; these are sacred and Bishop Thiagarajah respected them.

Secondly, Mr Mahindapala has certainly ignored and abused the rights of an individual to her views, reactions and concerns. Dr Mrs Thaya Thiagarajah is a trauma counselor who rushed to Wanni from Colombo when she heard that their adopted son working in Wanni with the mission was killed. This was during the very first days of the LTTE and the Sri Lanka Armed Forces exchanging fire in the area of Visuvamadu, Mullaitivu and Puthukudiyiruppu with thousands of civilians caught in the middle.

What she saw there and experienced she shared it with others whom she felt should know the ground realities there. The fact that she was able to freely express herself marks how a couple, in this case Bishop Danny and Thaya Thiagarjah, ideally carry on with their lives especially their calling and profession. Evidently, Mr Mahindapala can only see Dr Mrs Thaya Thiagarajah as a wife and how in his view a wife should be in a kind of marriage where she is secondary at best, nothing at most. His unwarranted charge making a mountain out of a mole hill reflects his attitude to womanhood; poor one at that if not extremely deplorable. This is not even a mole hill.
Bishop Thiagarajah has his obligations to the entire community. He has not only to respect every one in his spiritual care and they happen to be Tamils and Sinhalese but also inspire a new hope and help seek peace and harmony in the country. He has been very clear in this mission to which he is totally committed.

In his calling, every soul is precious and he was absolutely right in ignoring the kind of questions Mr Mahindapala had asked of him and the answers he was pursuing. None of these in anyway were based on the moral, ethical and participles that should govern our lives.

Mr Mahindapala was only making a lot of mileage for himself in the believe that a journalist or anyone who pretends to be a journalist has the right to hound people.

In Sri Lanka we need people who care for the well being of all people and equally, who will fearlessly reflect their concerns freely to seek solutions. The Rt Rev Dr Daniel Thiagarjah, the head of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India and his wife Dr Thaya Thiagarajah who in her own right is a kind-hearted professional trained to make her healing mission efficient, are both a credit to the community and a model family too. Mr Mahindapala should have known better. -Sri Lanka Guardian