EDITORIAL

A Man Of Letters

And pause a while from letters to be wise;
There mark what ills the scholar's life assail:
Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.
- Samuel Johnson: Vanity of Human Wishes

If letters maketh a man, then Thilanga Sumathipala is indeed a man in the making. Last week, he and his legal advisors sprang into action, engaging in a correspondence which might have drawn an envious glance from even one of the more prolific Victorian litt‚rateurs - Jane Austen, for instance. But there the likeness ceases. Ms. Austen was no fraudster, common crook or swindler. She did not, for instance, spend the long winter evenings, knitting needles in hand and telephone on ear, engaging in idle banter with mass murderers incarcerated in Brixton Prison.

Not so our Sumathi, Sri Lanka Cricket and Sri Lanka Telecom Chairman, as good a liar, a cheat and a swindler as money can buy. Irked and vexed by the string of scandalous stories published in The Sunday Leader, bookmaker-turned-kingmaker Sumathipala sat down to a series of prose that would have drawn a tear from the eye of his English literature teacher at Nalanda Junior, whoever that poor soul was. On October 21 he penned a letter marked 'Urgent / Important / By Hand' to Secretary, Interior Ministry, M.N. Junaid. In it, he claimed he was a victim of "grave injustice" that would cause him "to be shunned by right thinking people in society and cause ruin to my success." And about time, too.

Our heart bleeds for Sumathipala. Who does he think he is? The Blessed Mother Teresa? It was he who took with him to the 1999 World Cup in London, Dhammika Amerasinghe under the forged identity of Buddhika Godage, a wanted murderer, paid for by the Cricket Board (of which Sumathipala was President). Hardly cricket, old boy! But the plot thickens: he knowingly accompanied Dhammika on a false passport, a criminal offence. That Dhammika is now languishing in Welikada Prison awaiting trial for several dozen murders is, to Sumathipala, a matter of no consequence. That Sumathipala has been in regular telephonic contact with the paid assassin is, he says, pure coincidence. All this, after all, is what the ICC, the champion of international cricket, expects of its directors. And when the Cricket Board's auditors raised a query on the irregular sponsorship of 'Godage,' Sumathipala voted to write off the entire consideration. How's that, umpire? Caught and bowled, what?

And barely had the ink dried on Sumathipala's letter on October 21 when on October 22, Desmond Fernando, P.C., sprang into action, pen in hand. This notable defender of human rights has now popped out of the woodwork representing Sumathipala. Writing to Attorney General K.C. Kamalasabayson, Fernando urged him to investigate the "leakage of information" on the inquiry against his client. Amazingly, Fernando did not stop to ask his client how it was he committed fraud and then authorised it to be written off; how he was complicit in uttering a false passport; and how come he needed to keep telephoning a mass murderer in prison. Instead, he wanted to know how it was that details of the inquiry were leaking out. Come, come, Mr. Fernando! This is rather like a husband being discovered in bed with his mistress and offering the defence that his wife was wrong to ascertain his whereabouts. This simply will not do.

Hot on the heels of Fernando came D.N. Thurairajah & Co., attorneys-at-law and, to boot, notaries public (frankly, the "& Co." bit had us worried, for we all know the kind of Co. Sumathipala keeps). No doubt with an eye on the corporate budget, they sent their missive by snail-mail registered post, not opting for extravagant hand delivery as Sumathipala and Fernando had done. Nevertheless, they did trouble to underline and capitalise the 'registered post' bit, just in case we failed to take note. And anxious to be noticed, they addressed their letter to the editor, the publisher and Ms. Frederica Jansz, reporter of The Sunday Leader, copying it also to an assortment of bigwigs and chalking up in the process a sum total of Rs. 99 by way of postage to the corporate overhead.

D.N. Thurairajah (&, for that matter, Co., notaries public), the livewire of which outfit is Mr. Radhakrishnan, are men of purpose (in sharp contradistinction to Macbeth who, if you recall, was according to Mrs. Macbeth, infirm of purpose). They do not stint. They give their clients their money's worth. Our startling exposures on the life and times of their client Sumathipala they thought, arose from the machinations of "jealous and disgruntled persons." Well, Messrs Thurairajah (& Co.), hang on to your dentures: we have news for you. If you think we're green with envy at the doings of a habitual fraudster (viz. your client), think again. And as to our state of gruntlement, pray let us be the judge of that. It takes more than a letter from you (even by registered post) to gruntle us.

Sending cold shivers down our spines, Thurairajah (& Co.) say they are putting us "on notice." In words calculated to sting and hurt our finer feelings they claim we are "acting wrongfully and unlawfully, have intentionally, deliberately and maliciously, with mala fide intent, caused grave and irreparable loss and damage and irremediable mischief to our client, for which our client will seek legal redress." Well, Messrs Thurairajah, be our guests. Just you go seek legal redress and watch our counter suit. Legal redress, forsooth!

The Thurairajah cohort, whose contribution to literature has taken four pages to do what Desmond Fernando has done in two (we trust they do not charge by the page), rather than explaining how it is that their client came to take murderers on false passports to London for the World Cup at Cricket Board expense - something the public is no doubt all agog to know - have hurled vulgar abuse at us, bringing relations by blood and marriage into the equation. Well, Messrs Thurairajah, come to that, would you wish us to begin rattling on about Sumathipala's mother, the venerable President of the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress?

And is it not amazing that Thurairajah and the company they keep (notaries public) are the legal advisors to Sri Lanka Cricket? Here is the President of Sri Lanka Cricket caught with his hand in the till, and rather than represent the interests of their client, Sri Lanka Cricket, what do we have? Messrs Thurairajah (& Co.) leaving no stone unturned in trying to exculpate their new-found client, Thilanga Sumathipala. You can't serve both God and mammon, Thurai, old boy: no way.

Incredibly, while Sumathipala, Fernando and Thurairajah gripe about The Sunday Leader having accessed confidential documents, in his letter to Junaid, Sumathipala has appended a copy of a letter from Mr. Rumy Marzook, which is neither addressed nor copied to him. Now how did he get his paws on that? Sumathipala is not just a liar and a fraudster: he is a hypocrite, to boot.

And what of young Desmond? Is he without sin? Judge for yourselves, dear readers. Our worthy Desmond is legal advisor in Sri Lanka to the ICC. Elsewhere in today's issue you will find us quoting chapter and verse from the ICC's Code of Ethics, a code it is Fernando's job to see is upheld. Has his client Sumathipala upheld it by defrauding Sri Lanka Cricket? Has his client Sumathipala upheld it by engaging in the bookie business? Has his client Sumathipala upheld it by taking criminals on false passports into the very heart of international cricket? Whether or not you think the ICC is getting value for its money in Fernando, we leave you to judge.

We would also urge Fernando and Thurairajah to note that given that they represent also SLC and ICC respectively, the public will watch whether they bill Sumathipala for their time. After all, it would not do for their bills to be paid, if effect, by SLC and ICC now, would it? And given that Sumathipala has already got caught taking his machangs with him on globe trots at Board expense, we will be forgiven for drawing attention to this sordid side of things.

Sumathipala and his legal advisors can write until they are blue in the face, but facts are stubborn. Like a cornered cat, Sumathipala is baring his fangs and clawing the air. He could do worse, and indeed we know he has. We will not be cowed by his threats, or those of Fernando and Thurairajah. For all the hot air Fernando utters in support of human rights, when was he assaulted or shot at for his troubles? We have been, Fernando, and the evidence is steadily coming out as to who paid the piper. There are those to whom the subject of human rights is a matter of academic interest, or perhaps even personal passion or maybe even a way up the international ladder. But there are also those who have defended these very rights with blood. Ironically, it is the armchair champions of these rights who now rush to defend the abusers. The Sunday Leader has no personal vendetta: we have only the public interest at heart. We will continue to publish, unbowed and unafraid. Not all your threats, not all your abuse, will stop or stifle us. Be assured of that.