Douglas Devananda tells Asian Tribune:

A crooked beginning and end

Crooked in the beginning would be crooked forever. Drawing a parallel to the Tamil language daily from Jaffna, Minister Douglas Devananda said Uthayan had a crooked beginning with the tears and curses of hundreds of Jaffna pensioners, who lost their hard-earned savings in the Sabra Unico Finance. He added, Sabra Unico Finance that was associated with the Uthayan Group collapsed in 1993, with mostly pensioners in Jaffna losing Rs. 60 million. One member of the family left the country with Rs. 46 million and has not since been heard of.

When asked about the attack on the Uthayan printing press, Minister Douglas Devananda who is also the Secretary General of the Eelam People's Democratic Party said that the general perception is that attack on the printing press was 'an inside job'. That is the general opinion that is prevailing in this part of Jaffna.

He pointed out that the press is running smoothly now from the very next day of the purported attack and they are printing their papers in that press without any problem. Truth will always prevail.

Minister of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development emphasised, "What we are trying to do is to recreate a joyous and happy society which existed earlier - a Tamil society without violence and hatred. In a society which we are dreaming and longing when there is no need to place trust on violence and destruction.

"If we were interested in violence and politic of hatred, we could have easily partnered with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or else joined with Tamil National Alliance and by now would have been involved in the exploitation of the miseries of Tamil civilians. But we are for a society to exist without problems, hatred, and vendetta". Minister Devananda pointed out that TNA is continuously engaged in a campaign provoking violence and miseries of the people. He said that he always opposed the negative approaches of TNA and the Uthayan.

"We are someone who varies from their political ideology. We don't like their political stance." He stressed, we wanted our Tamils to lead a joyous and happy life, with peace, tranquillity, and live in harmony with honour and dignity.To achieve such cherished goals, we found hatred and violence anathema, that is why we gave up militancy and entered the mainstream politics.He insisted, I am of the opinion that only after a thorough investigation, we will be able to come to a right conclusion regarding the attack on the Uthayan printing press.

Minister said, anyhow as it is, everything points to an inside job. On that particular day we learnt that their CCTV camera suddenly stopped functioning. Furthermore, when there was a fire - in case of fire in our houses we always try to put off the fire - instead, they have shown keen interest in taking photographs and recording on video cameras, rather than dousing the fire, he said. Minister Douglas Devananda said, also there was a talk that this daily paper is losing popularity and its circulation is on a steep downward trend. With the view to prop up the sagging circulation, staging of fire on the press might have been an inside job.

We are of the opinion this was a calculated design by them to damage our popularity by placing the blame on us.When Asian Tribune asked, "Do you mean the Uthayan newspaper people?"

Douglas Devananda said, "You see, Saravanapavan and those involved with him."

Asian Tribune: This is your opinion about this issue? What else you want to say about this? Douglas Devananda: It is just similar to some people making false complaints that their jewels and other valuables were burgled with the view to claim compensation from insurance companies. Presently Uthayan is slapped with number of court cases for defamation and may be this is a ploy to divert the attention against those cases filed by us as well as by many others. If we believe in violence, there is no need for us to file cases and seek justice and redress through democratic process.

Asian Tribune: Latest report we received was that Minister Rishad Bathiyutheen too has sent in a lawyer's notice against the news report appeared in Uthayan about a political event said to have happened recently in Mullaitivu.

Douglas Devananda: We find that almost all their news reports fabricated and unsubstantiated.We observed, even their reports on court proceedings on many occasions were completely incorrect, misleading and far from that of the court rulings. There were even reports to say that it was Uthayan people were involved in the recruitment of cadres for the LTTE.

Uthayan and TNA are the very people working on a systematic plan to deprive Tamils from enjoying a joyous, happy and contended life.It is very unfortunate that TNA and Uthayan have been so far tolerated by the Tamils. We will work assiduously to have a righteous society by freeing our people from the bondage and divisive manipulations of the schemers, vowed Minister Douglas Devananda.

He concluded by pointing out, "Right from the beginning Uthayan news sheet began on a wrong footing and continues in the same line to gain popularity and political mileage.

"Understand", Minister said, "these are all short-lived priorities. Sooner or later 'Truth will prevail' and expose these political extremists soon." To clarify the issues pointed out by Minister Devananda, the writer Asian Tribune had contacted Saravanapavan, the owner of Uthayan Newspaper over the phone and requested a clarification on the allegations made by Minister Devananda. Saravanapavan had requested the writer to call back in an hour's time.Accordingly, the writer had called him an hour later, but there had been no response from him, and had left a text message thus delaying the publication the interview.

Courtesy: Asian Tribune