An Unfortunately Fate of Jaffna Dons

By: Ananth Palakidnar

(October, 18, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) It was soon after the Martin Ennals award, the Swiss Human Rights prize was announced for two academics from the University of Jaffna, Dr. Rajan Hoole and Dr. Kopalasingam Sritharan, the body of another senior Mathematics lecturer Dr. P. Makinan of the Jaffna University was found lying on the Bambalapitiya beach last week.

Dr. Makinan was sixty two years old and held the position of the Head of the Mathematics Department of the Jaffna University.

He was in Colombo for this year’s GCE /Advanced level paper marking. When he was getting ready to return to Jaffna after his job was over, brutal death had struck him.

Makinan who had done his last minute shopping prior to his departure to Jaffna went missing from the place where he was staying at Wellawate. Later the police recovered his body lying on the Bambalapitiya beach and handed it over to the Colombo hospital morgue. As the body was swollen beyond recognition with an injury on the head, his kith and kin in Colombo could not recognise it. Therefore his wife came down from Jaffna to Colombo and identified the body last week.

The Mathematics lecturer Makinan was a true intellect who served the Jaffna University with great dedication. He was one of the few who did not want to leave Jaffna despite the horror that haunts the region for more than two decades.

He could have very well left Jaffna seeking greener pastures abroad with the academic excellence he possessed. But, he remained in Jaffna and made his contribution in making the University there a unique educational institution despite all challenges in the Peninsula.

It was a few months ago the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University Professor. S. Ravindranath went missing while he was returning after a function at the BMICH. Though Prof. Ravindranath held the position as the VC of the Eastern University, he hailed from Kokuvil, Jaffna where the deceased Senior lecturer Makinan also hailed.

The disappearance of Prof. Ravindranath still remains a mystery despite to appeals several local and international institutions made for his safe return.

The University of Jaffna was opened by late Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1974. The first President of the Jaffna campus was late Prof. K. Kailasapathy before the institution was turned into a fully fledged University.

Prof. S. Vithyananthan was the first Vice Chancellor of the University of Jaffna.
Since then several prominent academics including the legendry Engineering Professor Thurairasa held the post as the VC of the University of Jaffna.

Most of the dons who headed the University of Jaffna were from the University of Peradeniya and some of them were even from Colombo.

With the gradual expansion of the Jaffna University with its Medical and Agricultural faculties a large number of academics not only from the Southern Universities of the island but also the Lankan academics who were even from abroad arrived in the Peninsula to serve the Jaffna University.

The period between the mid seventies and the early eighties could be rated as the prime period of the Jaffna University. Prof .S. Selvanayagam was the first academic of the Jaffna University who suffered a brutal death in the late seventies. The death was accidental. Iron bars loaded in a lorry pierced the wind screen of Prof. Selvanayagam’s vehicle and hit his forehead when he applied the brakes suddenly. The don was driving his vehicle right behind the lorry and the incident occurred at Kantharmadam, Jaffna.

Prof. Selvanayagam , an expert in geography returned from Nigeria to serve at the Jaffna University.

However, the first major blow struck the Jaffna University when its internationally renowned academic in Forensic science Dr. Rajini Thiranagama was gunned down right opposite the medical faculty of Jaffna in 1987.

Dr. Rajini Thiranagama was a liberal thinker and also a political critic. She was one of the co-authors of the famous book `Broken Palmyrah’, which touched mainly on the issues with regard to the IPKF’s presence in the North and the East.

So it was Dr. Rajan Hoole and Dr. K. Sritharan who are the other writers contributed to the `Broken Palmyrah’ have been selected for the prestigious Martin Ennals -Swiss Human Rights award for their impartial contribution towards highlighting the human rights violations that have been taking place in the Peninsula.

Doctors Hoole and Sritharan had also initiated the publication called the report of the Jaffna University teachers which comes out analysing the contemporary issues in the North and East.
Doctors Rajan Hoole and Sritharan have been selected for the Swiss Human Rights awards this year.However these two academics live in self imposed exile due to security reasons for the past several years.

It was when Dr. Ratnajeevan Hoole who was the younger brother of Dr. Rajan Hoole was named the Vice Chancellor of the University of Jaffna last year several elements opposed his appointment and later succeeded in preventing him from becoming the Vice Chancellor of the University of Jaffna.

The Jaffna University remains stable despite all political currents and threats, it is pity that the academics who made immense contributions towards the growth of the University and its students community have to pay heavy prices for being engulfed in the unending crisis in the Peninsula.

Therefore,the mysterious death of Senior lecturer P. Makinan is another blow to the University community of Jaffna and to the educationists in the country at large.

Since the serene and the calm atmosphere of the Peninsula changed into brutal killing fields, apart from the deaths of thousands of persons a large number of intellectuals have also perished.
Dr. Ponniah Makinan is the latest addition to that long list of untimely deaths.
Another Dr.Makinan will never be born again.