"I am a Sinhalese Buddhist myself but I condemn the fact that a Tamil journalist was jailed for his writings as indeed, we all should. When Lasantha was killed, what similar dirt did Rajpal write? The man is known for trashing the West but is seen scuttling around at all the embassy parties, loading his plate with free food and drinks. This is something known to many!"
by Chandra Goonewardene
(September 23, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) In response to Pearl Thevanayagam’s article on “Ís plain English too much for Rajpal to digest?” and since she has asked for a response from readers of the Sri Lanka Guardian, may I (as a law student who is also a good chum of young journalists, one of whom works in that newspaper) say that it be well said that Rajpal himself is too much for many of us decent readers in this country to digest!
The columns that he writes (if they can be called as such) are only an exercise in slandering others or in trying to balance uneasily between satisfying his bookie-keeper turned editor-turned government politician and trying to retain the remnants of journalism as he used to practice it when writing to the Sunday Times. It is quite entertaining to watch his gyrations in so doing. Hailing from Matara and now settled down in Colombo with only occcassional visits to the village as I do, I can say with conviction that this type of dirt is practiced only by people speaking English in Colombo!
From what I hear, what else can you expect from a journalist who jumps from one newspaper to another for his own ambition and then trashes each newspaper that he once worked with? This included, if we remember, a short stint at the government kept press right up to the time that he was virtually kicked out! His book writing pretensions were given short shrift so he hacks the Galle Literary Festival at each chance that he is able. This is the way that personal agendas are used in the cover of impartial commentary. When Tissainayagam was imprisoned, it was Rajpal who wrote saying that he could not have been suffering because he had grown a belly and had got fat! Thus is what one journalist says of another. I am a Sinhalese Buddhist myself but I condemn the fact that a Tamil journalist was jailed for his writings as indeed, we all should. When Lasantha was killed, what similar dirt did Rajpal write? The man is known for trashing the West but is seen scuttling around at all the embassy parties, loading his plate with free food and drinks. This is something known to many!
Rajpal, from what I can see, is an unmitigated racist which the staff who work under him, know very well! Talk to journalists who are Tamil at that newspaper and they will tell you. I wonder why someone like Kumar David whose writings I do read on Sundays when we sit down to the papers, writes to that paper at all! He should have better sense!
I turn to the Lakbima (on the intenet mind you, certainly not to waste money as we buy only the Sunday Times and the Sunday Leader) to read only the news and some of its columns, not the tripe that is penned by Rajpal and his like minded chums as Malinda and Dayan Jayatilleke, all of whom have now been well exposed as government sycophants, begging for favours from the Rajapakes in terms of (one, two and three), editorial positions, salaries paid by the Information Department and diplomatic postings. This is the rump of the government propagandist machine which has been able to scare many people away from expressing honest opinions, that is other than a few dogged and determined commentators who have not cared a jot for their venom and slander. Emil de van de Poorten’s running battle with exposing these sycophants in the Sunday leader is a case in point. We would have expected his bookie-keeper turned publisher who is now named in a match fixing scandal to hold Rajpal back from some of his abuses in the past but then, like surely turns to like, right? I believe that people like this should be met head on and challenged. Ignoring them when they slander other people and act as if they have the right to sit in judgment is not the way to go.
Responsible journalism in Sri Lanka can never flourish as long as these people are allowed to write their rubbish without being exposed for who they are, racists, bigots and the like and who are now in a sad situation as they do not know how to condemn the 18th Amendment honestly and therefore have to engage in complicated English to hide their sad state! As a chum of professional young journalists who try to work well and decently but cannot when their editors are hatchet job men for politicians, I felt that I should come out and write what we have been talking of for a long time More than the government, these frauds should be exposed for the frauds that they most certainly are!
So Rajpal, take these comments on and reply as abusively as possible, if you can! Do please quote my name and Pearl's. We have seen you doing this many times to others in the past. But this abuse is something that everyone laughs at because they know you for the total hypocrite that you are! Lets abuse you and your chums in the same way that you abuse others and lets see how you take it while you sing so unmusically for your supper!
Please refer our previous story:- Is plain English too much for Rajpal to digest
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