Los Angeles Roiled by ‘Disgraceful’ Independence Day

Sri Lankan Culture ‘ boring,’ so Consul General Proposed Latin American Dancers, American Showbiz

Photo: Consul General Jeff Goonewardena stands with his hand on his chest, American style, for the Sri Lankan national anthem.


by Hassina Leelarathna

( February 25, Los Angeles, CA , Sri Lanka Guardian) In the run-up to the 63rd Independence Day celebrations held Feb. 5 at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach, Consul General Jeff Goonewardena had been promising a ‘surprise.’ People familiar with Goonewardena’s ‘surprises ‘ – such as hiring scantily-clad Brazilian dancers to perform at the fundraiser he organized in Los Angeles in 1999 for UNP leader Ranil Wickremasinghe -- braced themselves.

This time, he staged a ‘Hollywood’ version of Sri Lankan Independence Day, with two non-Sri Lankan emcees and performers injecting ‘American showbiz’ into the inherently staid and decorous event. With the exclusion of the cultural show that included traditional Sri Lankan dance and musical items, the event was a self-promoting blitz, not unlike a Kim Il Jung celebratory bash. The experience has left many in the community bitterly complaining of being gamed into participating in an event contrived to glorify one individual, showcase his friends and business partners, and undermine the very thing they came to celebrate. “Everything that was about Sri Lanka took a backseat. Sri Lanka happened to be an accident at this event. Seems like he [the consul general] has an inferiority complex about his own culture,” said Ms. Sumudu Hewamadduma, financial controller at a leading Southern California firm who, together with her five-year old daughter, participated in the cultural event.

Medini Ratnayake, head of the non-profit Serendib Foundation which has produced the Independence Day cultural show for four years, was angered enough to dash off a complaint to President Rajapaksa in which she called the consul general’s behavior ‘disgraceful,’ the community’s experience ‘painful,’ and subtly urged a recall of the diplomat by calling on the Sri Lankan leader to bring about a ‘resolution beneficial to the Sri Lankan American expatriate community in Southern California.’

Ratnayake, who undertook the grueling responsibility of organizing a show that featured 175 performers from 17 different groups despite being pregnant, has provided behind-the-scenes details which indicate a struggle between her group and the consul general over his ignorance of protocol and his lack of enthusiasm for Sri Lankan culture. During initial planning discussions, the consul general had not been enthusiastic about Sri Lankan cultural items. Finding them ‘too slow and boring,’ he proposed spicing up the event with Latin American dancers. The proposal was dropped only after Serendib to withdraw from the event altogether. Ratnayake said it took a similar threat to elevate President Rajapaksa’s Independence Day message to the community to its due place – immediately after the religious ceremonies.

Initially, the President’s message was to be superseded by the launching of the ‘official website’ and of a giant (60 x 40 ft) Sri Lankan billboard near the Los Angeles International Airport. Although touted as attracting ‘thousands of Americans, beckoning them to visit Sri Lanka’ in reality, the billboard is hardly visible to passing motorists on Century Blvd. Los Angeles resident Kirula Hettigoda who drove with his wife Ramya to see the billboard says he circled the area four times before spotting it. Its skyline choking with ‘the blight of billboards,’ Los Angeles has a ban on new billboards since 1992. Is the Sri Lankan billboard legal? Does it have a valid safety permit? In whose name? The consul general has refused to answer such simple questions.

The cultural event was delayed by an hour while speakers paid tribute to Goonewardena, and when it did get started, they were made to feel like intruders, say both Ratnayake and Hewamadduma. In addition to sending ‘hurry up’ messages backstage, the consul general arrived in person to hasten the exit of the Lankan performers, telling the producers to stop the performance because the ‘Hollywood’ performers were getting antsy to get their show on stage. Ratnayake says the consul general thought so little of the Sri Lankan performers, he did not even mention them in his speech and the names of only two of the 17 groups that participated made their way to the special souvenir. “To our surprise, names of Hollywood performers which came into the picture 2 days before the event were included in the program booklet,” Ratnayake added.

Hewamadduma described the consul general’s slighting of his own community and culture as being analogous to the host of a party throwing out his furniture because he’s ashamed of it and then borrowing a neighbor’s furniture just to impress the guests. “We were like the furniture he’s ashamed of,” she said.

Another major complaint is that some attendees were humiliated and embarrassed when they arrived at the venue: those holding red invitation cards, the consul general’s inner circle, were admitted to an exclusive reception where there was food and drink and even goodie bags, while the rest (including Sri Lankan artistes and long-time community activists) became ‘second class citizens,’ left standing outside or directed to enter through a back door. However, the phenomenon of the ‘inner circle,’ based on social class and privilege, is nothing new in Los Angeles and other Sri Lankan expatriate communities. This consul general just took it a step further with the red and blue cards.

Notably, there was one speaker who stayed on course -- Congresswoman Judy Chu (D – CA 32nd) who paid a short but generous tribute to Sri Lankan democratic institutions and the country’s success in winning the war. In contrast, Oceanside mayor Jim Wood made it apparent that he was there to talk about his friend. (Goonewardena had once donated $1000 to the mayor who, without the city council’s knowledge, conferred on him the title of ‘Honorary Mayor.’) After making small talk about the year of his birth coinciding with the year of Sri Lankan independence, Wood launched into a spiel, trying to make the audience believe in the magnanimity of ‘my friend Jeff’ who, according to him, gave up his business in the US after the tsunami and returned to Sri Lanka just to engage in charity work. Wood credited the consul general with building 2 medical clinics and 2 playgrounds, getting military helicopters to distribute food to the tsunami affected areas, and ‘helping his president [Rajapaksa] get elected.’

Egregious Claims

The mayor’s pitch was bested by Goonewardena (who failed to even ‘ayubowan’ his compatriots) generously patting himself on the back with the egregious claim of having made ‘a tremendous difference in the bilateral relations between Sri Lanka and the US ‘(an apparent reference to his numerous paid photo ops with the ‘American political hierarchy’ as he calls it). He also took the opportunity to talk about phone calls he gets from Sri Lanka from his ‘mom’ and about his hotels being fully booked for months to come. Then he launched into an incredible story, describing his experience as a special negotiator for the government after being summoned by Mahinda Rajapaksa, then prime minister, and given the herculean assignment of bringing peace. “Jeff, please go to the north and build relationship with the terrorists. [sic]” Goonewardena then took off to Killinochchi where he says he met with all the LTTE leaders except Prabhakaran. The LTTE top brass took a liking to him and invited him back, a total of five times. He went on to build a 10-acre playground in the Tiger stronghold! The Tigers wanted him to carry a message to Rajapaksa: that they wanted the north and they were not prepared to lay down their arms (no kidding!). He bravely refused to carry such a message to ‘my prime minister.’ Soon after that, he received an email from the Tigers telling him not to return to Killinochchi. “The Tigers killed my uncle and aunty, [Mr. & Mrs.] C.V. Gunaratne and also my cousin,’ he claimed. This is a slight variation of the story he narrated when the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors invited him, as a new member of the local consular corp, to introduce himself. In that story, the LTTE killed three of his uncles.

Fallout

Fallout from the infamous Independence Day event continues to roil the community. Much of the blame is being apportioned to GOSL.

“Definitely people in charge of the Foreign Service are to blame for sending people without any diplomatic experience. The current CG has no qualifications to be in this position,” said Long Beach resident Asela Indraratne, a manager at Exxon-Mobil.

Echoing that opinion, Saliya Ukuwela, a businessman living in Orange County, said “Surely there are some basic qualifications that a diplomat being sent to a place like Los Angeles must have?

Ven. Aparekke Punyasiri, Chief Incumbent of Maithri Buddhist Meditation Center, Sun Valley, said diplomats mirror the governments they represent. “What’s happening in Los Angeles shows that the government has no direction. They don’t know where they’re going.”

Fueled by Goonewardena’s public boasts of having associated with the president for more than 20 years and of being a ‘Senior Advisor’ to him, the common belief is that Goonewardena was hand-picked by President Rajapaksa to be consul general.

And he would have people believe that he took the Los Angeles appointment almost as a favor to ‘Mahinda aiyya.’

Next stop UN?

But for a more realistic perspective, step back 22 years.

Goonewardena first came to the attention of the Sri Lankan community when an Orange County newspaper published an interview with him about a restaurant he operated at the time. (In that interview, he admitted staying illegally in the US for three years before becoming a legal resident.) He claimed that his family owned one-fifth of Sri Lanka, 40 cars, and 11 hotels; his uncle was Sir John Kotelawala, that he was selling his possessions in the US -- “two Mercedes-Benzes, a convertible and sedan” and “ two businesses” -- to go back to Sri Lanka (“where he would be treated as a hero”) and run for parliament on the SLFP ticket (a precursor to being made tourism minister). On the way to SL he would be stopping at the White House to present to President Reagan a “small 22-carat gold and ivory elephant, encrusted with sapphires, rubies and other precious stones,” and then zipping across the Atlantic to Buckingham Palace to present the same gift to the Queen. His Plan B, if he did not get elected to parliament, was “to become the ambassador to the United States or the United Nations.”

That was 1988. He is now in a high-profile diplomatic position, just 3000 miles and a 5-hour plane ride short of those ambitions. Goonewardena has ceased being a mere source of comic relief. With the possibility of that Plan B hovering in the background, the only person laughing is the consul general.

Hassina Leelarathna is a freelance writer living in California. She may be contacted by email: hassinaleelarathna@gmail.com

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