Editor’s Note: Since first breaking the story about Consul General Jeff Goonewardena’s false claims of a meeting with President Obama (“Diplomatic Gaffe” – SLG Nov. 29, 2010), Hassina Leelarathna has been confronted with threats and intimidation. On February 9, she lodged a formal complaint with External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris stating that Mr. Goonewardena had made a veiled but unmistakable threat against her and her son. That threat was made on the official consulate phone line, after he received her email asking for comments and clarification on several issues relating to his handling of the Independence Day celebration and other activities of public interest. In recent days, Goonewardena and his supporters have intensified their harassment of this writer, making false and malicious public statements and circulating emails worldwide that attack her character and integrity. Given Mr. Goonewardena’s ties to political groups that have a history of violence and his close association with a mayor of a California city known for police brutality, and who is heavily funded by powerful police unions, Leelarathna says she fears for her safety and that of her son.
by Hassina Leelarathna
(March 07, Los Angeles, CA, Sri Lanka Guardian) The tumult surrounding the Los Angeles consul general continues with little sign of abatement. Mr. Jeff Goonewardena is digging in his heels, holding on to the consulate car and other government property, and refusing to leave. UNP supporters and pro-Fonseka activists have perked up, rallying to launch a petition and email campaigns to get President Rajapaksa to rescind the order issued last week recalling Goonewardena from the post of consul general in Los Angeles. At the same time, details are beginning to unravel about other violations , including visa irregularities concerning a male associate the consul general brought with him to the US as a ‘domestic aide’ and using his consulate position to promote his private business.
The day after he received the recall order from Colombo, Goonewardena met with a former Sri Lankan journalist linked with an opposition news website and responsible for issuing a statement accusing GOSL of killing a Tamil education official in Jaffna in December. (GOSL denied the allegation saying it was an attempt to discredit the government.) Following that meeting, there has been a flurry of activity led by the president of the UNP branch in Los Angeles, Mangala Jayakody, to harness support for Goonewardena.
Goonewardena’s truck with the UNP and with Fonseka supporters is not entirely surprising since he was closely associated with the party in the late 1990’s, even organizing a fundraiser in Los Angeles with Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe as chief guest. Late last year, after a pro-Fonseka protest rally in Los Angeles, Mr. Goonewardena even entertained Jayakody, who organized the rally, and UNP member of parliament Rosy Senanayake who flew in from Sri Lanka to be chief guest at the protest. News of the cozy tete`-a-tete´ raised eyebrows in Los Angeles and the ire of a senior government official.
While Goonewardena is trying to convince the public that Colombo’s only grouse with him is over complaints about the Independence Day event, Sri Lanka Guardian has learned that President Rajapaksa’s decision was based on several factors, especially embarrassment caused by his souped-up claims of bilateral discussions with various US leaders, including President Obama, and alarm at several irregularities. One such is the sticky issue of Shan Shanmuganathan. After bringing Shanmuganathan to the US on a ‘domestic employee’ visa, Goonewardena has made him his ‘personal assistant,’ setting him up in an office at the consulate where he has access to a range of confidential documents, including passports and visas, and sensitive correspondence from Colombo. ‘Shan,’ as he’s called, basically runs the consulate in Goonewardena’s absence and represents him at official events, bypassing senior staffers. In addition to the obvious breach of internal protocol, Shanmuganathan’s elevation to a position within the consulate, while holding a ‘domestic employee’ visa, is in violation of State Department regulations and could well result in a charge of ‘alien smuggling.’ The responsibility of reporting of such abuse of domestic worker visas to the State Department falls on embassy chiefs, which probably put Ambassador Jaliya Wickremasuriya between a rock and a hard place: the choice was either to inform the State Department or his own government.
Shan’s business card (see photo) indicates his position as ‘personal assistant’ is tied to Goonewardena’s other business interests as well. State Department regulations specifically forbid diplomats from engaging in activities other than those solely related to the governments they represent. Per the business card, Goonewardena represents interests outside those of the Sri Lankan government, notably a company called Aero Financial. (The ‘Honorary Mayor’ positions listed on the card could be discounted, chalked up to vanity, as these are titles he shares with thousands of visitors to these respective cities.) Among complaints reaching Colombo are that Goonewardena was using his position to promote Aero Financial. Not only did he use the convenience of the domestic worker visa to bring an employee for his personal business, he has used the consulate as a platform for the company.
The keynote speaker at the Independence Day event was none other than Aero Financial’s founder -- Jim Price -- who let it be known that his company had ‘been approached by community leaders’ to build a Sri Lankan community center in Los Angeles. He also made it clear that this project would be based on an investment-type model, and not the standard ‘donation type opportunity,’ meaning, Aero Financial was proposing making money out of the project. He added that the consul general would be assisting in the project but left out the most relevant piece of information: the clear conflict of interest posed by the consul general’s position as the company’s president. As laid out on Aero Financial’s website, the Sri Lankan consulate is also its client – a symbiosis made even murkier by the consulate’s own official website advertising Aero Financial!
Another issue that apparently pushed Rajapaksa to approve the recall is Goonewardena’s claims of being, variously, a ‘Senior Advisor to the President,’ the President’s ‘Chief Coordinator in the USA,’ and ‘Personal Advisor to the President,’ in addition to his frequent claims of receiving phone calls from the Sri Lankan leader.
While the recall order was faxed to the consulate on March 1, GOSL has yet to make an official public announcement, which has encouraged Goonewardena to create doubt that such an order had even been issued and justify his continued presence at the consulate.
Ambassador Wickremasuriya said his immediate concerns are to have Goonewardena turn in the official consulate vehicle and set a departure date. He proposes having an official audit of the consulate’s finances and an inventory of GOSL property in the next few weeks.
Hassina Leelarathna is a freelance writer living in California. She may be contacted by email: hassinaleelarathna@gmail.com
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