D.B.S.JEYARAJ finds some fatal slips in Niromi De Soyza’s narrative And quietly ignores them hoping they will just go away
Posted on December 14th, 2011
Darshanie Ratnawalli MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2011
From 2009 to 2011 consistently, faithfully and in a variety of digital media which can be easily retrievedƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Niromi de SoyzaƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ has been making the same fundamental and monumental slip, which doesnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t bode at all well for the authenticity of her memoir ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Tamil TigressƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢.
Duped either by his willingness to be duped or through inadequate attention to what has been written on the subject, D. B. S Jeyaraj wrote this delectably provoking passage in hisƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ From Shenuka to Niromi: True tale of a ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Tamil TigressƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢,
ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Moreover the charges themselves do not seem to be grounded on sound basis. Mistaking is not faking. Blunders and errors of minor detail are signs of sloppiness not fraudulence. The discrepancies and doubts pointed out do not in anyway affect the structure and content of her book. They are not basic or fundamental mistakes that drastically alter the scope and scale of what has been stated.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚
Such real or affected innocence just cried out to be deflowered and I responded to that urge and sent him the following comment. All very respectful, solid and even stolid. It was sort of an experiment to find out how DBSJ would defend the indefensible. I have the answer now. He is too shrewd to try. What canƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t be defended and explained away should be covered up. The comment never appeared there but here it is.
****
Dear Sir, allow me to express my surprise that an eminent, investigative and analytical journalist such as you has missed the most fundamental error of them all. ItƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s a fighterƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s tale sir and what is the most fundamental pillar of any fighterƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s tale? The identity of the fighterƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s adversaries. If you had really done justice to your journalistic eminence and conscientiously read the material produced by NiromiƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s critics you would have spotted this fundamental error. From 2009 onwards even before Niromi de Soyza got her book published, she has been consistently displaying her ignorance of who she fought during her fighting tenure.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Maybe itƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s just ignorance born out of not having fought or even being in the country during the relevant period. Maybe itƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s the intention to mislead a non-cognoscenti Western audience, which again points to ignorance and unfamiliarity with context. With familiarity would have come the realization that the lies distort the very bedrock of the late 80s post IPKF reality and she could not get away with them even given a non research oriented Western media corps.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Whatever it is sir, here are the lies with the relevant links for your journalistic perusal.
ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Two days before Christmas in 1987, at the age of 17, Niromi de Soyza found herself in an ambush as part of a small platoon of militant Tamil Tigers fighting government forces in the bloody civil war that was to engulf Sri Lanka for decadesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚
-Blurb Tamil Tigress- (2011)
ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦when I joined, the Indian forces had arrived and the tigers had chosen to fight the Indian forces as well as the Sri Lankan forcesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚–NiromiƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Margaret Throsby Interview- Thursday 21 July 2011ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ (between 18.45 and 19.02)-
ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-The war resumed, just as Prabhakaran had predicted, though now we were fighting not only the government troops but the peacekeepers, too.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚–The Telegraph. Life as a female Tamil Tiger guerilla relived by one of first female soldiers (by Niromi published in 2009 May)ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
“She cries for reasons as complex and tragic as the conflict itself, even though it has been more than two decades since the former rebel put down her gun and fled the violence she’d become a part of, unable to deal any longer with the brutality of her fellow Tigers or the viciousness of the Sri Lankan armed forces.”–Tigress interrupted. By Nikki Barrowclough 09/07/2011 covering her interview with Niromi-ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-She maintains that while she was involved in some combat, the very nature of guerilla warfare meant that most of her time with the Tigers was spent running and hiding from government soldiers.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚–Ibid-
Now let me roll out that old saw.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
December 14th, 2011 at 6:19 pm
Darshanie!
Do you want the Niromi’ to list the names of the individual IPKF soldiers with whom she fought in that 87 battle or just the name of the regiment is good enough for you?
Don’t hide your own envy with patriotic covering!
Let’s face it… Niromi is the most acclaimed Sri Lankan born writer in Australia now!
December 14th, 2011 at 7:27 pm
Well first I would like the names of the regiments of the Sri Lankan government soldiers she fought with.
or perhaps she did not stop and exchange cards with them as she seems to have done with the IPKF soldiers? (as your comment seems to imply)
“She maintains that while she was involved in some combat, the very nature of guerilla warfare meant that most of her time with the Tigers was spent running and hiding from government soldiers. “You might see someone running and try to shoot, but I didn’t ever see a face,” she says. “I would have frozen if I’d seen a face.”” – -Tigress interrupted. By Nikki Barrowclough 09/07/2011 covering her interview with Niromi-
December 14th, 2011 at 9:02 pm
“From 2009 onwards even before Niromi de Soyza got her book published, she has been consistently displaying her ignorance of who she fought during her fighting tenure. Maybe it’s just ignorance born out of not having fought or even being in the country during the relevant period. ”
I believe the above statement full 100%.
Try to understand the mentality of the woman guerilla fighter. It looks she joined not because she understood what she was getting into, most probably some one fooled her. Her statements say that she was a coward and would have been a very lousy fighter if she got into a battle and would easily die or get captured.
December 15th, 2011 at 10:08 am
This woman assumed the name of Niroshi and floated a charity to collect money for the LTTE, as directed by the LTTE fronts in Aussieland. The book was launched for the charity. It is all made up.
Even the charity mentions Jaffna college, but the classmates listed are found to not to exist.
She refused to meet with a fellow tamil researcher from Kaytes or Point Pedro. Everything is fishy in this case.
The “fighter” doesn’t know her enemy indeed.
jeyraj does not allow anyone to put in comments that show that his story is false.
Jeyraj also made up stories about the white flag case. he even had a detailed report of the fall of Killinochchi before
it fell, because he made up that story. What he writes has to be taken with a big grain of salt.
December 15th, 2011 at 12:42 pm
Loosing audience is a major problem for any writer. Since May 2009, Mr.Jayaraj is increasingly becoming irrelevant to Sri Lankan readers. I believe his readers are mostly in middle aged Sri Lankan Tamils living in Canada. His articles are aimed at them.
Mr.Jayaraj has the veneer of a neutral observer. But close scrutiny of last few years show he was acted as an apologist for LTTE activites. Basically I see him as the respectable face of the Eelam project. His forte is his connections to LTTE underground.
I totally agree with comments of ‘brahamin’. DBS Jayaraj is reluctant to publish any comment which would question his journalistic credentials. He would cut and chop comments to suit his views. TRANSCURRENTS is not like LANKAWEB. DBSJ acts as the censor.
When the above story was published, I found it hard to pass. My comments angered DBSJ. I use to comment as ‘Aravinda L’. Since he was angry, he decided to publish my name, which he picked up from the email address. He made comments to ridicule me. DBS Jayaraj could be very petty and childish.
December 15th, 2011 at 5:39 pm
I fully agree with aravinda and brahamin. Perhaps I should also add that Jayaraj is no doubt a separatist in the guise of a federalist.
He uses his website to disseminate his Eelamist views in a roundabout ways. Though it is like dim-witted bashing pots in the deserted house, a lot of people appear to be reading it. Jeyaraj con them writing as if he is a true egalitarian. He criticizes the Sri Lanka government for lack of press freedom but he deletes our views whenever we capitalise his writing to prove our point of view.
No sooner we mention his own writing to elucidate his subscribers that Eelam project was started in the 1920s during the British Raj and not after independence in 1948 or when Sinhala language act, riots etc in 1956 it irritates him delete sections of our comments. Whenever we mention Waddukkodai resolution as the declaration or starting point of terrorism and the war that ruins ordinary Tamils, and it is his hero, Tantai Chelva the so called trousered Ghandi that sponsored it, Jeyraj asked me not to waste time writing comments to his website. But I always copy my comments written elsewhere to educate him. I would send this as well.
I believe we should let public know fallacy of Jeyraj and his writing whenever and wherever opportunity arises and save the public from being misinformed.
Leela
December 17th, 2011 at 4:11 am
This book followed the Cage by another but an Australin born person. This is a combined assault on Ceylon and Sinhala people by a small group of people.
They choose a Catholic ( I do not think she is a Catholic from Jaffna as most of the Jaffna Catholics refused to join the terrorists) with a European surname.
She is not the only ceylon born popular writer. Weeramantri and Wicramanayke have written academic books that are used by the wider Australian community. Niromis book is only popular amon Tamil terrorists and their supporters.
January 26th, 2012 at 5:08 am
As a reader of the book page by page, What I realised is she was a member of rebel group , and trained by the LTTE. in her life journey she was at a point realised , violent is not the way to go and openly acknowledged in the book , left the movement , turned around a life and living a successful live in Australia and contributing back to the country she was born. The book also described the issues faced by youth during the time in Sri Lanka. In my understanding , the book is not a history or political book. It is about a person’s life in the political situation. It never compromise the issues faced by minorities too.
I was told that along with war affected children in Sri Lanka, Author Niromi contributes to the country that welcome her ( Australia) , and the war affected children in Africa. It showed clearly she value the human being , wanted to do constructively beyond race, religion and culture and influencing positively to many youths not only Australia , but also across the globe. Her book has been chosen as a reference text book in some of the schools to teach subject .
We Sri Lankan have to be proud of her rather nit-picking . We are in this pathetic state because of this attitude . critics are good in telling the commentary. It is pretty sad.
Thanks DBS for your writing . I am sure some of the critics will change the direction of the barrel towards you. since they do not know their direction to ahead… rather crying for the limelight by writing bad about any constructive work.
more reviews about the book I found in the following link http://www.tamiltigress.com/Home.html