Mamanithar C.Jeyaratnam Eliezer-A Tribute by Brian Senewiratne

It is with great sadness that I heard of the death of Professor Eliezer on 10.3.2001. I have known him for exactly half a century. In 1951 I entered the Science Faculty in Colombo to do a degree in Zoology. Eliezer had just returned after a distinguished career in Cambridge, England, to take up the Chair of Mathematics. He was in his 30's, the youngest person to be ever appointed to a Chair in that University. It says something of his prestige and ability. Eliezer was probably the biggest "catch" of the University of Ceylon, as it then was. 

I came into contact with him in the activities of the Student Christian Movement of which he was a strong supporter. Some three years later I entered Cambridge University to do Medicine. As a young 'Fresher' I was invited to meet the Vice-Chancellor for a 'Welcome tea'. "And where do you come from, young man?" I said "Ceylon". "Ah", he exclaimed, "that's where Eliezer came from". I told him that the comparison must end right there to avoid disappointment! I said that Eliezer was in a different league and that it was like comparing Frank Worrel with the local village cricket captain because they both came from the same country.  Many years later when I wrote a booklet on the 1983 Massacre of Tamils, he offered to write the Foreword. I was delighted and honoured, not that what he said about me was true!

We met again, in New York in the mid 1980's. It was, I think, the 4th Eelam Conference which I was invited to address. Eliezer was in the chair at that massive gathering of Tamils, non-Sri Lankans and the saner members of my community, the Sinhalese. 

After the meeting we decided to do a world tour to explain to the uninformed what the current struggle was all about. He was delighted to have a Sinhalese with him, I was elated to have someone of Eliezer's calibre supporting me. Since then we have been in close contact despite the distance that separated us in this vast country.

A couple of months ago I was invited to address a meeting in Melbourne to deal with some irresponsible journalistic crap on the Tamil Tigers that had been aired on Australian TV. I knew Eliezer was unwell and never expected to see him at that lengthy meeting. I had just sat down when Eliezer appeared and sat in the next seat.

He invited me home the next day and we spent some two hours chatting. He said, "One question that has always puzzled me is why you did not enter politics". I said that too many of my family had done so and been responsible for creating the present mess. His response, "That is just the reason why you should have helped to sort out the mess!" The Tamils, the saner Sinhalese and all lovers of Sri Lanka have lost a great figure. 

Although in the past few years he has been too frail to play an active role, his sheer presence and support were enough to sustain those of us who have been in the struggle to enable Tamils in Sri Lanka to live with dignity, equality and safety in the country of their birth.  Eliezer will be missed. 

It is said that no one is irreplaceable. I don't believe this. Bishop Lakshman Wickremasinghe, Bishop Leo Nanayakkaraya, Vijaya Kumaratunge and now, Professor Eliezer, are irreplaceable. There can be no fitting memorial to him than to carry forward the struggle to free the Tamil people from domination by a Sinhalese Government and Sinhalese extremists, both in Sri Lanka and abroad, hell-bent on crushing, not the LTTE, but the Tamil people in the North and East of Sri Lanka. 


Brian Senewiratne                                                   Brisbane, Australia