Mayor’s ethnic fury

By Shaun Inguanzo
A TRIBUTE by the Greater Dandenong mayor to a community leader whose opponents say supported a terrorist group has outraged a sector of the city’s Sri Lankan residents.
Mayor Youhorn Chea last week thrust council into an ongoing fray between Sri Lanka’s two main ethnic groups – the Tamils and Sinhalese – when he attended a memorial service of a deceased Tamil community leader and sent a wreath to the Tamil community on behalf of council.
The council has since received emails from angry Sinhalese and smaller ethnic groups opposed to the Tamils, demanding a public apology for the sign of support.
But this week Cr Chea said he would not apologise because he was unaware of the ethnic tensions and had attended because the deceased was well-respected by his community.
The memorial service at Springvale City Hall on Tuesday 3 April was for Australian Tamil leader Thillainadarajah Jeyakumar, 54, who died late last month.
Cr Chea sent a wreath on behalf of the city to the Tamil community before the service.
Mr Jeyakumar was renowned for rallying Australian Tamils to support the homeland conflict against the Sinhalese-controlled Sri Lankan Government, in a bid for Sri Lanka’s Tamil-populated north to become its own country.
But his heroic status among Tamils was not shared by other Sri Lankan ethnic groups.
Emails to council claimed his work supported the Tamil Tigers’ cause – a rebel group the Australian Government has proscribed as a terrorist organisation.
Just days after his death, the Tamil Tigers released a statement praising Mr Jeyakumar’s support of the Tamil cause and his ability to unite the Tamil community in Australia.
Keysborough South Ward councillor Peter Brown said Cr Chea had made an error that had sparked a furore among Sri Lankans in Greater Dandenong.
“The mayor and councillors were contacted by a number of members from the Sri Lankan community prior to the service,” Cr Brown said.
“They expressed concern that the Springvale City Hall was going to be made available for a person who the Tamil separatist movement recognised as working for them in Australia. I believe the funeral was something that should have been a private and non-partisan matter, and given the substantial political differences between Tamil separatists and other Sri Lankans, it was unwise for council through the mayor to be seen to be acting in a partisan way like this.”
But Cr Chea stood by his decision and said Sri Lanka’s civil war was not a matter Australians should have to worry about when attending functions.
“With any civil war, which side is wrong, and which side is right?” he said.
“I really don’t know, and when I ask the Sinhalese community, they say the Tamil communty is aggressive.
“But the Tamils say their government has killed a lot of people and so on.
“I really do not care much about their arguments. I think if a leader of any community passes away and someone invites me to (a memorial), then I must go.”
Cr Chea blasted those calling for an apology.
“I have done nothing wrong,” he said.
“He was Australian, he was a good man who worked for the community, with schools and so on, and the community had a lot of respect for him.”