Sri Ranga Jeyaratnam

Sri Ranga Jeyaratnam (Tamil: சிறீ ரங்கா ஜெயரத்தினம்; born 22 January 1971) is a Sri Lankan Tamil broadcaster, politician and former Member of Parliament.

Hon.

Sri Ranga Jeyaratnam

MP
சிறீ ரங்கா ஜெயரத்தினம்
Member of the Sri Lankan Parliament
for Nuwara Eliya District
In office
2010–2015
Personal details
Born (1971-01-22) 22 January 1971
NationalitySri Lankan
Political partyCitizen's Front
Other political
affiliations		United People's Freedom Alliance
Alma materUniversity of Colombo
OccupationBroadcaster
EthnicitySri Lankan Tamil

Early life

Jeyaratnam was born on 22 January 1971.[1] He was educated at Vavuniya Tamil Madhya Maha Vidyalayam and Jaffna Hindu College.[2] He then entered the University of Colombo where he was captain of the football team.[3][4]

Career

After university Jeyaratnam joined MBC Networks, presenting the Erimalai (volcano) programme on Shakthi FM.[2] He later moved to television, presenting the Minnal (lightning) programme on Shakthi TV.[2][5] This programme was very popular amongst the Up-country Tamils, particularly the youth.[5] He is leader of the Citizen's Front (CF).[5]

Jeyaratnam has close ties with President Mahinda Rajapaksa's family and is a close friend of his son Namal Rajapaksa.[6][7] According to leaked U.S. diplomatic cables the president's brother, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, was "incensed" by the way Jeyaratnam handled abductions carried out by government backed paramilitary groups, such as the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), on his TV programme.[7] According to the cable the president told Jeyaratnam to leave the country, offering him a diplomatic position in Oslo, otherwise EPDP leader Douglas Devananda would have Jeyaratnam killed.[7] The cable also claims that Jeyaratnam feared being assassinated by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who considered him to be a Rajapaksa stooge.[7]

During 2005 and 2006 Jeyaratnam and his family received several threats from unidentified persons.[8][9] In November 2006, after Jeyaratnam's TV programme featured the assassination of Tamil National Alliance MP Nadarajah Raviraj, the police informed Shakthi TV that Jeyaratnam's life was in danger.[10][11] On 3 February 2010 an unidentified group attacked the vehicle he was travelling in near Hatton.[12]

Jeyaratnam contested the 2010 parliamentary election as one of the United National Front's candidates in Nuwara Eliya District and was elected to Parliament.[13][14] Jeyaratnam did not contest the 2015 parliamentary election but was instead placed on the United People's Freedom Alliance's (UPFA) list of National List candidates.[15][16] However, after the election he was not appointed to the National List.[17][18]

Electoral history
Electoral history of Sri Ranga Jeyaratnam
Election Constituency Party Votes Result
2010 parliamentary[13]Nuwara Eliya DistrictUNF33,948Elected

References
  1. "Directory of Members: Sri Ranga, J." Parliament of Sri Lanka.
  2. "New faces in Parliament" (PDF). The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka). 18 April 2010.
  3. Mathiaparanam, Kajanka. "Colours Awarding Ceremony 2013". University of Colombo.
  4. "UOC Colours Awards Ceremony At Water's Edge". The Sunday Leader. 12 June 2011.
  5. Jeyaraj, D. B. S. (23 April 2010). "Decline of Tamil representation outside the North and East". dbsjeyaraj.com.
  6. "'Minnal Ranga' tipped to cross over to Rajapaksa alliance". TamilNet. 7 May 2010.
  7. "07COLOMBO728, SRI LANKA: GSL COMPLICITY IN PARAMILITARY". WikiLeaks. 18 May 2007.
  8. "MTV journalist threatened". Daily News (Sri Lanka). 19 November 2005.
  9. Samarasinghe, Sonali (8 January 2006). "Maharaja assassination plot thickens". The Sunday Leader.
  10. "IFJ condemns death threats against a Shakthi TV journalist". TamilNet. 21 November 2006.
  11. "Threat to Sri Ranga's life". The Island (Sri Lanka). 17 November 2006.
  12. "Tamil TV journalist attacked in Nuwara Eliya". TamilNet. 4 February 2010.
  13. "Parliamentary General Election - 2010 Nuwara Eliya Preferences" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 May 2010.
  14. "General Elections 2010 - Preferential Votes" (PDF). The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka). 11 April 2010.
  15. "PART I : SECTION (I) — GENERAL Government Notifications PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS ACT, No. 1 OF 1981 List of Persons submitted under Article 99A of the Constitution" (PDF). The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka Extraordinary. 1923/02. 13 July 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2015.
  16. "UPFA, UNP national lists announced". The Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka). 13 July 2015.
  17. "PART I : SECTION (I) — GENERAL Government Notifications PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION — 2015 Declaration under Article 99A of the Constitution" (PDF). The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka Extraordinary. 1928/25. 21 August 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2015.
  18. "UPFA finalises National list". The Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka). 21 August 2015.
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