He fought for the rights of consumers

Peter Jayasekera, a veteran attorney-at-law and fearless consumer rights activist, passed away this week. As Chairman of the Consumers' Association of Lanka (CAL) and attorney, Mr. Jayasekera fought tirelessly to defend and protect the rights of consumers from unjust practices. Most recently, he made headline news in his battle against what he described as excessive and unfair tariff charges by telecom giant, Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT). He took his case all the way to the Supreme Court and forced SLT to revise and amend their tariff charges.

Last year, Mr. Jayasekera told The Sunday Times FT that his intention was to 'work towards a competitive tariff that would be affordable for a wider section of people in Sri Lanka.' K.K. Gunawardena, a telecom specialist who joined Mr. Jayasekera in recent years over the tariffs issue, said the late activist was "dedicated, thorough (in what he did) and a gentlemen. He would never take up an issue until he understood it fully."

Mr. Jayasekera also served as the Chairman of the Co-operative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) from 1996 to 1998. One of Mr. Jayasekera's colleagues said apart from SLT, he was also involved in several other consumer cases throughout the years which included fighting against electricity tariff increases and excessive fuel charges.