In December 2008, Mr. Eric approached to invite me and my wife to his daughter’s wedding. This is where Mr. Eric explained the idea that he had in his mind to begin a business club for the Ceylonese community. He explained in detail the concept of the business networking club & how it can compliment one’s business. I was impressed with his explanation and consented to assist him in forming this club.

After several discussions we managed to organize the first meeting on 13th February at 7pm at Kedai Makanan Sentul. this is where we named the club as Malaysian Ceylonese Business Club (MCBC) and operated under Malaysian Ceylonese Congress Sentul Branch where Mr Eric is still the Chairman.

Subsequently, there was experimentation in the timing, day of week and venue in order to maximize convenience to facilitate optimum attendance. MCBC meetings were then shifted to ‘1st Mile Bistro’ on Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur and held weekly on Saturday mornings at 7:00 am before a change in frequency resulted in fortnightly meetings.

Later more business owners joined the club and we realized the need for a registered body. This is where the name Malaysian Jaffnese Tamil Business Association (MJTBA) was proposed and finally on 24th October 2011 the Registrar of Societies approved our application and finally registered as an Association.

– Yogeswaran T. Lankasundran