Tuesday, 19 November 2013 00:01
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I wrote to Daily FT Guest Column on 21 October, 2013 on the title of ‘Developing Sri Lanka as a knowledge hub in Asia: The role of public-private partnership’. In that, I had the following illustration:
“Sri Lanka’s first initiative to internationalise higher education was deliberately quashed by the education bureaucracy. In 2007, this writer ventured into setting up the PIM International Education Centre in the UAE to grant higher degrees of a Sri Lankan university and it became a success story in one year. Being typical of Sri Lankan bureaucracy, negative forces of power-hungry, jealous and incompetent people holding positions of power in higher seats of higher education used illegal and immoral methods to discredit the centre. This took place despite the political will at the highest level of Government. Thus, we Sri Lankans have a long way to develop our own professional standards.”
As proof of the above illustration, a response from a higher educational institution (Postgraduate Institute of Management) appeared on the Daily FT of 5 November, 2013. The response stated that “The PIM totally denies the contents of the above paragraph which consists of gross misrepresentations and distortions of facts relating to the PIM’s International Centre in Dubai of which Professor Gunapala Nanayakkara was the Managing Director between the period May 2007 to September 2009, when he unexpectedly and unilaterally suspended operations and returned to Colombo”.
It is good that PIM came forward to accept my reference to negative forces in higher education. PIM’s above statement is totally false and absolute bunkum. The truth is this: Where as the Managing Director of the centre (this writer) informed, by his report of 10 August, 2009, the Board to scale-down and relocate it in a low-cost location in Dubai, the Director of PIM Uditha Liyanage as per a PIM Board decision at meeting No. 198 held on 19 August wrote to the Dubai Government on 31 August, 2009 that the centre in Knowledge Village will be closed and will not request a renewal of the academic license for the following year (the 2009 license had lapsed already on 5 August, and the rent agreement would end on 5 September ).
The Managing Director was requested to act accordingly and no further instructions or alternatives for continuing in Dubai were outlined by PIM (copy of the Director’s letter is attached for Editor’s reference). These facts would show who is really making gross misrepresentations and distortions of facts!
With that PIM decision, operating in Dubai after 5 September, 2009 became illegal. Thus, I had to comply with PIM and close the centre and return to Colombo.
Please also note that in my article, I referred to the negative processes of bureaucracy in Sri Lanka which discredited new initiatives. I did not refer to PIM or closure of the centre in Dubai.
PIM had taken this as opportunity to disclose its mud-slinging campaign as well. The reader must be aware that PIM is making all those wild allegations without giving me a single opportunity to clarify the real facts before an inquiry. I reiterate that Sri Lankans have a long way to develop our own professional standards.
Prof. Gunapala Nanayakkara
Founder Director, PIM