Open letter to Education Ministry Secretary over Royal College anti-secular activities

• Padmasena  Dissanayake, an old boy and a parent, has written an open letter to Education Ministry Secretary Wasantha Perera raising concerns over multiple anti-secular activities in Royal College. Following are excerpts.

As per internal communications I am privy to, Royal College is about to embark on an extravaganza costing its parents over Rs. 7 million. It is a pirith ceremony, a recent phenomenon, which is scheduled to happen on 1 March.

I would like to draw your attention to an article published in Financial Times a year ago https://www.ft.lk/columns/Erosion-of-unique-and-priceless-secularism-of-Royal-College/4-745480.

Following is the message sent to each class teacher urging them to collect money from the students.

Annual pirith 1 March

1. අට පිරිකර per class

2. මුදල් පිරිකර 5000/- per class

3. Dinner for 2500packs 30,000/- per class

Now let’s take a good look at the finances involved:

There are 186 classes at Royal College.

How much would 186 Atapirikara cost? At a minimum cost of Rs. 5,000, a total of Rs. 930,000 is expected to be raised.

The cash donations would rake in another Rs. 930,000.

Dinner for 2,500 pax would garner Rs. 5,580,000 (2,232 per pax).

The total amount expected to be raised is Rs. 7,440,000 and it is just a simple pirith ceremony!

At a time half of the population is said to be going to bed without a meal, don’t you find this obnoxious and repulsive? What kind of an example is the nation’s premier boys’ school setting for the rest? On what grounds has the Ministry given permission for such an exorbitant Tamasha?

Madam; Royal College was never created to propagate Buddhism. It was the nation’s first and foremost secular institute for education. Our forefathers kept religion well outside Boake Gates because they obviously had the foresight to see what a few crooks and opportunists could do to this great institution.

Royal College did very well for a hundred years without pirith ceremonies.

All these Atapirikaras are most likely to be resold the very next day at 50% of its original value. I know how lucrative this recycling business is because I was involved in it once. Perhaps offering an Atapirikara may give the donor much merit in his next life but the monk who receives it, has an instant financial gain.

Whom are we feeding dinner at 2,232 per plate? Starving children or the organisers and their families?

It’s not yet too late to save Royal College from vultures and I am looking hopefully for your intervention.

How morally right is it to coerce the minorities to contribute money into a Buddhist ritual, when the Tamil medium classes do not have a single Buddhist student?

Are the Tamil and Muslim parents contributing out of religious fervour or out of fear, because the declining could bring the majority wrath upon their children?

Is this following “What the Buddha taught” or is it an all familiar annual scam for the benefit of a handful of crooks?

Please read the following message sent by a concerned and distraught mom: “For Annual Pirith chanting of Royal College, Tamil classes have been requested to pay Rs. 30,000/= plus Rs. 5,000/= per class and money has already been collected from my son’s class.”

I know for a fact some classes don’t even send out messages in WhatsApp groups but collect the money quietly from the parents.

Sinhala classes have been requested to pay extra Rs. 10,000 for Atapirikara.

This shameless racket (in the name of Gautama Buddha) has gone too far and it’s time to stop it in its tracks! Royal College had no place for any religion – not even when the missionaries were running it, followed by another hundred more years of lay Principals including renowned Buddhist scholars! So let’s not let a few crooks and opportunists change the rare and unique fabric of Royal College for own benefit.

It’s time for a total clean-up of Royal College and I fervently hope you will have the courage for this noble undertaking.

Padmasena Dissanayake