What has everyone done?

By Upali Wickramasinghe

‘Waking up to reality’ was the subject of Prof. Ajith de Alwis’s column in the Daily FT last week. In that article he refers to question posed to him by a member of the audience: “What has the University of Moratuwa done?”

What has the University of Moratuwa done? That limits the perception of the question. It should have been worded to provide a wide connotation. What have the political leaders done? What have the religious leaders done? What have the universities done? What have the professionals done? It can be stretched ad infinitum.

Religious bigotry

What have all of them done? Brought us to this pathetic economic and cultural situation where one fails to see even discipline on the road. After years of war there are people who still harps on religious bigotry – the latest the Muslims are being targeted.

They forget that the ships carrying the Muslim traders who arrived on our coast, probably by chance, did not bring their women. They would have got married to the locals – Sinhala or Tamil. In 1967, when I was at Ampara, a concept I learnt was ‘kele bahinawa’.

‘Kele bahinawa’ was a practise in that region, where during a particular season, the unmarried Muslims youth come courting. During that period the Sinhala and Tamil males make themselves unavailable, they disappear into the jungle.

Since 1947 all except three leaders used race, religion, or caste as the tool to be elected and to retain power. I take my hats off to Sir John Kotelawala, Dudley Senanayake and CBK for not doing so.

I have lived through three constitutions. It was the one prepared by a foreigner that provided the facility to build a state that could be united and concentrate on the economic and cultural development of the people. The politicians ruined that chance by disempowering a section of the populace. When that happened, the educated, the professionals, and the religious personalities either kept shut or sang hosannas.

Today there are many articles about the independence of the Judiciary and of the Parliament (read politician). I need not comment on the latter, we who have seen their antics over the past 50-55 years know very well that it is a futile excise of no value at all.

Judiciary

Let us take the judiciary. Why did not they put their foot down when the Indian Pakistani Citizenship act was brought? Why did not they put their foot down when the Sinhala Only act was brought? Why did not they put their foot down when the first Republican Constitution was brought? Of all this only the Sinhala Language act was a part of the manifesto of the political party that won the election.  None of the said acts benefitted the masses – the voter. They only empowered the already empowered politician. The first Republican Constitution led to many perversions – when the Cabinet of Ministers was made the sole authority to determine appointments to the public sector, it opened the flood gates to keep the UNP aligned from finding employment in an economy dominated by the State sector.

This resulted in the mayhem in the aftermath of the 1977 election and this went on for years, culminating in the social unrest of the 1980s.The Judiciary could have stepped in even at a later stage when the government of the day practiced partiality to party member in public sector employment. They did not.

One explanation given was that the Soulbury Constitution did not have a Fundamental Rights Law. Funny I say; India did not have the facility for public interest litigation, but the courts imposed it on the politicians. The Medicare act was passed by US legislation over two years ago. It went in for a review just before the 2012 presidential election. I am told that US Constitution does not have provisions for Judicial Review, but it happens.

Take the mayhem in 1958. Of a series of pathetic incidents, one that Tarzie Vittachchi refers to in Emergency ’58, is the killing of the Mendis family at Padaviya. The then Prime Minister was solely responsible for that mayhem. Did the law enforcers act against him? No.

The mayhem was brought under control by the Governor General, who had the authority to impose emergency and use the armed forces. After peace was restored, the then government brought in legislation to vest the power to declare emergency with the Prime Minister. At least at that stage the PM should have been held responsible. It did not happen.

Why are the civilians silent?

Questions had been raised why the civilians are silent. The last time I saw a civilian honoured was during the period 1965-’70, when former Chief Justice H. Hema Basnayake visited Matara. The 1972 Constitution resulted in F.R.D. Bandaranayake carrying a campaign against the Marga Institute. In the post 1977 there was the assault on Prof. Ediweera Sarathchandra, then a retired old man. The civilians had been cowed into silence.

It was in the 1960s and 1970s that the Negro community was attacked by the White Supremacists. In 1990 also there were a few murders. Barak Obama won the presidency in 2008, was honoured with a Nobel Prize in 2009. He deserved it; however I feel that the US citizens should also have been similarly honoured. The backers of Obama included the Caucasian race. In 2011 Troy Davis, a black man, was hanged for a murder; the majority believed it was a case of miscarriage of justice. The prison where the execution was surrounded by the youth, who shed copious tears, among them the white faces were equally distributed among the black.

What have we done to unite our country? Do you think that the day will dawn when a person from a minority community, a minority religion, or even from an odd caste, will ever lead Sri Lanka?

My health may not help me to last long. I am at least grateful that it is only about 86% of my life span had to be spent under the jackboot of emergency, there are much younger people who had spent their whole life time under emergency, who had never known what Sri Lanka was before 1956 and in particular in the pre 1970 era.

What has the University of Moratuwa done?

Now to that specific question: ‘What has the University of Moratuwa done?’ Well, it has done two things:

(i) Produce a graduate called Champaka Ranawaka, the Minister in charge of the Electricity Board, who offers all sort of excuses to justify the increase in the price of electricity, without facing the real problem: The hydro reservoirs are full of silt, the storage capacity is said to be below 50% and the solution is to de-silt the reservoirs at whatever cost and fix the responsibility to ensure that the reservoirs are maintained silt free also to ensure that the plant cover required to prevent the soil getting washed is grown – at least grow coffee and grass. He ignores the fact that thermal power plants are very inefficient and that the consumer is paying for that inefficiency.

(ii) It produced many graduates who vote with their feet against this social system.

I have a personal problem with the Universities. I have been attempting to trace P.K. Jayatilake’s thesis for his MSc. I have not been successful, the reason being that I cannot trace its title.

Can I make a suggestion? Why don’t all the universities get together to produce a compendium of the research that had been done and make it available to the public via the internet or via printed publications? Please, please, do not get the Government, the private sector or the UCG involved. They will sell you down the drain. Remember what happened to the Cricket Board – the richest sports body cannot pay its players as at this time of the day. Such had been the influence of that notorious man, the former MP. If all the 5,000 odd lecturers contribute at least Rs. 25 per month, you could provide the finances for this venture and it will pay back with the research projects you could canvass worldwide.

I find that US universities have such a system in place. The US universities carry the most number of Nobel Prizes won so far and the research grants both from the Government and the private sector.