Fulbright Days And A Plea To Leadership
H.L. Seneviratne - Professor, Emeritus
Letters to our Presidents by Sri Lankan and US alumni of the US-Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission 1952-2012, commemorating 60 years of the Fulbright Programme. Edited by Tissa Jayatilaka. Published by the US-Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission, 2013.
This volume of 20 letters by former Fulbright scholars, half of them Sri Lankan and the other half American, addressed to their respective presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa and Barack Obama, constitutes part of the 60th anniversary celebrations of the US-Sri Lanka Fulbright Exchange Programme. All writers do a splendid job of what they were asked to do — to comment on how the experience enriched their personal and professional lives, and to urge the two presidents to continue to support the programme.
The Sri Lankan letters are distinguished by a third message, which we might consider the sub text of the volume, reminding President Rajapaksa of the need for good governance within which alone a sound system of education and a truly free intellectual life can flourish. It needs hardly to be stated that this message is irrelevant for the American writers, whose president needs no reminders about good governance, accountability, dissent and other ingredients of democracy.
The longest piece in the volume is the introduction by the editor Tissa Jayatilaka, the present Executive Director of the US-Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission (US-SLFC) in Colombo. Mr. Jayatilaka emphasises the unique nature of the Commission. As he informs us, the Commission was established in 1952 by an Agreement between the two countries for purposes of promoting mutual understanding between the two peoples through an exchange of scholars. While the Commission is managed by a board of directors appointed by the two governments, and receives “funds, policy guidance and counsel” from both governments, it is an agency of neither. This remarkable autonomy has enabled it to maintain its integrity throughout its six decade long history.
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