President Undermined Through Jaffna’s Purchased Professorships

VC/Jaffna with the President (13 Nov. 2015)
By Sabapathy Krishnakumar –November 29, 2015

Dr. Sabapathy Krishnakumar

I am very happy that President Maithripala Sirisena and other members of the government have been repeatedly calling on expatriates to return and contribute:

• My Government will establish a special bureau under my directive to coordinate the expatriate Sri Lankans who wish to return to the motherland and we will offer a red carpet welcome to them. I would like to remind them that now it is time for us to work in unity for the betterment of the country, casting side political differences – President M. Sirisena, Policy Statement from Parliament, 1 Sept. 2015.
• President Maithripala Sirisena from Thailand has called on Sri Lankan expatriates to return home and render their services as democracy has been restored. (TNLRN News Radio, 2 Nov. 2015)
• Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera on Thursday invited Sri Lankan diaspora to return to the island as dual citizens. (Lanka Business Online, June 12, 2015)
• The PM also joined the chorus at the dual citizenship ceremony on 17 Nov.

Predatory Journals: Fast Track to Professor (A paper in 3 days)

However, laudable policy remains empty words as the government’ own officials undermine policy. We badly need the services of expatriates. With the education budgets promised a huge increase, we will have only new buildings and landscaped staff without teachers to teach as remarked by Rajan Hoole in his article on the scandalous state of our universities (Colombo Telegraph, 29 Oct. 2015). That well-intended money will be money down the drain unless the UGC wakes up and the President notes how he is being undermined.

The North-East more than any other needs rebuilding and for that we need expatriates to return. But till recently, many ordinary persons were ensconced in powerful administrative positions for which they did not qualify. We now badly need bright outsiders to come in.

What I write, I write as person who was once Dean of Applied Science at the University of Jaffna. At that time, I saw no future and preferred to move to the South after seeing tussles over a period of 2-3 years when supporters of the then government were recommended as computer applications assistants but they could not pass the qualifying test insisted on by the staff. The VC was keen to appoint them, we were not. This was reported on, in The Sunday Island by Dasun Edirisinghe (31 July. 2014).Read More