The need to rethink Jaffna Council appointments; Response to M ‘Jolly’ Somasundram
BY Devanesan Nesiah-June 18, 2018, 9:02 pm
I am one of the 37 signatories of the open letter on the above subject addressed to the Minister who makes appointments to the Jaffna University Council. The letter was published to keep informed those who were concerned about the progressive corruption and degeneration in many of our universities and, in particular, the Jaffna University. The objectives of the letter were explicitly and unambiguously set out.
In his published counter letter, M ‘Jolly’ Somasundram says that "there is something rotten" in the state of civil society in Sri Lanka. While Jolly does not reveal his ‘identification, qualifications, or address’, he faults the signatories for not revealing such information concerning them. What matters is that the Minister, the UGC, the University authorities, and others concerned would be familiar with the qualifications and reputation of most, if not all, of the signatories. Even more important, they would understand the concept of a University, the critical importance of good, clean administration and appreciate the attempt to defend those values and traditions.
None of the signatories are head hunting or seeking any appointments to the Council or to any other position in the Jaffna University. Several instances of mismanagement and corruption are listed in the letter. One of these referred to the well accomplished Sam Thiagalingam, an alumnus of the Jaffna University and currently Assoc. Prof. in Boston University’s Department of Medicine who had applied well ahead of the closing date for the position of Vice Chancellor of the University of Jaffna. It was not suggested that he was the most suitable candidate, but concern was expressed that his name was excluded from the ballot paper made available to the Jaffna University Council Members to select three candidates to be sent to the Minister of High Education, for him to choose one of them to be appointed Vice Chancellor. This was in spite of compelling data presented by Professor Tharmaratnam to prove that his application was timely despite the undue (postal) delay in reaching the Vice Chancellor, a day or two behind the closing date. The former Vice Chancellor, who conducted the elections, overruled Profesor Tharmaratnam and excluded his name from the ballot papers.
Another case referred to in the original letter, concerned a minor employee who reported a large scale theft of timber in which it appears that two Deans might have been involved. The Deans got away but the minor employee was sacked without due process inquiry. The paper goes on to list cases of serial sexual harassment of female students by two male teachers. Again it was Professor Tharmaratnam who has helped to advance inquiries into these crimes. Jolly’s response was to call the 37 signatories ‘talkers not doers’ for failing to ‘out’ other such crimes. But such sexual harassment prevails throughout the country. Is Jolly ‘outing’ such criminals? Is he not by his own definition a self-serving hypocrite in lauding Professor Tharmaratnam but not doing likewise?
Jolly assumes that a Vice Chancellor should be a citizen of the country in which the University is situated. For a good academic, no country is foreign. For a good university, no outstanding academic is a foreigner. This is implied in the very name University. This has been the tradition for two millennia from Nalanda Buddhist University situated close to Bihar (which was thriving in the 5th to 7th centuries - indeed, centuries before most reputed universities in Europe were established) down to the present. Some of the most distinguished amongst the heads of that ancient university, notable Bhikku Dharmapala, were from our region, not Bihar. My own schools in Jaffna and Colombo, and universities in Colombo and elsewhere, have had long traditions of engaging what Jolly would call ‘foreign’ teachers at every level-from primary school teachers to Vice Chancellors. Even Jolly cites Ivor Jennings with approval, but he too was a non-citizen who served as Vice Chancellor for some years before Independence and for several years afterwards. No doubt there are educational institutions that specifically exclude ‘foreigners’ but I would have hesitated to enroll in any of them. Not only universities, but also many Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian schools, have long proud traditions of employing ‘foreigners’ at the highest levels. If Jolly is correct in asserting that there is no ‘foreigner’ among the four thousand five hundred faculty in the Sri Lankan university system, it is surely a sign of depressing parochialism that is to be deplored; of "something rotten" in the state of University education in Sri Lanka.
