A Letter to Malinda……Sealed with a hug….

 

Dear Malinda,

“what rules did i break? i have the highest respect for academics, i.e. those who deserve the title 'academic'. not for jokers who cannot counter point with point. they were all exposing themselves by their language, tone and commentary. i will not post/comment again. i made that clear. all i said was that i will post one more thing. the picture we carried in our news page on sunday and which is the cover photo of our website. as a beneficiary of free education, i too have, am and will fight for free education. as a beneficiary of free education i think i owe it to those who paid for my education not to celebrate mediocrity. some people on this list don't read, or can't understand what they read. anyway, i support your cause, i just find a lot of the futa members to be self-serving jokers. so, even long after this salary issue is done, if you read my articles, you will find me batting on your side (i.e. the side of free education, not 'compromising integrity because the cause is more important'). cheers!”

After reading this message from you I was in two minds whether to reply you or not. It’s an interesting message; the cream of your “arguments” is seasoned with your aggressive sentiments and tactically placed on the binary line of proponents/opponents of the FUTA struggle. So, I felt like it deserves a reply in public.

What rules did you break? In short, your message itself is a fine example. You accuse some of the FUTA members of their language and tone. But see how you yourself have used language: “jokers”, “who cannot counter point with point” “who don’t read”, “who can’t understand what they read” and “self-serving jokers”. If you call a person a “joker” you should not expect him or her to address you in pleasing words in return. This applies to other things too. I really don’t want to mention them in detail here, as my purpose of writing this reply is not to go back to that level again.

May be they do not fit into your ideal image of a “humble, honest, and hard-working true academic” and do not deserve the title ‘academic’ in your judgment. You are free to express your opinion. But a continuous attempt to insult a profession and tarnish its image, abusing your power as a chief editor of a national newspaper, especially in a crucial moment like this, will not be tolerated even by a group of saints.

Some FUTA members had to hit you hard and, yes in a sense, exceeded their limit, as you also had exceeded the limit progressing provocatively, with your mastery of words. You always advocate reason over sentiments. But when it comes to reality people do not act only on reason. Both you and “some” FUTA members including myself have exemplified it in our exchange of words.

In your opinion you had only criticisms in what you wrote on FUTA TU action. But as a careful reader of everything you wrote on this particular matter, I do not think they are mere criticisms. They are not genuine and positive criticisms at all.

Let me explain this to you with an example that is very much understandable to you. During the war period whenever allegations against the military forces came up, many people including you regarded them as conspiracies attempting to demoralize the war heroes. Even an artistic work like “Purahanda Kaluwara” was considered as something that demoralized the war heroes. Not a word was spoken or written about the corrupt higher rank officers in security forces. Leave corruption aside. Even an obvious and brutal crime like the rape and murder of Krishanthi Kumaraswamy was considered something “normal” and ignorable. Anyone who said a word against corruption or indiscipline in military forces was named as a traitor of mother Sri Lanka, solely on the claim that it will affect the high morale of the military forces. It is non-arguable that we would not have been able to defeat a powerful terrorist group if we had tried to take each and every single allegation made against our war heroes into account.

My dear friend, the same applies here. When we are in a struggle, facing a definite danger, we are forced to go for priorities whether we like it or not. This is not a problem of compromising integrity as you understand it. The worst and the greatest moment in a struggle is the moment in which you have to betray your principles. It’s a choice between either to keep your nice (“academic”) identity and leave the ground or put your identity at risk and fight and move forward. May be a thousand and one allegations always highlighted in your editorial have a ground. I am not in a position to deny them totally. (But I never agree with your sweeping generalizations. The words “many” and “few” are often temptingly misleading. We all like to use these two words as they always make us feel easy and comfortable.) The important question here is what should be given priority at this crucial moment. Are the issues you raise burning issues when compared to the danger of destroying a whole system of social justice, a national heritage we all are proud of? My point is simple; that we cannot fight in several fronts simultaneously. To my understanding, what is crucial at this juncture is to defeat all the arbitrary educational reforms and save state education.

Okay Malinda, finally this is my proposition. As you’ve mentioned in your message above, you have, are and will fight for free education. When you are in a team you have to bat and win the game although all the team members may not fit into you ideals. We have to win this first round match. We should defeat any attempt to ruin free education and ensure that the future generations in this country will also have its benefits. Indeed allocating 6% GDP alone will not ensure a healthy system of education. We also have to work towards making education free of all sorts of internal and external obstacles. But the problem with you, as I understand, is you accuse us of not playing well in a second round match while we are still struggling to win the first round. First we have to save free education which is the need of the hour, and then we should start the struggle to make education free of all sorts of misconducts, corruption etc. as its second step. If you are honest and you really want to make education free, you will find likeminded people in the FUTA struggle. In that case, I will be with you for sure and hope many who are in this struggle will definitely be there with you.

I remember your poem “To Nirmal”. And I have observed once you had referred to Danesh as a serious academic in one of your FB comments. I don’t know how many other FUTA members are there in your list of serious academics. It’s clear that at least there are two in this side. But I don’t think you will find any “serious academic” among the bootlicking gang including Ajith Dissanayake, Mahendra Gunawardane, Lalithasiri Gunaruwan, Rohana Lakshman Piyadasa, Rohan Rajapakshe and Ariyaratna Athugala. When you say that you have found that “many” of the FUTA members are self-serving jokers (again I do not agree with you on this) it implies that there are at least a few who are not. But in the camp against the FUTA struggle you will definitely find self-serving jokers only.

I would really like to take the points you have made one by one and discuss them. But I think those issues need an honest and open minded approach which in this war like situation is not a reality.

You can’t leave this to us and challenge us if you are genuine. You have to prove that you do not have any personal grudges against us and be ready to bat on our side even though our team is not perfect according to your judgment.

If you are responsible and genuine you should not be a part of the campaign led by the government against the FUTA struggle. Why should a genuine man like you line up with all those opportunists like Lalithasiri Gunaruwan and Ajith Dissanayake? Are you going to launch your movement to make education free with this kind of jokers? Come and join us! If you are genuine in the cause of free education and making education free I’m sure you will definitely find many fellow travelers here.

FUTA is on a long march. I’m not just referring to the long march from point Dewundara to Point Pedro. It’s on a long march for a better tomorrow for education in Sri Lanka. The current TU action will end in negotiations and the long march starting from Matara will end in Jaffna…….But FUTA’s long march for a better tomorrow in education in Sri Lanka will proceed for years and perhaps for decades if necessary. Hope to see you there on the long march….I mean both.

Hugs

Sieruwensitin Siruwensitin