“We showed what we are capable of when the Batticotta Seminary was closed by the American missionaries in 1855 and thereby strangling out of existence an emerging university, and founded Jaffna College. Now this institution is under threat by American mission bureaucrats in the US who have infiltrated the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds and are holding Jaffna College ransom to their dictates. This must be countered straightaway.”
(November, 30, Sydney, Australia, Sri Lanka Guardian) When the Batticotta Seminary at Vaddukoddai, northern Sri Lanka founded by the American missionaries in 1823 was closed in 1855 on the pretext it had failed in its mission to convert Hindus to Christianity, the local people were stunned and traumatized by the inane and insensitive nature of this decision taken on behalf of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) by the head of a roving commission, Rufus Anderson. The seminary’s exceptional educational efforts for 32 years for the well being of the community were evidently of no concern to this man.When a mind that could have made such a dim-witted decision is analyzed one could perceive an element of arrogance or haughtiness or a great deal of them that has racist condescension; maybe it was another aspect of white man’s conceit similar to what was practiced by European planters in Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Fiji and Guyana. Such bigoted intolerance is also seen in the refusal of people like John Thomas, Minister President of the United Church of Christ to be informed adequately of the harm they have caused to the JDCSI community; stating these seems like slander to them, a convenient cover up for their frosty coldness.
In consequence to the rash and reckless decision of Rufus Anderson on behalf of the ABCFM, several people of the Jaffna District, many of whom had attended the seminary toiled for seventeen long years collecting funds and lands to set up a good school very much like the Batticotta Seminary and in 1872, Jaffna College was founded by them and legislatively enacted under the laws governing the country at that time. Contrary to the myth that had dominated too long, Jaffna College was not founded by the American Mission or missionaries.
From the funds that were collected locally, with wise counseling prevailing, these along with gifts and donations from friends and well-wishers overseas mostly in the US, a fiduciary trust was established in Boston, Massachusetts and named Trustees of Jaffna College Funds. It had nothing to do with the American Mission or the ABCFM or any of its successors. At the most a fraternal relationship existed with the mission boards, more because some retired missionaries from Sri Lanka were appointed as trustees.
The role of the trustees was to obtain, hold and manage funds for Jaffna College for the educational development of the people of the Jaffna District. Jaffna College was established as the sole beneficiary of the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds. In 1963 however an amendment was made by a majority of members of the trust to make available some grants for certain educational institutions. In making this move, the trustees either overlooked or ignored the convention that in respect of fiduciary trusts such a decision must have the unanimous support of the trustees. This did not happen and there must have been very good reasons why the decision was not unanimous.
Jaffna College opted to remain a private school because it was the popular will of the people of the Jaffna District, parents and alumni confident that this would be possible with the trust funds in the US available to the institution. By and large the trustees have been generally efficient in ensuring that the college was not affected and they also respected the laws and conventions that governed fiduciary trusts.
But in recent years, missionary bureaucrats have seeped into the affairs of the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds and seem to have the impression that this body is a mission and should be conditioned and even to some extent controlled by the dictates of the Wider Church Ministries of the United Church of Christ, the eventual successors of the ABCFM, the very body that strangled the Batticotta Seminary that could have become a university, out of existence.
Due to certain weaknesses in local leadership in Jaffna, avarice and the search for crumbs of favours, the missionary bureaucrats began to take an upper hand in the affairs of Jaffna College. In course of time instead of the Jaffna College Board of Directors giving directions to the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds, it became clear the sole beneficiary was reduced to the level of people with the begging bowl. Nepotism among our people was the major corrupting factor.
This turned into a malignant cancer when certain leaders of the community unashamedly used underhand means seeking scholarships and other favours for their kith and kin in the US and other countries from the trustees. A substantial numbers of such were offered without public knowledge and many of the recipients were ill-deserved.
Unfortunately for the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds and the Wider Church Ministries of the United Church of Christ, the appointment of the Rev Dr Daniel Thiagarajah as the Bishop in Jaffna of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India (JDCSI) marked a turn that they never expected. Both organizations thereupon encouraged a split in the JDCSI confident they will eventually have their way and that Jaffna College funds would be at the disposal of the mission body. This was neither the intention of the founders of Jaffna College nor that of the trustees when the trust body was set up in the States.
Even worse, the trustees seem to feel they not only can dictate terms to Jaffna College but also choose who should from Sri Lanka attend their annual meetings in Boston, USA. Since the current Board of Directors of Jaffna College has taken a strong stand on this issue and on what its relationship to the trustees should legally and conventionally be, the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds headed by the Rev Eric Gass have reacted by holding up the disbursement of funds that is done by installments through the year. These are needed for the immediate running of the school, payment of staff salaries and other requirements. Such an act falls fully within the realms of fraudulence and treachery and borders on blackmail.
The funds that were due by September have not been paid yet and this is totally unacceptable, very unprofessional for a fiduciary trust body and it certainly amounts to criminal intent.
One wonders whether this is an effort at a repeat of what Rufus Anderson did to the Batticotta Seminary and transfer Jaffna College funds elsewhere. It is time the trustees are told in no uncertain terms that they must honour their obligations fully with prompt dispatch and that whatever disbursements are made must have the approval of the Jaffna College Board of Directors and that too only when they propose such grants and not the trustees. In other words the trustees must receive their directions from the Jaffna College Board of Directors and none other.
It looks as if the trustees are under the impression that they are a law unto themselves and that they can deal with the funds as they like even if Jaffna College goes out existence. This feature is intended to alert the alumni of Jaffna College worldwide to ensure no harm comes to our alma mater and if legal action against the trustees is demanded, it should be met with utmost force and intensity.
Our alumni are spread all over the world and this is the time to stand up and be counted to establish what our loyalty to Jaffna College really means immaterial whether we are Christians, Hindus, Moslems, Burghers or others.
When the Batticotta Seminary was closed we showed what we were capable of at that time. Today we can show once again but with much greater might and fervor that our college home is very dear to us.
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