Look behind the eyes

By A. M. M. Naoshaad

(May 28, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) I take this opportunity to say a few words on the Order under the University of Vocational Technology Act as I have been following this Act and also made contributions at the last occasion.

What I find is that, after almost 106 years of having started vocational education in this country, we have now a multitude of organizations which are involved in vocational education and what is sad about it is that all these institutions have become competing organizations than complementing organizations. We basically started in 1893 with the Government Technical College and now we have VTAs, NIBMs, NAITAs and the technical colleges and we find that each one of these, which have grown, have become competing organizations than complementing organizations. So, what we need to do is to re-look at the syllabuses of these organizations, the need of the country, the need of the world and reorganize the syllabuses so that these organizations complement each other and not compete.

We know that in this country the biggest problem we have is the dearth of qualified instructors. Most of these organizations do not have competent instructors. So, unless we get them to complement each other and share their resources, we will find that we have buildings all over the country, but no competent instructors to carry out the courses and train our youths to take on the challenges of this world.

I have two institutions in my village: a VTA centre and a technical college. Both do not have enough instructors and I am told that the principal of the VTA centre, opened just a few months ago, is retiring next month. If we allow this to happen, we will find that the whole organization would collapse because it is an organization that has no funds and is just starting off. So, we need to see that there is continuation of service, that these organizations are funded enough and they become complementing organizations and not competing organizations so that they serve the purpose they have been brought up for.

Diverging from the subject, I now get on to the topic that has taken precedence in this House today: the current situation in this country. We know, unlike ever in the past, that we have today a situation where the whole country is rejoicing at the end of a war.

I am on record as someone who is against war, and I have also maintained that force has to be met with force. I am relieved that we have now come to the end of the war. But, I must remind this House that the end of the war does not mean the end of the problem.

If we go back into the history of this country, King Dutugemunu’s first attempt at invading the North was put down by his father and when he got the opportunity to invade and conquer the North and defeat Elara, a Tamil king, he did not rejoice. Though I would not compare Elara to Prabhakaran, I must say that King Dutugemunu did not rejoice at the defeat of Elara. Because it is on record as, “Looking back upon his glorious victory, great though it was, he knew no joy remembering that thereby was wrought the destruction of thousands of both enemies and his soldiers.”This is attested to by the sheer number of religious foundations attributed to him by the chronicles.

So, we know what happened in history and we now compare our present President His Excellency Mahinda Rajapakse with King Dutugemunu. In fact, he has been bestowed the title “Vishvakeerthi Sri Threesinhaladhishwara” that was never bestowed on any ruler in this country. But, I would like at this moment to state what Mahatma Gandhi is attributed as suggesting that "attempting to sustain truth without humility is doomed to cause it to become instead an 'arrogant caricature' of truth".

I would also like to quote Winston Churchill, who is famously quoted as saying, “In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance.” Both qualities that were exhibited by His Excellency during the war; in war: resolution and in defeat: defiance. Now in victory we need magnanimity. Magnanimity is the need of the day and in peace: goodwill, because although Churchill won the war he lost the next general election. We do not want that to happen in this country. We want to have a strong leader who can take this country to the next phase of peace. But how do we ensure that the people look at him as the leader who can take us to peace? This is where magnanimity comes into play because when Aristotle coined these words he said, “This is the suitable virtue of a great man, arising from his other virtues.” Right now one form of magnanimity is the generosity of the victor to the defeated. This is what is important today, that we have to be magnanimous in everything that we do from now onwards.

We have to be able to serve the defeated, the downtrodden Tamil people more than they expected from Prabhakaran. If Prabhakaran promised them Eelam, they have nothing now. In this moment, it is the duty of every elected representative of this House to support His Excellency the President in fulfilling what he has declared in this House and outside. When we liberated the East, we spoke about the four Ds, demilitarisation, democracy, development and devolution. We do not talk about it anymore. Now we speak about equality in this country. That is a very difficult thing to implement knowing the divisions we have. But, it has to be done, because if we do not do that, we are doomed.

I was very happy when I read an interview given by the President’s son, Namal, because I read somewhere in that interview that the well-known German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche had said, “What was silent in the father speaks in the son, and often I found in the son the unveilled secret of the father.” The son is on record saying, “I think, we need first to win the hearts and minds of the Tamil people who live in Sri Lanka and resettle the IDPs as soon as possible and give their lives back to them. Then I am sure, the international diaspora will understand". Those words coming from a Thomian, I am sure he means that, and I am sure that is what he vouches for the conduct of his father or what his father's thinking is.

Now we need to basically look beyond us and since I have very limited time I will table* three articles which appeared in the Sri Lanka Guardian web site titled, "Walk the Extra Mile” by N.Sathiamoorthy, “President’s son for 13th amendment” an interview by Nilantha Illangamuwa and “Ten days that Shook Sri Lanka” by Sumanasiri Liyanage for inclusion in Hansard.

I will fail in my duty as a Sri Lankan if I do not warn the international community of its hypocrisy towards this country. We all know that it was the West that supported the LTTE at its prime. We know that and we know that the West changed its stance after the 9/11 attack when they got hit by a terrorist organization. Now, having helped this Government to defeat terrorism - I place it on record - now they talk of war crimes and everything. They are hypocrites. We know what they are doing all over the world. We as elected Members of this House should never allow foreign powers to intervene in our country. I, as an elected Member of Parliament from the Digamadulla District representing the minorities, assure His Excellency that we will stand with the Government in denouncing the hypocrisy of the West.

-Sri Lanka Guardian