| by Udaya Gammanpila
( January 21, 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) There was an animosity towards Muslims in the Sinhala society exactly 100 years ago. The ultimate result was widespread Sinhala – Muslim clashes in 1915. Muslim resistance towards Buddhist processions in Gampola and Kandy were only the trigger, not the cause. Grabbing Sinhala lands with the support of the British Government, acquiring lands through mortgages associated with loans with excessive interest rates, dominating retail trade with the support of the government, and supporting the British Government against Sinhala uprisings, were among the causes for the riots.
As someone who has studied the Sinhala – Muslim clashes in 1915, I strongly feel a repetition of that disaster is imminent. The promotion of Halal products, unauthorized mosques and organizing competitions to learn Islam for non-Muslim children are among the present day causes. The latest addition to the list is the Law Entrance Exam results.
Law Entrance Exam
The Law Entrance Exam has been held annually since 1875, and there is a well-established pattern in examination results. Although the exam was originally held only in English, it was made trilingual after Sinhala was made the official language. The examination results in 2011 showed an abnormal growth in the number of Muslim students who passed in the Tamil Medium. The results of the 2012 examination show a further increase in this growth.
The average number of Muslim students who passed the exam from 2003 to 2010 is 7. However, it has rocketed to 51 in 2011 and 78 in 2012. Only four percent of the Tamil medium candidates passed the examination in 2010. It increased to 12% in 2011. Conversely, only 2.4% of Sinhala medium students have passed the examination.
There may be two reasons for this unusual scenario. Leaking the question paper could be the first reason. There are several possible leaking points which include drafting the paper, translation of the paper from English to Sinhala and Tamil, type settings, proof reading and printing. There is a possibility of leaking the paper to a student by any person involved in this process. Since both parties would protect the secret, such leakages would never surface.
The students are not the only group who are interested in seeing the question paper in advance. The other group is the tutors who hold preparatory classes for the students. Towards the end of the course, every tutor provides possible questions and model answers for the students. If a particular tutor’s questions can be found in the examination paper, he will be able to attract more students for future classes. Hence, the tutors are in the bad habit of purchasing question papers making excessive cash payments. One such example is the leaking of the Sinhala medium science paper during the O/L Examination in December 2012. A tutor had purchased a spoiled printed paper containing 19 questions, from a labourer at the printing press. He included those questions without any change in his model question paper given to his students. Since the tutors give these questions to hundreds of students in public, such incidents cannot be maintained as secrets.
The second possibility is that the examiners for the Tamil medium could have given very high marks. Tamil medium students had a very low passing rate in the recent past. In 2004, there were only three students who passed the examination. Similarly, only four students passed the examination in 2007. In this backdrop, there is a suspicion that Tamil examiners may have been compelled to be lavish with their markings with a view to produce more Tamil medium lawyers.
Not a new trend
This is not a new trend. During the 1960s, there was an unusual growth in university admissions from the Tamil medium. For instance, in 1969, 28% of entrants to science faculties were from the Jaffna Districts, although the Jaffna population constituted only seven percent of the country’s population. This was a consequence of the examiners of the Tamil medium giving marks for the papers they corrected. As a solution to this injustice, the government decided to allocate a quota for each medium, based on the ethnic ratio. This solution was heavily criticized by the minority groups. Hence, the government in 1972 introduced a new scheme, based on district population and the degree of development in each district.
There may be other reasons in addition to the two possibilities explained above. My suspicion is the paper had been leaked to a tutor. According to unconfirmed sources, the pass rate of students attending a class in Wellawatte, conducted by a Muslim tutor, had been extraordinary. If a tutor has an unusual pass rate, there is always a great possibility of the paper being leaked. A firm conclusion can be arrived at only after analyzing the pass ratio of students of each tutor and their historical data.
If this is a result of lavish allocation of marks, it can be found by plotting Bell Shape Charts or Standard Deviation for each medium. If the examiners for the Tamil medium have given lavish marks, the peak of the Bell Shape Chart will move towards the right. If there is no such incident, the peaks of the charts for all mediums will be close to each other.
Investigation to determine the first reason should be conducted by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Similarly, the Examination Department should investigate the possibility of the second reason. It should be mentioned the CID has already commenced an investigation on an initiative of the Bodu Bala Sena and the Collective of Law Entrance Students. This has to a large extent eased the tension among the Sinhalese law entrance students.
Conspiracy launched by Rauff Hakeem?
Unfortunately, some Sinhala nationalists jumped to the conclusion the result favourable to Muslim students was a conspiracy launched by Rauff Hakeem in his capacity as the Minister of Justice. They may have thought of getting some political mileage out of the issue. However, such allegations without proper study or background knowledge do not accrue any mileage for anybody. I have no faith in Hakeem or his party, considering their notorious past. However, there is no basis for this allegation, whatsoever. When we allege that Hakeem was responsible for this mess, the true culprit can safely hide behind Hakeem, distracting the investigation.
Hakeem has three functions in respect of the Law College. Firstly, he can appoint six members to the Council for Legal Education, which is the governing body for the Law College. However, there is no Muslim among his appointees and eminent Sinhala nationalist Manohara de Silva PC, is among them. Further, there are nine other members, including the Chief Justice, the Attorney General and Judges of the Supreme Court. Moreover, this Council cannot influence the examination directly as it is conducted by the Department of Examinations.
Secondly, the minister can give directives to the Council on policy matters in terms of Section 7A of the Council for Legal Education Ordinance. He has so far not used this power. Thirdly, the minister’s concurrence is required for by-laws to be approved by the Council and it is his responsibility to place those before the Parliament for approval.
Unfortunately, Hakeem’s behaviour in this issue has been extremely irresponsible. He has added fuel to the fire by responding to the statements made by ‘some’ Sinhala nationalists in a baseless manner.
According to websites, Hakeem had said in a speech the higher pass rate of Muslim students is a result of their skill. His statement does not explain why Muslims who sat for the examination in the Sinhala and English medium do not possess the same skill. Further, he has not explained how Muslims acquire this skill, because the vast majority of Muslims in Sri Lanka are descendants of Sinhalese and Tamils who embraced Islam through marriages. Hence, they belonged to the same genetic group of Sinhalese and Tamils.
Ramzi Bawa is the President of Collective of Law Entrance Students, who sat for the exam in the Sinhala medium and failed to pass it. Hakeem should explain to the nation why Ramzi does not possess the exclusive skill of Muslims mentioned by him.
As far as I can see, there is a genuine problem which cannot be hidden within emotional allegations and counter-allegations. If the community leaders attempt to ignore this issue, this tension will escalate to clashes between the Sinhalese and Muslims. Leaders of both communities should behave in a responsible manner to avoid a repetition of the ugly incidents that took place almost 100 years ago.
My first recommendation is to double the intake for the Law College as was done in 1991, to ease the tension. This will create an atmosphere where the Law College can register the new students. The ideal solution is to conduct the exam again. In order to do that, the authorities should possess hard evidence of misconduct. Unfortunately, the authorities are yet to find such evidence and the Law College cannot withhold registrations indefinitely. However, the CID should continue with its investigation, because I strongly believe this unusual pattern is a result of the paper leakage. The CID should identify the culprits in order to ensure this kind of manipulation will not be repeated in the future.
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