Features
Amusing and interesting courtroom experiences in pre-Independent Ceylon
Excerpted from Memoirs of a Cabinet Secretary by BP Pieris
We have an unusual practice at the Ceylon Bar where lawyers address each other by their Christian or nicknames. This in not the English practice where the rawest junior addresses the most senior silk by his surname. This was forcibly brought to my notice when I accompanied a friend of mine who wanted to meet Sir Henry Curtiss-Bennett regarding his call. When my friend addressed the silk as “Sir Henry”, he said, “Good Lord, to you I am just Curtiss-Bennett”.
My first case in the Supreme court was at the Colombo Assizes before Akbar J. I was assigned by the Crown to defend in a murder case. I took all possible pains over my brief and, when it was my turn to address the jury, put forward what I thought was a fairly good defence. Akbar, in his summing-up, did not put a single one of my points to the jury, and I was too nervous as a beginner to interrupt him. The jury found the accused guilty. The electric fans were stopped; the judge put the black cap on and passed sentence of death.
There was no Court of Criminal Appeal at the time. I mentioned the matter of the summing-up to a few senior lawyers and I was advised to see the judge in chambers next morning and explain my point of view to him. He received me courteously and listened to me with a great deal of patience. At the end of it, I was surprised to hear the judge telling me that I was probably right, that he had had a doubt in his own mind, that he had no sleep the previous night and that he had already recommended to His Excellency the Governor that the sentence of death be not carried out.
He gave me his report to read and said he had typed it himself as his mind was troubling him. He told me that the sentence would be altered to one of life, that is, 20 years, which, with remission for good conduct, would amount to about 14 years. I went to see the man in prison and asked him, now that sentence had been passed on him, to tell me the truth as regards his guilt or innocence. He said he was a religious man with a wife and several children and that murder was not in his line.
Early in my career, I had to see Mr Justice Drieberg in Chambers over a habeas corpus application. I was again nervous about seeing a “live” judge in Chambers, by which I mean a judge without robes and wig, working away in his shirtsleeves. On my knocking at his door, I was asked to come in. The judge rose and shook hands and inquired what my business was. He inquired who was on the other side and desired to see both counsel together. He then stood up, which meant that the interview was over, came across his table to the wing door which he opened in person and bowed me out. I wish there were more men like that in high places showing courtesy to younger fellows and the public.
Soertsz J. held his drinks well but, at work, was a peppery old bird. He was an extremely good speaker, particularly after dinner. In his charges to the jury, the sentences ran, clause within clause, grammatically correct. His sentences were so long that they reminded one of Walter Scott’s novels or a chapter of Thucydides. He was a master or the classics who read some Greek or Latin every morning before he came to court. He had no patience with counsel who wasted his time or who indulged in irrelevancies. On days when he had to pass a sentence of death, his whole household knew from his manner what had happened in court. The judge was in a bad mood; the family had to keep silent because the slightest talk or noise would upset him. It is said that, on these occasions, even his Alsatian crept under the dining table.
At an Assize trial, counsel was trying to make a big point before Soertsz, thumping the Bar table and asking the witness “You say here that you were four fathoms away from James when the stabbing took place. Did you say in the Magistrate’s court that you were together?” Soertsz J.: “Mr…, when the witness says they were together, he does not mean that they were Siamese twins.”
On another day, again at Assizes, a most amusing bit of conversation took place before Soertsz. Defending counsel was not very senior at the Bar and not very good in the subtle use of English words. He just got there in his questions; but only just. Something occasionally misfired in the use of a word. It was a murder trial, and a small boy had completed his evidence. The next witness was the boy’s mother, a very good-looking village woman in her early 30s. Counsel asked “Are you the mother of the previous witness?” Answer, “Yes”. Counsel: “And who is the father of this boy?” The judge, with a slight show of loss of temper at this waste of time asked, “Really, Mr…, is all this relevant to this murder case?” And counsel replied, “My Lord, I will not press the question as it appears to be embarrassing to your Lordship.”
Of Garvin J., I have the pleasantest memories. He had been my father’s classmate at the Royal College. The Editor of the New Law Reports had asked me to report a case regarding a dispute about the sale and purchase of rubber, the amount in dispute being over two lakhs of rupees. The point was taken that there was never any intention to purchase the rubber, that only the difference was to be paid according as the market price rose or fell, and that therefore it was a gaming and wagering contract unenforceable at law.
On the Bench were Garvin and Akbar J. For the appellant was H. V. Perera; against him Soertsz. The judges were told that there might be an appeal to the Privy Council. The law of wagering was traced from the Twelve Tables downwards. All the available law was cited and the Bar table was an array of books. There was a book on the subject by Perezius, a Latin writer, an enormous book about the size of a bound edition of the Times of Ceylon, covered with the dust of the Law Library and which no one on the Library had ever looked at. The judges insisted on looking into the book and it was dusted and brought in, flagged at the proper page and handed to H. V. who said “My Lords, this is in Latin”.
Soertsz rose and said “My Lords, I will translate the relevant passage for Your Lordships”, and went through the passage like a Latin unseen in our school days. The judges wanted a written translation in English which was furnished by E. B. Wikramanayake, who also translated and published a complete work of Perezius.
Professor Lee, in his book on Roman-Dutch Law which the judges now looked at, had, in a footnote, referred the reader to a very useful article on wagering contained in a certain volume of the South African Law Journal which the court wanted but no one seemed to have. A hurried search of the Judges’ Library, the Attorney-General’s Library and the private libraries of the leading Colombo lawyers proved fruitless. I told Soertsz that my uncle Jayawickrama had the book in his library at Matara and, at Garvin’s request, a telegram was sent to him asking him to be kind enough to lend the book. The book was sent; but it was not returned-by the court.
About five months later, I was retained in a rape case at Matara as Junior to my uncle. I drove to his house the previous evening and he complained to me of the probable loss of the book by its loan to the Supreme Court. The set of volumes had lost its value. He did not wish to write officially to the court, but asked me, on my return, to speak to Garvin. And there I was, a few days afterwards, standing before Garvin’s chambers, waiting for the Judge’s return for lunch. While he was having his sandwiches, I related the story of the unreturned book. He was very angry and there and then dictated, to his private secretary, a personal letter of apology to be sent along with the book. In reprimanding his secretary, the judge to my surprise, used one of those famous four letter words which has not yet got into the dictionaries.
Duff House case
The Duff House case, where, Stephen Seneviratne stood charged with the murder of his wife by chloroform, came for trial before Akbar. R. L. Pereira was defending with M. W. H. de Silva, Solicitor-General, and Wendt, Crown Counsel, appearing for the crown. Wendt, a straight man, told me years later, that he was miserable throughout the case. He did not go into detail. Apparently, there were many features grating against decorous judicial behaviour. The jury found the accused guilty and sentence was passed.
There was an appeal to the Privy Council which was allowed. Akbar resigned shortly afterwards. There was something which I found very difficult to explain in Akbar’s attitude whenever a person of some education and respectability appeared before him as an accused. There was the case where a silver-haired Tamil gentleman, shroff in a Bank, stood in the dock between two Fiscal’s officers, accused of fraud. He did not look to me the type of man who would throw an ink pot at the Judge, but as soon as the jury returned a verdict of guilty, the judge said “Handcuff the prisoner”.
Mr Justice E. W. Jayewardene, father of J. R. and Corbett, was portly and pompous, and at the same time, a kindly and dignified man who, on coming on the Bench, carefully placed a few of his personal belongings, like his gold watch, on his desk. He was familiar with his Bible and his Shakespeare and expected counsel to be equally proficient. He was also fond of cracking a joke and appreciated a crown counsel who was able to make an appropriate and equally humorous remark in reply.
In a murder trial before him, in which Crown Counsel E. H. T. Gunesekera was prosecuting, the Police Inspector was giving evidence and producing several pieces of bloodstained clothing which the deceased, a basket woman, had been wearing at the time she was stabbed to death. There was a bloodstained camboy marked P1, a bloodstained jacket marked P2, and when the Inspector produced a bloodstained chemise marked P3, the judge interjected “Mr Crown Counsel, do basket women wear chemises?” Replied E. H. T., “My Lord, I am not acquainted with the undergarments of basket women”. “Proceed with the case, Mr Crown Counsel,” said the Judge.
On another occasion, again with E. H. T. for the Crown, a string of Sinhalese village witnesses with names like Charles, James, David, had given evidence when the Judge asked “Why these names, Mr Crown Counsel? Haven’t we got good old Sinhalese names?” To which the prosecutor replied that no blame could be attached to these poor villagers for following those more and better educated who preferred to call their sons Richard and Corbett. Crown Counsel was asked to proceed with the case.
This was not rudeness on the part of the judge. He just enjoyed the ready wit even though, at times, it was a hit at him. The foreman of the jury was once dozing in the jury box. E. W. J. would not address him. Instead he said “Mr Registrar, will you please wake up the Foreman of the Jury.” I don’t think the judge was ever known to lose his temper on the Bench. This is a quality inherited by the sons.
MacDonnell, Chief Justice, was a classical scholar from Oxford and a contemporary of Lord Birkenhead. When MacDonnell disliked an argument, he had a habit of slipping down his chair, with the result that he could not be seen from the Bar Table. He held a blue pencil in one hand and a red pencil in the other, and used both pencils and hands to mark his brief, blue for points with which he agreed, red for those contra.
Each day, the briefs for the following day were put into his car. He took these with him to the Galle Face k, and, with his car parked under one of the street lamps, read them all and marked them with his two pencils. Where the trial judge had said that he agreed with the evidence of a witness, the Chief also often agreed and underlined the relevant passage in blue. If the judge had said he disbelieved the evidence, the passage was marked in red. It was thus possible, by looking at the judge’s brief, to see which way his mind was working.
My good and dear friend, James Homer Vanniasinkam who is now dead, had a case before the C. J. in which he was appearing for the respondent. He had a brainwave. The marked briefs were returned to the Registry each morning to be placed on the judge’s desk before court sat. James looked at the brief and found the underlining to be in his favour. He marked his own brief accordingly.
Appellant’s counsel did not have an easy passage with the judge. James rose to reply and did not waste the time of the court. He referred to the “strong” judgement of the trial judge, and the C. J. bowed. He then, shortly referred to page 2, line 5; page 6, line 10, and so on, and each time, the judge gave a polite bow. After about eight of such references, James bowed in turn and sat down. The Chief said “Thank you, Mr Vanniasinkam for putting your case so concisely. It’s amazing, but the identical points struck me last night.”
MacDonnell bought a small Austin motor car and learned to drive. He drove at about five miles an hour up San Sebastian Hill, with the driver seated by his side. Protruding on the right of the driving seat was a peculiar fixture, an artificial hand which was worked from a switch on the dashboard. This worked palm downwards vertically to indicate that the judge was going to slow down, and palm forwards horizontally to indicate that he was ready to be overtaken. The gadget was used liberally by the Chief.
Poyser J., in his last year, was Senior Puisne. As a judge, he was silent and polite. Every member of the Bar liked and respected him. He was, if I may say so, a popular judge. This may not be an appropriate epithet to use in reference to the holder of judicial office, but fact, the undoubted, inexplicable and obvious fact of his popularity, was there. Perhaps, it was the smile on his lips; or it might have been that twinkle in his eye. I do not know. But the Bar, which rarely accords a farewell to a retiring judge except by their presence in court when the Attorney makes his customary farewell speech, rose spontaneously in a body and accorded Mr Justice Poyser a lunch at the Galle Face Hotel.
More than one hundred lawyers, including judges, sat. R. L. Pereira, in proposing the toast of the chief guest, said that he was proud of the fact that he had been asked to give utterance to the mingled feelings of joy and sorrow of the Bar on the promotion of Mr Poyser. He continued: “I can say that we have always found Mr Poyser to be a courteous, patient and painstaking judge. The belief in British justice is as widespread as the British Empire is far-flung and if anybody has done his best to maintain that belief, it is Mr Justice Poyser.
“This is neither the time nor the place for any comparisons to be drawn, but this can be said, that Mr Justice Poyser has made himself a most excellent judge. Coming here to a new system of complex land laws, he soon tackled the problems before him, and in a short time, showed a complete mastery of the laws prevailing in this country. Those of you who have appeared before him will know with what unfailing patience he listened to the rawest junior arguing the complications of a case. Mr Poyser has always listened to them with interest and attention and has made them feel that the points they were urging were fully appreciated and considered by him.
“Our sorrow at his departure is, in a measure, relieved by the fact that he is going on well-earned promotion. After all, it is not possible for a man to resist the temptation of higher office, better salary and the prospects of earning a good pension. From that standpoint, we congratulate him on his good fortune. As a matter of fact, we were surprised that his capabilities were not recognized much earlier. A bird, however, has whispered to me that many promotions did come his way, but his love for Ceylon was so great that he turned them down.”
It could be quite premature to claim that the US has closed ranks completely with the world’s foremost fascist states: Russia, China and North Korea. But there is no denying that the US is breaking with tradition and perceiving commonality of policy orientation with the mentioned authoritarian states of the East rather than with Europe and its major democracies at present.
Increasingly, it is seemingly becoming evident that the common characterization of the US as the ‘world’s mightiest democracy’, could be a gross misnomer. Moreover, the simple fact that the US is refraining from naming Russia as the aggressor in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its refusal to perceive Ukraine’s sovereignty as having been violated by Russia, proves that US foreign policy is undergoing a substantive overhaul, as it were. In fact, one could not be faulted, given this backdrop, for seeing the US under President Donald Trump as compromising its democratic credentials very substantially.
Yet, it could be far too early to state that in the traditional East-West polarity in world politics, that the US is now squarely and conclusively with the Eastern camp that comprises in the main, China and Russia. At present, the US is adopting an arguably more nuanced approach to foreign policy formulation and the most recent UN Security Council resolution on Ukraine bears this out to a degree. For instance, the UN resolution in question reportedly ‘calls for a rapid end to the war without naming Russia as the aggressor.’
That is, the onus is being placed on only Ukraine to facilitate an end to the war, whereas Russia too has an obligation to do likewise. But it is plain that the US is reflecting an eagerness in such pronouncements to see an end to the Ukraine conflict. It is clearly not for a prolongation of the wasting war. It could be argued that a negotiated settlement is being given a try, despite current international polarizations.
However, the US could act constructively in the crisis by urging Russia as well to ensure an end to the conflict, now that there is some seemingly friendly rapport between Trump and Putin.
However, more fundamentally, if the US does not see Ukraine’s sovereignty as having been violated by Russia as a result of the latter’s invasion, we are having a situation wherein the fundamental tenets of International Law are going unrecognized by the US. That is, international disorder and lawlessness are being winked at by the US.
It follows that, right now, the US is in cahoots with those powers that are acting autocratically and arbitrarily in international politics rather than with the most democratically vibrant states of the West, although a facile lumping together of the US, Russia and China, is yet not possible.
It is primarily up to the US voting public to take clear cognizance of these developments, draw the necessary inferences and to act on them. Right now, nothing substantive could be done by the US voter to put things right, so to speak, since mid-term US elections are due only next year. But there is ample time for the voting public to put the correct perspective on these fast-breaking developments, internationally and domestically, and to put their vote to good use in upcoming polls and such like democratic exercises. They would be acting in the interest of democracy worldwide by doing so.
More specifically it is up to Donald Trump’s Republican voter base to see the damage that is being done by the present administration to the US’ standing as the ‘world’s mightiest democracy’. They need to bring pressure on Trump and his ‘inner cabinet’ to change course and restore the reputation of their country as the foremost democracy. In the absence of such action it is the US citizenry that would face the consequences of Trump’s policy indiscretions.
Meanwhile, the political Opposition in the US too needs to get its act together, so to speak, and pressure the Trump administration into doing what is needed to get the US back to the relevant policy track. Needless to say, the Democratic Party would need to lead from the front in these efforts.
While, in the foreign policy field the US under President Trump could be said to be acting with a degree of ambivalence and ambiguity currently, in the area of domestic policy it is making it all to plain that it intends to traverse a fascistic course. As has been proved over the past two months, white supremacy is being made the cardinal principle of domestic governance.
Trump has made it clear, for example, that his administration would be close to ethnic chauvinists, such as the controversial Ku Klux Klan, and religious extremists. By unceremoniously rolling back the ‘diversity programs’ that have hitherto helped define the political culture of the US, the Trump administration is making no bones of the fact that ethnic reconciliation would not be among the government’s priorities. The steady undermining of USAID and its main programs worldwide is sufficient proof of this. Thus the basis has been adequately established for the flourishing of fascism and authoritarianism.
Yet, the US currently reflects a complex awareness of foreign policy questions despite having the international community wondering whether it is sealing a permanent alliance with the main powers of the East. For instance, President Trump is currently in conversation on matters in the external relations sphere that are proving vital with the West’s principal leaders. For example, he has spoken to President Emmanuel Macron of France and is due to meet Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the UK.
Obviously, the US is aware that it cannot ‘go it alone’ in resolving currently outstanding issues in external relations, such as the Ukraine question. There is a clear recognition that the latter and many more issues require a collaborative approach.
Besides, the Trump administration realizes that it cannot pose as a ‘first among equals’, given the complexities at ground level. It sees that given the collective strength of the rest of the West that a joint approach to problem solving cannot be avoided. This is particularly so in the case of Ukraine.
The most major powers of the West are no ‘pushovers’ and Germany, under a possibly Christian Democratic Union-led alliance in the future, has indicated as much. It has already implied that it would not be playing second fiddle to the US. Accordingly, the US is likely to steer clear of simplistic thinking in the formulation of foreign policy, going forward.
by Upali Gamakumara,
Upali.gamakumara@gmail.com
The Clean Sri Lanka (CSL) is a project for the true renaissance the NPP government launched, the success of which would gain world recognition. It is about more than just cleaning up places. Its broader objectives are to make places attractive and happy for people who visit or use services in the country, focusing more on the services in public institutions and organisations like the SLTB. Unfortunately, these broader objectives are not apparent in its theme, “Clean Sri Lanka,” and therefore there is a misconception that keeping the environment clean is the main focus.
People who realise the said broader objectives are excited about a cleaner Sri Lanka, hoping the President and the government will tackle this, the way they are planning to solve other big problems like the economy and poverty. However, they do not see themselves as part of the solution.
From the management perspective, the CSL has a strategic plan that is not declared in that manner. When looking at the government policies, one can perceive its presence, the vision being “A Prosperous Nation and a Beautiful Life,” the mission “Clean Sri Lanka” and the broader objectives “a disciplined society, effective services, and a cleaner environment.” If the government published these as the strategy, there would have been a better understanding.
Retaining the spirit and expectations and continuing the ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ project is equally important as much as understanding its deep idea. For this, it needs to motivate people, which differs from those motivators that people push to achieve selfish targets. The motivation we need here is to evolve something involuntarily, known as Drivers. Drivers push for the survival of the evolution or development of any entity. We see the absence of apparent Drivers in the CSL project as a weakness that leads to sporadic hiccups and free flow.
Drivers of Evolution
Drivers vary according to the nature of envisaged evolution for progress. However, we suggest that ‘the force that pushes anything to evolve’ would fit all evolutions. Some examples are: ‘Fitting to survival’ was the driver of the evolution of life. Magnetism is a driver for the unprecedented development of physics – young Einstein was driven to enquire about the ‘attraction’ of magnets, eventually making him the greatest scientist of the 20th century.
Leadership is a Driver. It is essential but do not push an evolution continually as they are not sprung within a system involuntarily. This is one of the reasons why CSL has lost the vigour it had at its inception.
CSL is a teamwork. It needs ‘Drives’ for cohesion and to push forward continually, like the Quality Improvement Project of the National Health Service (NHS) in England. Their drivers are outlined differently keeping Aims as their top driver and saying: Aims should be specific and measurable, not merely to “improve” or “reduce,” engage stakeholders to define the aim of the improvement project and a clear aim to identify outcome measures.
So, we think that CSL needs Aims as defined by NHS, built by stakeholder participation to help refine the project for continuous evolution. This approach is similar to Deming’s Cycle for continual improvement. Further, two more important drivers are needed for the CSL project. That is Attitudinal Change and Punishment. We shall discuss these in detail under Psychoactive Environment (pSE) below.
Aside from the above, Competition is another driver in the business world. This helps achieve CSL objectives in the private sector. We can see how this Driver pushes, with the spread of the Supermarket chains, the evolution of small and medium retail shops to supermarket level, and in the private banks and hospitals, achieving broader objectives of CSL; a cleaner environment, disciplined behaviuor, efficient service, and the instillation of ethics.
The readers can now understand the importance of Drivers pushing any project.
Three Types of Entities and Their Drives
We understand, that to do the transformation that CSL expects, we need to identify or adopt the drivers separately to suit the three types of entities we have in the country.
Type I entities are the independent entities that struggle for their existence and force them to adopt drivers involuntarily. They are private sector entities, and their drivers are the commitment of leadership and competition. These drivers spring up involuntarily within the entity.
Type II are the dependent entities. To spring up drivers of these entities commitment of an appointed trustee is a must. Mostly in state-owned entities, categorized as Boards, Authorities, Cooperations, and the like. Their drivers do not spring up within or involuntarily unless the leader initiates. The Government of a country also falls into this type and the emergence of drivers depends on the leader.
Type III entities have neither independent nor dependent immediate leader or trustee. They are mostly the so-called ‘Public’ places like public-toilets, public-playgrounds, and public-beaches. No team can be formed as these places are open to any, like no-man-land. Achieving CSL objectives at these entities depends on the discipline of the public or the users.
Clean Sri Lanka suffers the absence of drivers in the second and third types of entities, as the appointed persons are not trustees but temporary custodians.
The writer proposes a remedy to the last two types of entities based on the theory of pSE explained below.
Psychoactive Environment (pSE) –
The Power of Customer Attraction
Research by the writer introduced the Psychoactive Environment (pSE) concept to explain why some businesses attract more customers than others who provide the same service. Presented at the 5th Global Conference on Business and Economics at Cambridge University in 2006, the study revealed that a “vibe” influences customer attraction. This vibe, termed pSE, depends on Three Distinct Elements, which can either attract or repel customers. A positive pSE makes a business more attractive and welcoming. This concept can help develop Drivers for Type II and III entities.
pSE is not an all-inclusive solution for CSL, but it lays the foundation for building Drivers and motivating entities to keep entrants attractive and contented.
The structure of the pSE
The three distinct Elements are the Occupants, Systems, and Environment responsible for making a pSE attractive to any entity, be it a person, institution, organization, or county. Each of these elements bears three qualities named Captivators. These captivators are, in simple terms, Intelligent, Nice, and Active in their adjective forms.
pSE theorizes that if any element fails to captivate the entrant’s mood by not being Intelligent, Nice, or Active, the pSE becomes negative, repelling the entrant (customer). Conversely, the positive pSE attracts the entrants if the elements are Intelligent, Nice, and Active.
For example, think person who comes to a Government Office for some service. He sees that the employees, service, and environment are intelligent, nice, and active, and he will be delighted and contented. He will not get frustrated or have any deterioration in national productivity.
The Significance of pSE in CSL
The Elements and the Captivators are universal for any entity. Any entity can easily find its path to Evolution or Progress determined by these elements and captivators. The intangible broader objectives can be downsised to manageable targets by pSE. Achievements of these targets make the entrants happy and enhance productivity – the expectation of Clean Sri Lanka (CSL).
From the perspective of pSE, now we can redefine the Clean Sri Lanka project thus:
To make the Elements of every entity in Sri Lanka: intelligent, Nice, and Active.
How Would the pSE be A Remedy for The Sporadic Hiccups?
We have seen two possible reasons for sporadic setbacks and the discontinuity of some projects launched by the CSL. They are:
The absence of involuntary Drivers for evolvement or progress
Poor attitudes and behaviors of people and leaders
Remedy for the Absence of Drivers
Setting up a system to measure customer or beneficiary satisfaction, and setting aims can build Drivers. The East London NHS principles help build the Aims that drive type II & II entities. The system must be designed to ensure continual improvement following the Deming Cycle. This strategy will create Drivers for Type I & II entities.
This process is too long to explain here therefore we refrain from detailing.
Attitudinal Change
The most difficult task is the attitudinal and behavioural change. Yet it cannot be postponed.
Punishment as a strategy
In developed countries, we see that people are much more disciplined than in the developing countries. We in developing countries, give credit to their superior culture, mitigating ours as rudimental. The long experience and looking at this affair from a vantage point, one will understand it is not the absolute truth. Their ruthless wars in the past, rules, and severe punishment are the reasons behind this discipline. For example, anyone who fails to wear a car seatbelt properly will be fined 400 AUD, nearly 80,000 LKR!
The lesson we can learn is, that in Sri Lanka, we need strong laws and strict punishment together with a type of strategic education as follows.
Psychological Approach as a Strategy
The psychological theory of attitude formation can be used successfully if some good programmes can be designed.
All attitude formations start with life experience. Formed wrong or negative attitudes can be reversed or instilled with correct attitudes by exposure to designed life experiences. The programmes have been developed using the concepts of Hoshin Kanri, Brainstorming, Cause-and-Effect analysis, and Teamwork, in addition to London NTS Quality Improvement strategies.
The experience and good responses we received for our pSE programs conducted at several institutions prove and have built confidence in our approach. However, it was a time, when governments or organisations did not pay much attention to cultural change as CSL expects in the country.
Therefore, we believe this is a golden opportunity to take the CSL supported by the pSE concept.
Although they are visually impaired youngsters, under the guidance of renowned musician Melantha Perera, these talented individuals do shine bright … hence the name Bright Light.
Says Melantha: “My primary mission is to nurture their talent and ensure their sustainable growth in music, and I’m thrilled to announce that Bright Light’s first public performance is scheduled for 7th June, 2025. The venue will be the MJF Centre Auditorium in Katubadda, Moratuwa.”
Melantha went on to say that two years of teaching, online, visually impaired youngsters, from various parts of the island, wasn’t an easy ride.
There were many ups and downs but Melantha’s determination has paid off with the forming of Bright Light, and now they are gearing up to go on stage.
According to Melantha, they have come a long way in music.
“For the past few months, we have been meeting, physically, where I guide them to play as a band and now they show a very keen interest as they are getting to the depth of it. They were not exposed to English songs, but I’ve added a few English songs to widen their repertoire.
Melantha Perera: Invented a notation
system for the guitar
“On 7th June, we are opening up for the public to come and witness their talents, and I want to take this product island-wide, giving the message that we can do it, and I’m hoping to create a database so there will be a following. Initially, we would like your support by attending the show.”
Melantha says he didn’t know what he was getting into but he had confidence teaching anyone music since he has been in the scene for the past 45 years. He began teaching in 2015,
“When I opened my music school, Riversheen School of Music, the most challenging part of teaching was correcting tone deaf which is the theoretical term for those who can’t pitch a note, and also teaching students to keep timing while they sang and played.”
Melantha has even invented a notation system for the guitar which he has named ‘MelaNota’. He has received copyrights from the USA and ISO from Australia, but is yet to be recognised in Sri Lanka.
During Covid-19, Melantha showcased MelaNota online and then it was officially launched with the late Desmond De Silva playing one of his tunes, using MelaNota.
Melantha says that anyone, including the visually impaired, can play a simple melody on a guitar, within five minutes, using his notation system.
“I’ve completed the system and I’m now finalising the syllabus for the notation system.”
Melantha has written not only for the guitar, but also for drums, keyboards, and wind instruments.
For any queries, or additional information, you could contact Melantha at 071 454 4092 or via email at thebandbrightlight@gmail.com.
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