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De-politicizing education: All froth, no beer, says Dr Tara de Mel

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BY RANDIMA ATTYGALLE

In an interview with the Sunday Island, Dr. Tara de Mel, the Executive Director of the Bandaranaike Academy for Leadership & Public Policy (BALPP) and the former Secretary to the Ministry of Education and Higher Education says that, ‘education is the most sensitive, emotive and even explosive subject that any government will need to manage with efficiency, professionalism and devoid of political meddling.’ Dr. de Mel- the former Vice Chairperson of the National Education Commission is also credited to the work of several Presidential Task Forces on Education she has served on.

Throughout her career she has promoted excellence and equity in education, championed child protection and in 2019 was awarded the National Honour, Sri Lanka Sikkhamani. A member of the Global Consultative Group-Mindfulness Initiative UK, she co-founded ‘Mindful Educators in Sri Lanka’ and co-authored the Manual for Mindful Educators in 2021. A medical doctor by training and a one-time senior academic at the University of Colombo’s Medical Faculty, she also drives home the message that ‘multi-disciplinary’ approach to education’ is essential to brave the contemporary global challenges.

Q: In a country such as ours where people believe that access to education can change their lives, what are the strengths the policy makers could still capitalize on in implementing the most urgent educational reforms at school, university and vocational levels to take Sri Lanka to the next level?

A: Sri Lanka is a country that has been regarding education as a fundamental ‘human right’ and a ‘public good’ for decades, and that position is easy to consolidate on, if there is sufficient political will and consequently adequate funding. Coupled with this, the innate intelligence, imagination and curiosity that most children and young people in Sri Lanka have, is a great strength. The average parent has a desire and a foremost ambition of imparting a good education to his/her children- all of these are advantages for policy makers to take stock of.

Q: What are the ‘historic mistakes’ we made to undermine the education system which was modeled on ‘quality and equity’ envisaged by minds such as C.W.W Kannangara? How can the country reverse these mistakes now?

A: Historic ‘mistakes’ made by decision-makers include weak and wavering political will to transform education to that of a world-class system. Inconsistency in policy implementation, lack of robust and forward-looking legislation supporting continuity in policy regardless of government change. Reversing such mistakes is a daunting task. Education is perhaps the most sensitive, emotive and even explosive subject that any government will need to manage with efficiency, professionalism and devoid of political meddling. Bold and visionary leaders are needed for spearheading such a transformation. The need for de-politicizing education has been spoken by many, but acted upon by very few.

Q: What is the road map you propose for Sri Lanka to embrace a more job-oriented/ industry-oriented education, commencing at school level and advancing it at undergraduate level?

A: First of all, the school system should be sufficiently geared to equip and educate students from primary school onward, on skill-sets that are imperative for today’s world of work. Such skills include not just the famous 21st Century Skills – 4 Cs (i.e. creativity, critical thinking, collaboration & communication), but advanced cognitive skills like complex problem-solving, analysis, out-of the-box thinking, and self-understanding. When seeking employment or when trying become an entrepreneur or when creating one’s own start-up, today’s school-leavers need more skills than knowledge.

The curricula need to be revised and upgraded to impart such skills, but the pedagogy needs drastic change. Delivery of the curriculum rests almost entirely with the teaching staff, and unless teachers are recognized, honoured and rewarded adequately, the service they deliver will be sub-optimal.

Teachers need to be paid well, the Teacher Service Minute needs to be revised, and the benefits should be enhanced. Teacher training needs to be well funded, regularized, made mandatory and master trainers need to be selected from experienced persons. Without equipping and upskilling teachers, curricula reform won’t be successful.

Q: In the rat race of ‘over educating’ children, (especially in the post-pandemic world as a means of compensating for the lost years), creative intelligence of children is often undermined here at home. Particularly, in settings such as ours where education is so polarised, creative and emotional intelligence is grossly overlooked. What are your thoughts and what can be done to address this issue?

A:First of all, the ‘over-education’ will automatically cease if a substantial revision and restructuring of the three national exams (Grade 5 scholarship exam, GCE O’Level and A’Level) are executed. The hugely competitive nature of all three exams and the predictability of the questions that are asked, make students flock to private tuition classes, paying massive sums of money.

Dr. Tara de Mel

If classrooms are kept small with healthy teacher-pupil ratios and if teachers are allowed to innovate imaginatively within a student-friendly curriculum, with no mad rush to ‘cover the syllabus’ and if SEL – (social-motional -learning) is made an integral component of the tutorial schedule, I am sure school would be more joyful and fun!

Q: Can you share some best practices from the region and beyond which can be replicated in our setting to promote skill-based formative years of learning?

A: Examples from the region are many and would include the Indian, Singaporean and Malaysian experience. In Singapore, primary school students engage in project-based learning, which encourages critical thinking, collaboration and problem-solving skills. Projects are often interdisciplinary, combining subjects like science, mathematics and language- arts.

ICT is integrated into the curriculum to develop digital literacy. Students learn to use software tools, coding, and basic programming through platforms like Code for Fun.

In India, Activity-Based Learning (ABL) is popular. In many Indian schools, especially in states like Tamil Nadu, ABL is employed where students engage in hands-on activities to learn concepts, fostering critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Art-Integrated Learning is also used as a medium to teach various subjects, enabling students to explore creativity while understanding core academic concepts. For example, drawing a historical event or creating models in science.

In Malaysia – KSSR (Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah) can be cited. The curriculum emphasizes student-centered learning, where students are encouraged to take an active role in their education. This includes inquiry-based learning, where students investigate topics and present their findings. STEM Education: Primary schools incorporate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) through activities like robotics, coding, and simple engineering projects. These activities develop analytical and critical thinking skills.

Q: What are the long-term social and psychological dilemmas you see regarding the local Grade 5 scholarship exam? Robbing many children of their formative years, some gain admission to better schools while many are left in the lurch. Isn’t there a more equitable alternative to this system?

A:I am mooting a simplified, student-friendly and better structured G5SE, so that a 10-year old is not stressed and burnt out. What’s wrong with reducing the load and making the two papers only one? That single paper could test simple IQ or problem solving skills. After all, the exam is meant to help identify bright students who are from under-served and rural populations so they can be allocated to better schools.

Q: You have been assisting in designing educational programs with ‘mindfulness’ as their base; initiatives which champion values, ethics, integrity and respect for diversity. How critical is it to promote inclusivity, religious and cultural tolerance early in life? Sadly, in state schools especially, regardless of the multi-ethnic student base, we hardly see any student collaborations to promote these values.

A: This is extremely critical. Mindfulness, empathy and social emotional learning should be integrated into the curriculum of every grade. When children learn these practices from an early age, a significant transformation occurs in the brain. Modern neuro-science has demonstrated with ample evidence how mindfulness-related practices alter the structure and function of the brain and the mind. A deeper sense of understanding, self awareness, compassion and resilience can result, and these could contribute towards peaceful and harmonious co-existence in multi-faith and potentially conflictual situations. Governments should give pride of place for this type of teaching, just as it happens in global education systems.

Q: In a highly-connected modern world, what are the practical collaborations that local schools, particularly less-privileged schools could forge with regional counterparts as means of sharing knowledge and technology, better teaching practices etc.?

A: ‘Twinning’ of schools has been a practice adopted on and off, where better served schools would ‘twin’ with lesser served schools, so that there could be sharing of teachers, learning experiences and other resources. This same model can be expanded into ‘twinning’ between overseas and local schools. Using technology like ICT the potential for this initiative is enormous, and could be adopted initially as pilot and later expanded in greater scale.

Q: What measures could be taken to empower local teachers and enhance their capacities so that a ‘fully-fledged’ teacher is produced, beyond subject expertise?

A: Teachers by definition need to ‘teach’ but do so in a holistic manner, without confining themselves to one-way education in class, using pencil-paper learning exercises only. A teacher is expected to be role model, a ‘parent’ in school, and much more. Empowering and encouraging teachers to be all of that is imperative. Systematic, regular and high quality teacher-training programmes are one way to make this a possibility. Overseas exposures to better systems, making available a lot of resources for teachers to upskill themselves and enabling internet/digital access to the teaching community are all important.

Q: As a professional wearing multiple hats of a doctor, educationist, administrator and more, what are your thoughts about the importance of encouraging a multi-disciplinary approach to education – both academically and professionally?

A: In today’s world, when we are grappling with poly-crises and multiple challenges in the third decade of the 21st century, I don’t think we have the luxury of having a ‘mono-disciplinary’ approach to education.

Multi-disciplinary education

involves integrating knowledge and approaches from multiple academic disciplines to provide a more comprehensive understanding of a topic or problem. In this approach, students learn to apply concepts, theories and methods from different fields to solve complex issues that cannot be adequately addressed by a single discipline. For example, a multi-disciplinary programme in Environmental Studies might include courses in biology, economics, political science and law, allowing students to understand environmental issues from various perspectives.

Mono-disciplinary education

, on the other hand, focuses on in-depth study within a single academic discipline. In this approach, students concentrate on mastering the theories, methods, and knowledge specific to one field, such as mathematics, history, or chemistry. The aim is to develop a deep and specialized understanding of that particular discipline. So, the latter is an outdated approach to the pressing problems we face and will face.

(Photo credit: BALPP)



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Medical Humanities:an interdisciplinary approach to holistic health

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The Department of Medical Humanities at the University of Colombo’s Medical Faculty is another groundbreaking initiative by the institution as the pioneer of the discipline here at home and in South Asia. In an interview with the Sunday Island, Clinical Psychologist and Head of the Department of Medical Humanities, Dr. Santushi Amarasuriya elucidates on how this discipline, which is gaining momentum the world over, explores human experiences of health and illness drawing from a spectrum of other social and aesthetic branches.

Following are the excerpts:

BY RANDIMA ATTYGALLE

Q: Could you please share the ‘story’ behind the establishment of the Department of Medical Humanities at the Colombo Medical Faculty?

A:The Department of Medical Humanities was established in 2016 in response to global trends which recognize the role of medical humanities in medical education. It helps medical practitioners to reorient themselves into a holistic and person-centered approach to health care. There was also a general recognition of the impact of burnout and resultant empathy-deficits among medical practitioners, with medical humanities seen as a mechanism through which doctors can understand, reflect upon and deal with such issues. It is in recognition of all this that our Department was established.

Medical humanities lies at the intersection of medicine and humanities. It draws from various disciplines; from literature and philosophy to ethics and arts. The scope of medical humanities is very broad and therefore we find varying definitions of it. How we define it here at the Colombo Medical Faculty, is as ‘humanities in the pursuit of improving the well being and achieving goals in medical education.’ Our goal is to use medical humanities to foster compassionate care, professionalism and ethical practice among medical and other health care professionals, whilst also being sensitive to the socio-cultural context in Sri Lanka.

If we look at the specific history of how the department came into being, one of the highlights was when a brand-new stream called the Behavioural Sciences Stream, first conceptualized by Prof. Nalaka Mendis, was established within the curriculum of our Faculty in 1995. This was a pioneering effort that recognized the transition of the medical model of illness, which focused primarily on biological factors, into what is known as the bio-psychosocial model of health and illness in the late 70s. This latter model takes a more holistic approach and recognizes that there are psychological and social elements that also determine the outcomes of an illness.

Then, during a revision of the Behavioural Sciences Stream curriculum in 2013, Prof. Panduka Karunanayake proposed the establishment of a Medical Humanities Unit. The ensuing discussions led to Prof. Godwin Constantine proposing the establishment of a department. Subsequently, Prof. Saroj Jayasinghe, who was the Chairperson of the Behavioural Sciences Stream at the time became the driving force in establishing the Department in 2016, becoming its founder Head.

I was the first permanent academic staff member to have been recruited to the Behavioural Sciences Stream in 2006 and after the establishment of the Department of Medical Humanities in 2016, I came on board as its first Senior Lecturer.

Q: Could you elaborate on the nature of the learning enabled for the medical student by the Department and how medical humanities help students to brave a demanding curriculum with empathy and kindness?

A: Our main teaching input is through the Humanities, Society and Professional Stream, previously known as the Behavioural Sciences Stream. We provide input into areas of personality development and psychology, communication skills, ethical practice, professionalism, and humaneness, utilizing different teaching methodologies.

If I were to address the topic of empathy that you highlighted, many of our activities try to cultivate this skill in students. However, I would say it is not easy to develop. Many studies have shown that when medical students reach the third year, which is when they start their clinical rotations and need empathy the most, there is actually a decline of it. This is referred to as the ‘devil in the third year’. Many reasons are attributed to this. For example, what was hypothetical is now actually real and students are suddenly overwhelmed with a higher level of responsibility because now they are taking care of real people. There is also a marked increase in workload and it could also be the lack of role models. All this might lead to a decline in empathy. But we must remember that empathy is a hard job, stepping into another person’s shoes and understanding their problems, such as what is making them distressed. To make it even more challenging, it would be multiple patients whose shoes they have to step into and that can be really exhausting.

As a human being, your natural defense mechanism would be to detach yourself and not be empathetic. Therefore, what we try to do is to recalibrate, talk about and reinforce the importance of it.

Q: Could you please explain how the wide range of disciplines coming under medical humanities is translated into actual practice by physicians?

A: One of the methodologies that we have adopted is to use narratives in medicine. Very early in the students’ career, we ask them to go and draw from patients their personal story, and NOT their clinical history. This helps to cultivate a holistic approach to medicine. As a clinician, when you take a clinical history, you are very cognizant that there is a lot more going on for the patient than merely their disease.

A simple exercise that some international institutions utilize is to take students on a gallery visit where they are asked to study portraits to sharpen their finer observational skills; they start learning to notice certain physical signs or certain subtle cues that may have escaped attention. Therefore, at the point of their interaction with patients, they become more attuned to reading many nonverbal cues. For example, take a well-known painting like the Mona Lisa. Closer observation reveals her pale complexion, swollen hands and puffiness around her eyes, which can be used to hypothesize possible ailments she may have suffered from.

Dr. Santushi Amarasuriya

Similarly, certain films can be used to create a stimulating dialogue about patient-experiences. They are able to trigger strong emotional reactions and then also provide a safe space to discuss difficult topics which may be inaccessible if only relying on personal experiences. Another tool that I personally find fascinating, that is adopted by some of our colleagues in the region, is the use of the ‘spectator’ concept within forum theatre, where the spectators have the opportunity to intervene and become the actors to change the outcomes of stories depicting difficult situations.

This highlights and empowers the students in their future roles as reflective change agents. Medical students can also be helped to actually step into the patient’s shoes and share the experience of the patient. For example, what is it like to be wheelchair-bound or lack the use of a limb so that they could relate to a patient’s situation better. There is a wide array of methodologies, and this is important given the diversity of student preferences.

Q Is it justifiable to say that this interdisciplinary approach has gained momentum today as the innate ‘humane humaneness’ coupled with professionalism which was found in the good old doctor of yesteryear is largely eroding today, replaced by a stereotypical fact-finder?

A: The importance of humaneness in medical care is well recognized now. The concept of person-centred or patient-centered care is known to a medical student and medical curricula all over the world are adopting these concepts now. If you ask a medical student what empathy is, they will regurgitate the definition and they also know it is important. I would argue that maybe in the good old days these definitions might have been rather alien, but the values these definitions entail may have been innate in most physicians.

That is not to say that there aren’t many students with such skills today. But previously, medical professionals might have had time to actually cultivate these abilities and skills; they might have been able to immerse themselves in the arts. Whereas now, the landscape is very different due to the sheer volume of information to digest, too many competing demands and so forth. Therefore, it becomes a matter of prioritization and many are driven to only focus on the more tangible and measurable elements.

A second reason is the structure of our education. If you take the A-Levels, it’s a rat race to get into the medical faculty and how you get there is by knowing all the information to answer the questions. Along the way you may not have had time for extensive reflection or contemplation. The student who comes to us is trained in that way. So, when they take a clinical history, they may be more driven to simply gather data and make a diagnosis. They forget the holistic nature of the interaction along the way.

Q: Do you think the relevance of medical humanities is unprecedented today given the shift in socio-economic dynamics in society?

A: As a country we have faced several calamities and the most recent one is the economic crisis. Along with it there are several other problems that our people have to face: a significant number is impoverished and there has been a lack of medical supplies and an exodus in the medical profession itself. So, if you think about the professionals working today, they are overloaded with work, and this can lead to a sense of helplessness and frustration.

If you place it within Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, they may be struggling to meet basic needs. So higher-level needs like compassion and empathy start to look more like “nice-to-haves” than necessities, given that they are trying to deliver in a context that is resource-poor. It really is a balancing act. Therefore, it is often all too easy to satisfy ourselves with aggregate numbers. For instance, we say there are low rates of infant mortality and few maternal deaths. But what we might overlook in those aggregates is the experience that the patient has had in this whole process. What we do in our curriculum is re calibrate and remind them of what is finally needed.

Q: Today many patients lament that doctors are ‘poor communicators’, that their body language often doesn’t foster a sense of comfort and security in a patient. How does medical humanities envisage to address this so that doctors can be better communicators?

A: As a Faculty, we all endorse the importance of communication skills, and the input is given at different stages not only through our Humanities, Society and Professionalism Stream (HSPS) but through the other teaching arms as well. Interestingly, many students know the science behind communication practices, such as starting with an open-ended question, but they may not know HOW to do it. There’s a lot of art in asking a question. Although they may not have the innate gift of being effective communicators, with the right training, they can be developed into very successful ones.

In some of our activities we use different works of art, such as movies, paintings, poems, stories and so forth. In the recent past, we have used the painting titled ‘The Doctor’ by Luke Fildes. In the painting, a doctor is hovering over an ill child and we ask the students to interpret what’s going on. A lot is being communicated in this visual such as the stance of the doctor, the nonverbal behaviour, and in the background are the child’s parents who have entrusted the child to the doctor’s care. So just asking the students to analyze it and talk about it helps them to reflect. We use many other such methodologies to foster good communication in future doctors.

Another tool we often use is role-play. We recently launched a Communication Skills Master Class under the guidance of Prof. Dinithi Fernando, the current Chairperson of the HSPS, to give more muscle to the enhancement of communication skills.

Q: What are Sri Lanka’s strengths as a multi-cultural and a hospitable nation that medical humanities could draw from?

A: We are a collective community and helping another human being in distress, is very much a part of our culture. It comes very naturally and that translates into the process of healing a patient in distress. Kindness and compassion are key messages that are collectively shared by all our religions practiced here at home. If you consider kindness, I think of it at two levels: people whose core is kind and those who superficially reflect kind behaviour such as talking in a nice way and similar social graces. But this second category may not be kind deep down. Now if you think about our cultural orientation, it is that first one which is emphasized- kindness at the core. What we are trying to harness is a natural or deeply culturally-endorsed tendency.

Another example is the cultural sensitivity that we may already possess. We have students coming from different contexts and different experiences. They already recognize the existence of ‘health pluralism’ and that the patient’s conceptualizations of illness and treatment encompass a wide range of practices and beliefs that are not directly relevant to western medical practice. Therefore, it is just a matter of reminding them of these to help them to be more empathetic about patient experiences.

Q: What are the collaborations the Department has forged with professionals outside the medical stream to cultivate a sense of appreciation in aesthetics in future doctors?

A: One good example is our Humanitas programme. This is the brainchild of Prof. Panduka Karunanayake. The Latin term humanitas translates into human nature, civilization and kindness and relates to what it is that makes us human. In this programme we address various human issues – be it a current crisis or a problem like a heart break.

Prof. Karunanayake’s objective in launching this programme was to trigger an emotional reaction and let the other cognitive processes occur on their own. The Humanitas programme is solely directed by Dr. Santhushya Fernando who is a Senior Lecturer in our Department, where she gets in different artists from musicians to poets to talk about such issues and reflect and share their vulnerabilities, giving flavour to the programme. The programme has received very good reviews and all credit for this must go to Dr. Fernando who has spearheaded this programme with passion and enthusiasm.

Similarly, we have been fortunate to receive generous support from the academics of the University of Visual and Performing Arts who have not only made wonderful contributions to the Humanitas programme but to many other activities of the Department.

Q: What inspiration does the Colombo Faculty offer other medical faculties in the country in terms of recognizing medical humanities and what are the future plans of your Department to give a further thrust to medical humanities?

A: Even in terms of the Behavioural Sciences Stream, we were pioneers and all other faculties have now adopted it under different names. It is heartening to note that many of the medical faculties here have taken a cue from our experience. Although they may not have a dedicated department to the discipline, many have incorporated these ideas into their curriculum.

In terms of expansion, we have many plans which are aligned with the goals of our Department such as using the humanities to facilitate health education and training, initiating research by drawing from best practices which could be replicated here at home and also to enrich our curriculum. We plan to explore on how to enable more patient-friendly environments so that our future doctors can actually translate the concepts espoused by the humanities, into actual practice and also explore the role of the discipline in developing therapies or interventions to promote health.

The department has now been allocated a larger space within the Faculty to grow and expand but lacks facilities to make it an occupiable space. We are seeking donations from philanthropists and wellwishers to make this project a reality.

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The Economy, Executive Presidency, and the Parliamentary Election

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by Rajan Philips

Although it was the economy that ended Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s presidency and it was very much the main backdrop to the September presidential election, the results of the election cannot be interpreted as showing a voter preference for any particular direction for economic management. In fact, in an earlier CPA opinion poll, a good majority of the respondents in general, and especially among the Sinhalese, had indicated that they did not trust of any of three main candidates for their abilities to steer the economy out of trouble to recovery and growth.

That included Ranil Wickremesinghe who rested his whole campaign on economic stewardship and got third prize for his efforts. This is not to belittle Mr. Wickremesinghe’s achievements in restoring economic normalcy, but to highlight the fact he undermined his own economic case by trying to be too clever by half on the political front. Now that he has earned his long overdue political rest, let him finally have some quality time without too much disturbance.

Sajith Premadasa’s progressive benefactors have blamed his defeat on his alleged reliance on centre-right economists like Eran Wickramaratne and Harsha de Silva, both with background in banking and economics but stymied from contributing to their full potential first by RW and then by SP. The criticism anyway is over the top, for Sajith Premadasa’s shortcoming is the opposite of Ranil Wickremesinghe’s. If RW is prone to being clever at everything, SP has the propensity for not being clever in anything. Now SP is projecting himself as candidate to be Prime Minister while promising that as Prime Minister he will co-operate with President AKD.

As everyone else is scrambling to prepare for the parliamentary election, President Dissanayake and his NPP must be sitting pretty, savouring their prospects for November after their success in September. The quick dissolution of parliament and a virtually snap election favours the NPP more than others. They have the momentum and the machinery of victory behind them. And they have little time to seriously shoot themselves in the foot. The necessary economic condition and the political secret to win a majority of 113+ seats at the elections is not to rock the boat but to keep the prices and supplies steady.

No one is expecting economic miracles in the short term or long term from President AKD. He himself has made it clear that he is not a magician. The President’s economic challenges are likely to become more noticeable after the parliamentary election than they are now. He has announced his economic team, and the team has met with IMF delegates. There have been some indications of the new Administration’s approach to dealing with the IMF, as well as its approach to dealing with State Owned Enterprises. The Sri Lankan Airlines has reportedly been pulled back from the auction block and the search is on for a new model for improved management. Time will tell.

The government will be tested to the fullest by the approach it takes to re-negotiating the IMF deal, and restructuring the private bondholder debt of $12.5 billion out of the total foreign debt of $34 billion. The debt-restructuring deal was announced by President Wickremesinghe just days before the presidential election and it did not help him in the end, as pointed out in a scathing but responsible opinion piece in the Daily Mirror (October 3) by a group of modern-day ‘visiting economists’ (to recall an earlier generation of Visiting Economists that included the likes Nicholas Kaldor and Joan Robinson).

Before long, but mostly after the November election, the government will run into crossfire from the left and from the right. The right is already skeptical about NPP’s abilities to manage the economy. The left, on the other hand, might err oppositely by raising too many expectations and even bringing to bear too much pressure on the government. Unlike shortages of essential goods and services, there will never be any shortage in advice and opinion, more often than not unsolicited. The President’s challenge will be to be guided – on every issue and in any decision – by what is doable and what will bring the largest relief to the largest number of people looking for relief. The people should not be used as guinea pigs to prove someone’s ideology – left, right or centre.

Executive Presidency

The people might be even less concerned about the executive presidency (EP) than they are about economic philosophy. But both the President and the NPP have been more certain about what they will do about the EP than what they might do about the IMF. The certainty was confirmed the day after Anura Kumara Dissanayake was elected president by Sunil Handunnetti, NPP Polit Bureau Member and former MP, who told the media that “the nation will not see an Executive President after this presidency.” Mr. Handunnetti was also part of the President’s Economic Team that met with the IMF delegation. And PB members in an organization like the JVP/NPP do not speak out of turn in public.

My views on the executive presidency have had their fair share of criticisms by others who swear by it, and it is not my purpose to restart another debate, or to play an advocacy role for abolishing the EP. Instead, I will only outline what the new Administration could do to make itself the last of its kind, while being agnostic about the outcome. First, even if President AKD is vowing to make himself the last EP, he cannot do it by himself. He will need an act of parliament and a constitutional amendment that requires a two-thirds majority support in parliament.

The question is whether it will also require a referendum. Here opinions differ, and those who swear by the EP will also swear that a referendum is needed. From a political-constitutional standpoint it could be argued that which was created in 1978, through the medium of a parliamentary select committee dominated by a certain political party that has all but vanished in 2024, should not require a referendum to remove it or modify it. Also, it is not just the NPP that wants this change, but also the SJB. Between them they have more than two-thirds majority support in the country for abolishing the presidency.

From a legal-constitutional standpoint as well, there is a very plausible view that the requirement for a referendum should be limited only to amendments involving the Articles and provisions that are listed in Article 83 of the Constitution, as specifically requiring a referendum in addition to a two-thirds majority in parliament for the amendment of the said articles and provisions. Article 83 does not include any of the Articles or provisions involving the election and powers of the Executive President. The sole exception is Article 30 (2), which stipulates the length of the presidential term, and the term of office cannot be extended without a referendum per Article 83 (b). There is a discrepancy between Article 30 (2) and Article 83 (b), but that need not detain us.

Nothing else about changing the EP system should require a referendum, including its abolition. But the term abolition is overwrought and incorrect. The task really is to replace the directly elected executive president playing a double role as head of state and head of government, by an indirectly elected president to be the head of state only. The head of government role will revert back to the prime minister as part of restoring the parliamentary system of government.

The new head of state could be elected by parliament from among candidates, who are not members of parliament but are nominated by political parties represented in parliament. The powers of the new head of state could also be figured to be much less than what are allocated in the current constitution, but more than what were allocated in the 1972 constitution.

The powers so allocated should be designed to address concerns about rupturing the power link between the current EP and the Provincial Council system. In the same vein, Provincial Council members could also be brought into the process of indirectly electing the new head of state. Members of Parliament and Members of the Provincial Councils could be the evanescent ‘electoral college’ for electing the new head of state. This would be similar to the process in India for electing its president.

Getting back to the question of referendum requirement, even though it could be argued that a referendum is not required to bring about the above changes to the constitution, there is also the considered view that it is better to have a referendum and be done with it. In this view, if the NPP were to go ahead with its proposal to change the executive presidential system, it has to first get the constitutional amendment passed in parliament by two-thirds majority, and then the President would call a referendum for the people to vote on it.

That would a third national vote in as many yeas. Is there a middle way?

That would be to use the November parliamentary election as a referendum on changing the executive presidency. A question on changing the EP could be tagged on to the election ballot for the people to vote yes or no, in addition to casting their votes to elect their parliamentarians. The President has the power (Article 86) to submit a question of national importance to the people to express their preference in a referendum. But it cannot be substituted for the process for amending the constitution.

Could the President consult the Supreme Court (Article 129) to obtain its opinion whether a referendum is required to amend the constitution for changing the executive presidency; and if required, whether the parliamentary election could be used as a referendum in anticipation of a constitutional amendment in the new parliament?

That will be putting the Court on the spot, but there is reasonable justification for it, because it is not only President AKD and the NPP who are seeking to ‘abolish’ executive presidency in its current form; it is also the commitment of Sajith Premadasa and the SJB. There will also be considerable cost saving. Nothing may come out of this in the end, but the prospects of seeing an elected president living up to his promise to end it with him has never been brighter. I am only being agnostic.

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Sir John becomes PM, the Queen’s visit and the 1956 landslide

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Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh in Ceylon, 1954. Photograph: Anonymous/AP

(Excerpted from Rendering Unto Caesar, autobiography of Bradman Weerakoon)

(Continued from last week)

The prime minister’s father too had been named John Kotelawela and there was always a whiff of mystery surrounding `John Sr’. There had then been rumours of high intrigue, of family feuds, contract killings and near unassailable alibis. The kavi kola karayas – the wandering minstrels who preceded the radio as purveyors of news in my childhood had sung the story in racy jingles, doubtless embellishing it as time went on. But what was spoken about in whispers was that John Sr had died in prison while awaiting trial after arrest in a foreign land for killing a brother-in-law.

But this could well be the embellishment of an overladen imagination. I would not personally subscribe to its veracity and mention it only to show how the whisper mills grind away in this country. So the son, John Lionel Kotelawela had grown up very much in the care of his dynamic mother Alice. She continued to be a strong influence throughout his life and frequently intervened to help him out of the many sticky situations his reckless tongue got him into.

Alice Kotelawela was one of the three Attygalle sisters of Madapatha who made an important impact on the political history of colonial Ceylon through their dynastic marriages. The eldest, Alice, as we have noted, married John Kotelawela Senior. Leena, the second sister married T F Jayewardene, an uncle of J R Jayewardene, the future president. The youngest, Ellen, married F R Senanayake, the elder brother of D S Senanayake, the first prime minister of independent Ceylon. The Attygalle sisters have been likened to the three Soong sisters of pre-revolutionary China who achieved fame through their marriages to leading political figures.

The Attygalle family network was indeed an impressive one. F R Senanayake’s younger brother D S and D S Senanayake’s son Dudley, were the first and second prime ministers of the country while John Kotelawala’s son Lionel (our Sir John) became the third. These family networks and the way the highest posts rotated among kinsmen led to the UNP being referred to as the ‘Uncle Nephew Party’, a sobriquet not unwarranted by the facts. Political analysts observing this trend being repeated later on in the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), and by contagion in the neighbouring countries as well, were to refer to the phenomenon rather grandly, I think, as dynastic democracy, a typically South Asian variant.

Sir John’s entrance to the office of prime minister on October 12, 1953 was according to him delayed and long over-due. As he perceived it, he should by right and by seniority in the Party, have been appointed by the Governor -General Lord Soulbury to fill the vacancy caused by the death of D S on March 22, 1952. t was a climactic moment in the life of the new nation as D S, like other new leaders who had managed the transition from colony to free state, had been like a father figure.

Sir John Kotelawela

The question before the leading politicians of the government as D S lay dying – and also the choice being theirs, was, “Who will now be prime minister?” S W R D Bandaranaike, a likely successor, had put himself outside contention by his resignation from the government and the UNP on July 12. 1951, a full eight months before D S’ death. What would have been the country’s future had he continued in the UNP of which he had been a founding member in 1946, and been chosen to succeed? This was to become an often-asked question but I always thought it was irrelevant considering the profound differences in policy and direction between himself and D S.

On crossing the floor’ in a memorable speech he had expressed his frustration at not being able to make the regime implement the progressive reform agenda he had submitted. There was no doubt that after much reflection he had left the government to form his own Party since he was convinced that forces within the UNP would never allow him to succeed D S. With S W R D Bandaranaike out of the way the leading contender was Sir John. He had held ministerial rank since 1936, was now deputy leader, held the portfolio of minister of transport and works and was leader of the house. The other possible candidates were Dudley, D S’s son, and J R Jayewardene who was also a distant relative of the Senanayake’s.

Dudley had been in the Cabinet for less than five years and held the important portfolio of Agriculture and Lands. But he was much younger, relatively inexperienced and had shown no great enthusiasm for the rough and tumble of politics. J R Jayewardene was minister of finance and had earned a reputation as a political strategist but his stand on the language issue – official status for Sinhala – and his penchant for the national dress did not commend him to the old guard of the UNP for the leadership position.

It looked obvious to Sir John and his followers that he would be next in line. But it was not to be. Apparently the late prime minister, since he was in poor health, had advised Lord Soulbury that if anything untoward happened to him he should ask Dudley to form a government. Soulbury was out of the country at the time but had flown back on March 26 and with the minimum of consultation invited Dudley to do so. Dudley was then 41 years old and thus became the youngest prime minister in the Commonwealth.

Lord Soulbury whose appointment to office had been recommended by D S had paid off his debt, but as far as Sir John was concerned he had gained a mortal foe. Indeed Sir John had written a curt letter6 to Soulbury about the breach of British parliamentary convention to which the governor-general had not deigned to respond. It was soon also apparent that a majority of members of the parliamentary group had favoured Dudley over Sir John, who with his characteristic impulsiveness was more than likely to get them all into trouble.

After some days of sulking and denunciation of all the ‘plotters’ from his home at Kandawala Sir John had been persuaded to serve in Dudley’s cabinet, taking up his old portfolio which had been kept vacant. S W R D Bandaranaike watching these goings on from the sidelines was to describe this in his usual pithy terminology as “the culmination of a long, shabby and discreditable intrigue”.’

However, Sir John’s fury at being, as he perceived it, ‘double crossed’ was not to be pacified by ministerial office alone. He had to get it off his chest and he did so in his usual scathing style in a document widely circulated without any authorship, which gave a blow by blow account of how the deed was done. This was the famous The Premier Stakes . As usual his wayward tongue landed him in a heap of trouble. He was in the US on his way to Canada on an official visit when the story broke. Let me record the sequence of the events in his own words. The extract is from his An Asian Prime Minister’s Story.

‘Premier Dudley was prevailed upon to send me this message by cable: “The publication of the The Premier Stakes in 1952 has created a situation which makes it impossible for me to retain you as a member of my Cabinet. I shall, therefore, be glad if you will hand in your resignation by top secret telegram through our Embassy in Washington.”

‘The message was delivered to me with the utmost formality by an official of the Embassy who was very correctly dressed for the occasion, in tails and black tie. His instructions were that I should read it myself. When I had digested the contents of the cabled message which had been sent in code I asked him whether he would send a reply in plain English signed Kotelawala. He said that he certainly would. The reply I dictated made our uneasy diplomat shrink from its emphatic and rudely specific terms. The prime minister was to be asked to thrust the message he sent me into the place where I thought it belonged. Needless to say no reply was sent to Ceylon in these terms through the prescribed channels.’

However, Sir John was advised by many friends to go back to Ceylon and make up with Dudley. Then followed one of those diplomatic denials sometimes euphemistically described as being ‘economical with the truth’ which I was to encounter again and again in my career with top people. It was agreed, as Sir John later wrote, that everything should be forgiven and forgotten. In writing he solemnly asserted that he had nothing to do with the publication of the The Premier Stakes and denied the truth of the statements attributed to him in the document. Dudley accepted the explanation and all was well that ended well.

Blood in the country’s politics has always been thicker than water. Sir John’s mother Alice and Sir Oliver Goonetilleke, who was also an expert at patching up other peoples’ quarrels, then a cabinet minister and later the next governor-general recommended by Sir John, were said to be the prime actors in this charade.

Overlooked in 1952 for the premiership and now more than ever before the heir-apparent, Sir John did not have to wait too long for the prize he was seeking. Dudley as everyone expected called for an early election influenced by two main considerations. One obviously was to take advantage of the considerable sympathy vote following the death of his father. The other was to pre-empt the rising influence of S W R D Bandaranaike, who after the inauguration of the SLFP in September 1951 was seen to be making strong inroads into the traditional rural vote base of the UNP with a highly populist agenda.

But Dudley’s spell of office, after comfortably winning the elections of 1952, was short. Plagued by ill-health and indecisiveness, Dudley resigned on the October 12, 1953, following the widespread hartal (general strike) in August brought about by the government’s abrupt reduction of the subsidized rice ration. Finally Sir John’s perseverance and tenacity had paid off His reputation for being strong-minded and resolute made him the man of the hour within the Party and there was virtually no opposition to his taking over as prime minister.

Mara Maha Yuddaya cartoon

There were many urgent things to be done; the pre-eminent need being that of getting the strikers off the streets and back to work. There was also the official visit of the Queen which was pending and which Sir John was determined would be an unqualified success.

Sir John, as usual when he undertook a project, took a very personal interest in planning the Queen’s visit. In addition to the customary address to Parliament by the monarch – she was still the nominal head of the government and appointed the governor-general – there was a grand reception at Temple Trees and a special train assembled to take her to Kandy and then on to Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura, the popular ‘ruined city’ tour.

The massive file on Her Majesty’s visit, which I saw soon after I entered the prime minister’s office, attested to the care and attention which the Railway had paid to the decor of the toilets attached to the Royal carriage and the refurbishment of the master bedroom at the picturesque Polonnaruwa Rest-house on the banks of Parakrama Samudraya tank where the Queen spent one night. For years afterwards locals were wont to make a special effort when staying at Polonnaruwa to ask for the Queen’s bedroom and relate with some awe the experience of having slept in the Queen’s bed.

The visit to Sigiriya was a highlight of the journey. It was breezy at the Lion’s Paw and the young queen had quite a time keeping in place the light cotton dress she had chosen for the hot morning climb. As a sudden gust of wind caused a momentary lifting of the Queen’s dress the irrepressible Sir John shouted “ganing yakko ganing’ to his official photographer Rienzie Wijeratne. The shot was not among the carefully selected album of photographs ceremonially presented to the Royal guest on departure.

A few months after I entered the prime minister’s office, the coming general elections in April of 1956 began to dominate all our work. In February of that decisive year, and more than 14 months earlier than was statutorily necessary, Sir John had advised the governor-general, Sir Oliver Goonetilleke, to dissolve the Parliament. The reason for this was not immediately clear to us.

Ceylon was to celebrate the long awaited 2,500th anniversary of the birth of Gautama Buddha at the full moon (Vesak Poya) in the month of May of 1956. This had been termed Buddha Jayanthi –an event of the highest importance to Buddhists not only in the country but all over the world. Preparations were in hand for the historic occasion and an array of leaders of countries where Buddhism was being practised, including King Mahendra of Nepal were to visit the island on and around the event.

Moreover, Ceylon along with some other countries which had been knocking on the door, had been admitted into the United Nations in December 1955 in a package deal and this was deemed a major diplomatic coup. Past efforts had proved fruitless on account of a continuing Soviet veto. It had been alleged that Ceylon with British bases at Trincomalee and Katunayake was not yet an independent nation. However, these seemingly positive factors notwithstanding, the decision had been taken to go for an early election.

We surmised later that the reason may have been to pre-empt the growing popularity of S W R D Bandaranaike and the formidable coalition, the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (“MEP”) that he had succeeded in mobilizing. There was also the extraordinary rumour that Dudley Senanayake who had apparently resigned from politics completely, was now thinking of forming a ‘third force’ to contest both Sir John and Bandaranaike, taking away from the UNP some of his former loyalists.

So it was that dissolution of Parliament was fixed for February 18 and after due consultations with the then court astrologer, three days in April just before the Sinhalese and Tamil New Year, auspicious to Sir John – the 5th, 7th and 10th were chosen for the general elections. At the time the practice was to conduct the voting over a few days on the ostensible grounds that elections staffing and security considerations – police at polling booths – would not allow for island-wide elections on a single day.

The real reason, however, was different. Staggered elections were expected to provide for the ‘swing’ to take effect. Government campaign managers usually put up all the strong candidates on the first day so that the voters on the subsequent days could be suitably impressed and influenced by how well the government was doing and would vote accordingly. As it turned out, the results of the first day, April 5 belied all the expectations of Sir John and his advisers.

As caretaker prime minister, Sir John embarked on an elaborate and gruelling 18-hours -a- day programme of meetings and election rallies. The concept of `caretaker’ was taken seriously in those days and as far as possible major policy decisions with large financial implications were postponed. However, in a significant change of policy to counter the ‘Sinhala Only in 24 hours’ slogan of Mr Bandaranaike and his hastily assembled coalition, the UNP leadership too decided to fight the election on the language issue.

The UNP departed from its long held position of parity of status for Sinhala and Tamil as official languages and had adopted the proposal that “Sinhalese alone should be the state language of Ceylon and that immediate action be taken to implement the decision”. The effect of this was that seven Tamil MPs who were UNP members resigned in protest. However, the timing of the change of policy gave the show away and it was perceived by the mass of the electorate as an election stunt. Clearly a case of too little, too late.

Public cynicism had too been growing over the UNP’s alleged misuse of political power. There was a widespread belief that funds were being collected for the Party through the sale of Honours and citizenship rights. Sir John’s impatience with discussion and the image he strove to propagate as a man of action caused irritation.

I personally recalled his peremptory treatment of a body of monks without hearing them out, who had called over at Temple Trees to demand the postponement of the elections. Soon afterwards he threatened to tar-brush the monks who were duseela and took part in politics.

The thoughts of some of us in the prime minister’s office were now turning to the man who was leading the campaign on the other side. The media by and large were hoping for and predicting a UNP victory but there was a low rumble from below that all was not going well with the UNP campaign and that the MEP was gaining ground. Among those who thought so was an American professor of political science whose acquaintance I had made and who seemed confident that Mr Bandaranaike would do very well especially in the rural electorates.

But my feedback to Nadesan and the prime minister was discounted on the grounds that information coming in through police intelligence showed that the UNP was going to win. This total variation between what official intelligence was coming up with – perhaps mostly fulfillment – and the reality on the ground, was something I was to encounter over and over again as I worked with other administrators each time election day, verily the day of reckoning, drew near.

The final nail in Sir John’s coffin was a stunning poster devised by a Bhikku working for the Eksath Bhikku Peramuna (EBP) which was called the “mara yuddhaya.” It depicted Sir John on an elephant (the UNP symbol) at the head of a long parade of girl friends, ballroom dancers, Tamils and champagne drinkers, holding a spear pointed at the heart of a Buddha statue under the Bo tree. The symbolism was plain for all to see. To rescue the religion, the race and the country from the forces of evil, the devil had to be defeated.

Sir John’s supporters, who were quite sure of a UNP victory, had planned a celebratory champagne party for the evening of the last day of polling. Food and drink had been ordered from Victoria’s the official caterers and even the giant flamboyant trees in the beautiful back lawn of Temple Trees, the prime minister’s official residence, were being festooned, as on festive days with myriads of coloured electric bulbs. But as the first night wore on and more and more stalwarts of the UNP bit the dust, Sir John angrily called the ‘victory’ reception off.

Nadesan was quite certain Mr Bandaranaike would not want him to stay on. He had endeared himself to Sir John when the latter was minister of transport in D S Senanayake’s administration and Sir John had brought him in when he himself became prime minister in 1953.

Nadesan was a facile writer and it was reported, had ghost written the An Asian Prime Minister’s Story in addition to compiling an euphoric collection of essays on Sir John entitled ‘This Man Kotelawala’. But what would Mr Bandaranaike do with me? Would it be Siberia for having associated with the enemy? I was ready for anything but I had just got engaged to Damayanthi and our wedding had been planned for August that year.

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