Prof S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole
A university is to produce people of high character. The University of Peradeniya is evil. Its students and staff, however good, are cowed down from the time they come in. So the have no leadership qualities. Evil people dominate. Those who learn to tow the line, do reasonably well and the selected few – selected by those running the show – are picked for appointments and “push ups” at the faculty Board to pass.
I am writing this thoughtfully after several years there.
Briefly, I returned to serve Sri Lanka after rising to the top in the US as the first Sri Lankan IEEE Fellow with a higher doctorate. I could not find an appointment. Until Professor Leslie Herbert Gunawardana wanted me after 3 years of positions for which I was less qualifed.
Once permanently at Peradeniya, I found extensive cheating in professorial promotions. Those academic leaders, often pretending to high ethics standards, do not want their roles questioned. In promotions they claim conference papers as journal papers earning higher points to achieve the standards for successful promotions. That is usually how promotions are earned. Those who see through this go abroad and never come back even holding confirmed positions at Peradeniya.
When I was on promotion committees as an examiner, Prof. Kapila Gunasekara whose promotional dossier was full of such cheating, hid the report from the committee, often holding the report close to his chest, and saying the candidate had reached the pass mark. I just had to sign or call him a liar. Others had external reviewers from Singapore who were really internal staff who had been former staff and colleagues of the candidate vying to be professor. Or the examiner would be a Peradeniya graduate, a student of the candidate who would be a Profssor at Moratuwa where also the same game is played. So the story goes.
I had filed several actions legally. When Kapila Gunasekara threatened to deny me my confirmation, the Citizens’ Movement for Good Governance with which I was working together with Elmore Perera who filed action. The Court of Appeal ordered my confirmation and promotion to Senior Professor. The university was also fined Rs. 50,000, a fortune at the time. Kailla Gunasekara was ultimately left with no choice but to resign or retire over certain financial questions under his administration. Forced to resign for fraudulence, he was given an appointment through his PA connections as VC. At the new Ocean university as if it was tailor made for him. So strongly entrenched are the goons who run our university system as respectable folk regardless of how horrible they are.
Wife Dushyanthi Hoole
Unable to sack me, they turned on my wife, Professor Dushyanthi Hoole (then a senior lecturer at Peradeniya). Although confirmed at the Open University, she was terminated. The Human Rights Commission ordered her compensation of Rs. 50,000. Peradeniya never paid her saying compliance was voluntary.
She then went to the Labour Tribunal in Kandy. We were advised to swallow our pride and find alternative careers, despite her doctorate under Nobel Laureate George Olah of the University of Southern California. The advice was that one can never win at the Kandy Labour Tribunal because Peradeniya’s tentacles run everywhere there. The LT is for lower cadres, not the highly qualified.
True to several predictions, the Judge retired and went away with the files saying she would write the judgement from home. Why it was not given to her replacement I do not know. Unheard of and a part of the Peradeniya corruption and evil tentacles. The judgement was never served on her.
In March 2005: VC and Professor of CS
There is hostility to me – and in fact to anyone who is qualified in Sri Lanka. In March 2005 I was appointed VC/Jaffna. At the time time the USAB concluded its hearings on my petition of be appointed Professor of Computer Science. The case concluded in my favour and the court ordered an appointment to be made at a time when I was the only candidate. Shortly after my appointment as VC the LTTE issued threats to my life. Those who competed with me for VC began living in the LTTE office in Kilinochchi. It was the time VC/Eastern University had been disappeared by one of the wings of the LTTE.
I told the UGC that I would resign. The UGC response was that such a resignation would mean the President would need to consult the LTTE every time a VC appointment was made. It was coming to that after the LTTE prevented Tamils from voting after receiving a multi-million dollar payment from Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Douglas Devananda promised me an armed escort if I went to Jaffna. Accepting that offer would have been foolish when the Army had been so weak as to be unable to defend and safeguard the senior military officer, Brigadier Susantha Mendis, assassinated by the LTTE in the Jaffna Municipal Council bombing was dwho served as the garrison commander of Jaffna. Indeed mine was the last civilian appointment he had when he helped me reopen the closed Open University campus in Kokkuvil. The killing occurred on September 11, 1998. Robert of the EPRLF helped me get the appointment when the OU’s UNP cabaal salndered me saying that Chandrika was trying to show normality in Jaffna by running the OU.
I then tried to run Jaffna university from Colombo. The Registar whom I knew well, refused oral instructions from me saying he could not recognize my voice – he was Kandasamy the father of the dreaded Pottu Amman, the LTTE Spy Chief. When I faxed him instructions, he refused to acknowledge receipt.
As I was working from Colombo, the UGC gave me overseas leave after Eastern VC Sivasubramanaim Raveendranath was kidnapped. He was one of the better academics who helped UTHR andnwas kidnapped from Colombo, and I was working from there.
Prof. R. Kumaravadivel (Jaffna Physicist) who unsuccessfully vied with me to be VC, was appointed by the UGC to “cover my duties.” This is now used to list him untruthfully as Acting VC. After the USAB declared that I was VC at the time and should be listed as such, the subsequent VC Vasanthy Arasaratnam (who also unsuccessfully contested against me) claimed that the Board listing VCs was under repair. Despite the lapse of several months, she was unable to repair that wooden board.
It took the next VC Prof. Sivakolundu Srisatkunarajah to muster the courage to overcome the Jaffna Mafia who still maintain that I was never VC despite the board.
Vindictive Cowards
The system, at least in Peradeniya and Jaffna, is run by cowards – obey us and take the place we assign to you. It can never grow and sustain tue intellectuals unless they escape abroad to develop character. With that they can come back and be a positive force. I encourage all graduates to do that.
My Health Situation and my Assets
My personal situation now is widely known. I have therefore no reluctance to share it publicly. I have been diagnosed wth HPCC (Hepatocellular Carcenoma), cancer of the liver, that has metastatized to the colon. I am undergoing Immunotherapy and Radiotherapy at Stanfored Hospital. How it will go is up to God.
If I left my Employee Provident Fund (EPF) at Peradeniya, I cannot say it will not be looted.
Last year my wife’s batch participated in a fund-raiser which I was reluctant to attend, but she wanted to meet her friends so we both went. At the time we filed all papers for our EPF.
A year later, the claim is made that both our personal files are missing. I understand that they are cooks.
In 2008 I returned to Peradeniya after receiving assurance from my Depart Head that my appointment was in Order, showing me as being on leave. I reported on 8 Dec. 2008. Before leaving I had earned my duty-free licence which I did not apply for as I already had a car. I also applied for that.
The VC at the time, Professor Harishchandra Abeygunawardena, see picture, claimed by letter dated 8 Dec. that I had vacated post subject to approval of the Council. It was wrien after I reported. It means he had his dirty hands on my file on 8 December, 2008 and that the file went to Council for approval later.
How can they claim that the file is lost? Somebody is a vindictive crook. And how can two files disappear together? Senor academics and Dean/Engineering have enquired with no success.
My brother Paul Hoole who served faithfully at Peradeniya, has refused to apply for his EPF saying it involves dealing with dirty, unpleasantnpeople. But he is allowing dirty people to steal his funds. He recals the poice rading his hostel and the authorities taking little interest in retaining an Oxford. D.Phil to teach in comfort.
Fund Raiser
My personal family problem is that my wife’s batch has another fund raiser on the 9th. I have refused to go, asking what funds for people who will steal? She will go alone on the 9th, paying $150 for the meal and liquor. I have no intention of contributing to a drinking party and getting a vegetarian meal at that price likely to be stolen by administrators.
My wife takes the view that friendships are more important than standing up agai nst the unrighteouS. What Do you the reader say?