Will we ask same questions when GCE O/L 2007 results out on Thursday?

The results of the GCE O/L examination held in December 2007 will be out on Thursday April 3, reported Daily Mirror, quoting Deputy Commissioner Paul Anthony (results branch). School Principals in the Colombo district will be able to collect the results from the examination department on the same day. The results will be available on the internet by Friday afternoon.

Last year more than 51% of the students failed the G.C.E (O/L). According to Commissioner of Examinations, Mr Anura Edirisinghe, out of the 523,000 candidates sat for the examination, only 48.7% were qualified to follow Advanced Level classes.

Some other interesting statistics on GCE Ordinary Level 2006 examination results were:

o 21,813 candidates failed all subjects.
o 57% failed Mathematics
o 47 schools and 40 pirivena institutes did not have a single student qualifying for the GCE A/L (This list also includes some schools in centre Colombo)
o 63% failed out of 258,975 who sat for the English language paper
o 57% failed out of 259,263 who sat for the Mathematics paper; 90% failed to solve the (compulsory) geometry question
o 52% failed out of 258,948 who sat the Science paper

We have to wait and see how it will be this year

When this subject was discussed at Lanka Newspapers, these were some of the selected comments made by readers:

Over 51 per cent students fail GCE (O/L). This shows why MR got only 51% votes. We are a nation who boast that we have a ‘literacy rate’ above 98%. If you can sign you name in a paper you are ‘literate’ as per SL standard. Our literacy rate should measured % of passed in O/L. — Roshan2007

Mahinda Chintanaya: ‘Leave school and become a politician. You may even become a Minister.’ Of course some people might blame Ranil’s CFA for this too!! – Kulakottan

Next time reduce the standard a little and the pass rate would go up! That’s what was done to the O/L English paper to make more students pass. — kiwikanga

1. What is the solution do you have - We asking Hon - Susil P with his team.
2. Where is the BAKA PANDITHAYO at SL government given PANDIVADAN for MR
3. Nearly 22000 failed all subjects in GCE OL, what a shame for teachers, at least single subject( Religion or Language)
4. Without recruiting graduate just like a mush rooms, before that give them to subject training with tougher assessment and knowledge based evaluation strategies.
5. After completion of training (Subjects , Human skills management and general knowledge etc.) ask them to sit a qualifying exam. (Doesn’t matter if they have PhD, checking their teaching abilities)
6. Establish a parent - Teachers responsibility circles in each school and ask them to monitor their children education activities at least weekly basis.
7.Establish a Teacher evaluation system and find , focus and positively communicate their needs and wants.
8.Set up monitoring teams from educational zonal wise and ask them to get basic requirements or assessment in regards to Year 6- 9 (Pre GCE O/L) - Available resources -human and materials, year 9-11 (GCE O/L) and 3. Year 12-13 (GCE A/L) 9. Without doing patching up find a long term solution at least now onwards.
10 . Please, Please , I beg you -dearest BAKAPANDITHAYANI- Do not give JARA UPADESH for MOLE NATHI PALAKAYANTA. OUR CHILDREN WILL SUFFERING and WE have to import Knowledge from PITARATA .If you do not do your proper job. - Jay2000

Split in JVP’s three-wheeler future

The inevitable happened. A major split in JVP imminent in near future.

To the students of Sri Lankan politics, this comes as no surprise. The surprise is why it not happened so far.

If a list of Sri Lankan political parties that depends least on principles were made JVP comes on top. Even its cousin three-wheelers LSSP and CP, though spineless and hapless, maintain some sort of principles. Not the JVP. All the support to JVP comes from the frustrated youth, for some reason cannot find a place in other political streams. Their blind support and acceptance of brainwashing done on them unquestioned has been the strength JVP always had.

Dilemma faced by JVP on maintaining multiple sets of principles has been observed even by some of their comrades of yesteryear, notably Victor Ivan and Kelly Senanayake.

Is JVP still a Marxist party? Nobody is sure. Effigies of Marx, Lenin and Engels still escort the decorative May Day rallies of JVP, but surely not many present day JVPers (or ‘jeppas’ as known at universities) might not even be able to name them. This, as well as the use of blod red coloured flags is purely for earning the support of similar socialist groups in international circles. That is how JVP gets money. Not many are aware that JVP is the largest NGO in Sri Lanka to sustain on foreign capital.

Is JVP a nationalist party? They like to imply so but we do not see the sheer commitment by JHU.  All the ‘nationalism’ of JVP (if there is  such thing) seems to come from Desha Hithaishees, among whom the propaganda sectary of JVP is a prominent figure. Apart from Weerawansa, nobody in JVP takes this ‘nationalist’ angle. The extremist Sinhalese camp has abandoned JVP long before. This niche vote would go to SLFP+JHU alliance in the next election, not to JVP.

Is JVP a socialist party? Hardly. How socialist one can be when the leaders stand shoulder to shoulder with dirty capitalist of the land? This was one issue echoed at the JVP polity bureau recently when Sunil Handunnetti challenged revealing his colleague Weerawansa’s links with the top businessmen. According to newspaper reports the issue led to Handunnetti’s house arrest by JVP and still remain unresolved.

Nandana Gunatilake, a former polity bureau member too continues his attack on JVP leadership.  Two weeks back he wrote one full page article in Sunday Divaina criticising JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe. The pressure is accumulating there too.

The last straw anyway comes from Lalkantha, the unionist. He correctly identifies Pillayan as a threat in Eastern provincial pools. It is common sense that Pillayan+SLFP alliance will eat bulk of the JVP votes and JVP will end up in an embarrassing position, unless that could be prevents. Lalkantha’s attempt is to minimize that damage. Two logical reasons justify his stance. One cannot run with hare and hunt with dogs simultaneously. So if JVP to were contest independently, it has to take a different stand from that of Pillayan+SLFP alliance. The other reason relates to a more particle issue. You cannot campaign against armed rivals. So Lalkantha, just like any rational individual sees the need to disarm Pilliyan before the elections. Somawansa Amerasinghe, party leader seems to be in agreement. That was what he said publicly.

Funny thing is the impact of this on JVP Propaganda Secretary’s position. In their black and white world, Desha Hithaishees recognize anybody who opposes LTTE as their ally. They do not realize what bigger pain Pillayan can be. Neither they realize the danger in conducting elections when one contesting party is armed and others are not. All they see is their short term gain. So Weerawansa does not want to disarm Pillayan – opposing the view of his own party leader and comrade. He recently questioned the integrity of Somawansa and Lalkantha. This means even Weerawansa does no more trust his party leaderrship and colleagues.

Fractioning has been a common phenomenon among Sri Lankan left parties. That is how the old left segregated itself faster than amoebas and finally ended up as three wheelers. With their vote banks eaten up by the SLFP, and their inability to brainwash youth in this age of Internet, as they have done in past is drastically decreasing the numbers for JVP. The presence of young students, some of the obviously children of JVP leaders ay Youth Council Hall Maharagama few weeks back shows their weakness in attracting crowds anymore. The splits will ensure further reduction and the day we see JVP been subdued to another three wheeler party like LSSP and CP is not far. Be optimistic.

එහෙත් එහෙමද? මෙහෙත් එහෙමයි!

I took this political cartoon from ‘The Economist’, depicting President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who faces a crucial vote today to renew his term.

Interestingly, the message is applicable not just to Zimbabwe, but to many other countries. :-) 

MedEx 2008 and memories

Faculty of Medicine at Colombo University has once again organized Sri Lanka’s key medical exhibition “MedEx” after 26 years, reports Colombo Page. The MedEx 2008 opened yesterday at the BMICH in Colombo and will be opened to public until Apr 1. (By the way, I remember seeing the last MedEx in 1982 as a Grade 9 student! Prof. Carlo Fonseka’s ‘fire walking’ demonstration was the best attraction

Science exhibitions play an important role in educating public on matters directly relevant to them – which they are not even aware of. Not all of us are fortunate enough to see the interiors of medical laboratories. Exhibitions are one successful way of bridging that information gap.

MedEx brings back two fond memories. The first one was the Ananda College Centenary exhibition in 1986, in which I too contributed as an A/L student. The project of our class was to demonstrate some of advanced chemical experiments, which normally could not be carried out in school laboratories. I am sure a large number of A/L and O/L students, especially from schools with little laboratory facilities benefitted from our work.

Image: A photograph taken on the last day of the Ananda College Centenary exhibition. Hope you can recognise me in the front row with a set of test tubes in my hand.

The other memory is Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS the first anatomical exhibition of preserved human bodies, which was made available to the wide public. Since its initial installation in Japan in 1995, nearly 25 million visitors in over 40 cities in Asia, Europe, and North America have seen what is considered the world’s most successful travelling exhibition.

Each exhibition features more than 200 real human specimens, including whole-body plastinates, individual organs, organ configurations and transparent body slices.

Image: Isn’t this scary? What the man on left ’exhibits’ is his own skin.

The exhibitions also allow visitors to see and better understand the long-term impact of diseases, the effects of tobacco consumption and the mechanics of artificial supports such as knees and hips.

The Bodyworlds exhibitions rely on the generosity of body donors; individuals who bequeathed that, upon their death, their bodies could be used for educational purposes in the exhibitions. Currently, the Institute for Plastination has a donor roster of 8000 individuals, 490 are already deceased.

Image: These specimen come from donors who want others to use their bodies for a good cause

SHE IS BACK! Hillary! Stop the attacks! Love, Obama Girl

Amber Lee Ettinger, the star of the last year’s wildly popular online video “Obama girl,” is out with a new video this week that decries Hillary Clinton’s insistence on remaining in the presidential race.

The new video — titled “Hillary, stop the attacks!” — opens with a takeoff on Clinton’s now-famous “3 a.m.” ad, and quickly transitions to Ettinger addressing the New York Democrat head on.

“I know Obama’s gonna win it/but you’re sorta kind of stayin’ in it. I think sometimes in this campaign/You’ve got a crush on John McCain,” she sings.

“Can’t you see its hopeless? It’s become an Obama-nation. Is their any chance you’ll back off? So he’ll get that nomination,” she also says.

Dear Leader, We Wish You Many Happy Returns of the Day!

Opposition leader and the leader of the United National Party celebrates his 59th birthday today.

Hon Ranil Shriyan Wickramasinghe MP LLB (born March 24, 1949) was Prime Minister twice, from May 7, 1993 to August 19, 1994 and from December 9, 2001 to April 6, 2004. He has also been the leader of the United National Party since November, 1994 and a member of the party since the early 1970s.

Antecedents

Wickramasinghe’s father was Esmond Wickramasinghe, an ex-Samasamajist and supremo of the Lake House group of newspapers. His paternal uncle Lakshman Wickramasinghe was later to be a much respected Bishop of the Church of Sri Lanka. His maternal line consisted of newspaper barons and landowners, the Wijewardenas, who were Sinhala Buddhists. His maternal grandfather was D.R. Wijewardena, the founder of the Lake House publishing empire.

Education

Wickramasinghe was educated at Royal College, Colombo where he was a classmate and a good friend of Anura Bandaranaike, son of then Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike and Dinesh Gunawardena, son of socialist leader Philip Gunawardena. In spite of his inheritance, Wickramasinghe chose to pursue his higher education in his own country, entering the Faculty of Law at the University of Colombo. After graduation he completed the law exams at the Sri Lanka Law College and took oaths as an attorney-at-law. Of all the Presidents and Prime Ministers of Sri Lanka, Wickramasinghe is the only person to graduate from a local university, the remainder either having degrees from foreign universities or no university education at all.

Political career

A successful lawyer, Wickramasinghe joined the United National Party (UNP) and progressed through its youth and bar ranks. Wickramasinghe was appointed as the chief organizer of the Kelaniya Parliamentary seat in the mid 1970s but was later installed as the chief organizer of the Biyagama seat which he won in the 1977 Parliamentary Elections.

He was installed as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in the new government and was soon promoted to the post of Minister of Youth Affairs and Employment which made him the youngest cabinet minister of Sri Lankan history to date, during is term he created the Sri Lanka National Guard. He introduced the National Youth Services Council (NYSCO) which provides vocational and career training to thousands of school leavers. Wickramasinghe was later made the Minister of Education. As the education minister, he could made a visible positive difference in the standards of education and could build an image as an achiever. Wickramasinghe was also behind distributing television sets to thousands of remote schools in Sri Lanka.

Under the Presidency of Ranasinghe Premadasa, Wickramasinghe was appointed as the Minister of Industry and Leader of the House under which he initiated the Industrial reforms and established the Biyagama Special Economic Zone. Wickramasinghe had competition from his intellectual colleagues Lalith Athulathmudali and Gamini Dissanayake, who had been rivals of President Premadasa. However, he outmaneuvered both of them and many others and accordingly he was appointed the leader of house in 1989. On May 7, 1993 Wickramasinghe was sworn in as Prime Minister after President Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated, by the Tamil Tigers.

In the 1994 Parliamentary Elections, the UNP lost to Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s People’s Alliance (PA) which ousted Wickramasinghe from the Prime Ministership. He also lost the race to be the Opposition Leader by 2 votes to fellow UNP member Gamini Dissanayake who just re-joined the party. This gave Gamini Dissanayake the default leadership of the party and made him the Presidential nominee of the UNP. The UNP was showing great spirit and strength under Gamini Dissanayake, when he too was assassinated by the Tamil Tigers. Gamini Dissanayake’s widowed wife Srima became the replacement candidate of the UNP and secured only 35% of the vote, losing to Chandrika Kumaratunga in all the Parliamentary seats in Sri Lanka apart from Mahiyangana. Afterwards Wickramasinghe was appointed as the Opposition Leader as well as the UNP leader.

As Opposition Leader Wickramasinghe undertook his party through a difficult time period where the UNP supported many of the good deeds of the government despite some members of his party asking him to be more aggressive. In 1999 President Kumaratunga called the Presidential Elections a year prior to its expiration in the hope of regaining and fortifying power in order to amend the constitution. Wickramasinghe was nominated as the UNP candidate.

After a tense election campaign in the wake of the violent North Western Provincial Council election, President Kumaratunga was attacked by the Tamil Tigers in an attempt on her life in which she lost her right eye. In the election held 2 days later (December 21, 1999), amidst a wave of sympathy, Chandrika Kumaratunga received 51% of the total votes to be re-elected for her second and final term.

In 2001 Sri Lanka underwent severe losses in the warfront and only managed a highly unsatisfactory -1% economic growth rate, the first ever negative growth in the country’s history. By the end of the year a some members of the PA government led by S. B. Dissanayake a senior Minister of the PA government, and Deputy Finance Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris left the PA to join the UNP thus destabilising the Parliamentary composition which led Kumaratunga to call for fresh elections. The United National Front (UNF), formed with the PA dissidents, the Sri lanka Muslim Congress and the Ceylon Workers’ Congress assumed power in the 2001 Parliamentary Elections held on December 10. Wickramasinghe’s UNP won all but 6 of the 22 Electoral Districts in Sri Lanka. Thus Ranil Wickramasinghe took oaths as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka for the second time.

One of his first acts was to sign a ceasefire agreement with the LTTE rebels and start peace talks. This has resulted in a visible development of the country. The civil war came to a halt; the North and South of the island was linked after decades and millions of people benefited as a result. During Wickramasinghe’s second term he also re-energized the economy to reach an economic growth rate of 6% and managed to keep the inflation down, at 2% - the country’s lowest. His liberal economic policies stabilized the national economy. He also developed many international ties setup by him during his time in the Opposition. Sri Lanka underwent huge social changes during this period due to the ceasefire which made the country much accessible and open.

Wickramasinghe came under fiery criticism after a police officer, commonly perceived as a Wickramasinghe ally, exposed an elite Sri Lankan army LRRP unit, based in Colombo who were engaged in covert operations against the LTTE, on the accusation that the unit was deployed to assassinate Wickramasinghe. However, most of the information about this event is baseless and were created by the political opponents of Wickremesinghe, mainly the extremist JVP. During the Presidential Election campaign of 2005 Wickramasinghe addressed most of these concerns and proved these accusations were not correct.

By November 2003 the LTTE showed willingness to reenter the peace talks by proposing an Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA), which was seen by some as a blueprint for peace. President Kumaratunga quickly shook off these proposals and assumed the Defense, Interior, and Media Ministries - which cut short the powers of the UNP regime. Soon the President Kumaratunga’s PA allied with radical socialists Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna to form the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and dissolved Parliament to call for new elections.

In the 2004 Parliamentary Elections held on April 02 Ranil Wickramasinghe’s UNF lost governmental office. The popular image of the UPFA candidate and his unrealistic but attractive promises like promising a 70% wage raise, tearing apart of the ceasefire agreement, lowering of the cost of living, employing the unemployed and reinstating the fertilizer subsidy. This left Wickramasinghe and his party a lot to think about and within such a small time they rebuilt the grassroots of the party and strengthened its position as the largest political party of Sri Lanka. Within 14 months of the assumption to power of the UPFA the radical JVP wing left the government destabilizing the government which has over 30 Parliamentarians short of the required majority.

In December 2004 Wickramasinghe was chosen by the United National Party as its Presidential candidate for 2005 Presidential Elections due in late 2005. The Supreme Court decided in August 2005 that the elections should be held this year despite the President’s argument that her term ends in 2006. Mahinda Rajapaksa, then Prime Minister, was appointed as the Presidential candidate of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

In the Presidential Election, held on November 17, 2005, Wickramasinghe was defeated narrowly by Mahinda Rajapaksa the Prime Minister at the time gaining 50.29% of the vote, while Wickramasinghe gained 48.43%. A majority of the minority Tamil population in the Northern and Eastern parts of the country who were largely expected to back Wickramasinghe were prevented from voting by the LTTE, who called for a boycott of the polls. 

JVP ‘child soldiers’

In its shameless four decade history Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) the extremist and perhaps most chauvinistic political party in Sri Lanka had no principles at all in exploiting school children for its political purposes.

Even in the pre-1971 period JVP had a significant percentage of high school students in its cadre. (One of them was Sunanda Deshapriya, who later became a district leader in the 1971 insurgence.) The innocent but gullible students were shamelessly used by JVP leaders to do their dirty work varying from pasting posters and protesting to, in times of fighting, robbing and perhaps even killing.

In 1987-9 period JVP brought students to roads to shout slogans ‘Palamuva mavbima devanuva igenuma’ (Country first and education second) Little did these children know they were not doing anything for the country but unfortunately destroying their own future.

Image: The unrest in a school in Southern province recently was alleged to be planned by JVP

I remember how JVP henchmen tried to bait us when we were doing A/Ls. This was immediately prior to the 1987-9 insurrection and when JVP was more an underground party. We were not stupid to swallow their ‘Seeni Bola’. Understanding it was a fruitless task trying to brainwash us, they focused on some other victims. The difference is while most of us who did not listen to them doing well in our professions today, while some of those who listened to them are no more with us. It looks like some of my pro-JVP ex-classmates have just vanished to thin air.

Image:student unrest in a Southern school.How many of them were brainwashed by JVP?

JVPs ‘policies’ in exploiting school children in political work, that is if they have anything called policies, was not different from those of LTTE. They hardly worry about the means as long as those means justify the ends. Many other political parties, even extremist parties like JHU would think twice before engaging school children in their political work, but JVP has no shame at all doing it. To JVP they are the necessary sacrifices to be made in their way to the ‘Viplavaya’ – a goal that no rational individual sees ever materializing.

Image: LTTE using students in their political work, in this case throwing stones at an effigy of the President

In this backdrop that we see JVP is back to their old tactics. Significant participation of School children, some in their school uniforms was noted at the annual propaganda meeting of Samajavadi Shishya Sangamaya, the student wing of JVP last week. (Principals of several schools and parents have already condemned this act) According to Ministry of Education, it is prohibited for students to participate any other activity not related to their studies, let alone political activities for extremist parties.

Both in 1971 and 1989, hundreds and thousands of mothers and fathers lost their children, thanks to the day dreams of JVP terrorist leadership.

Do we want a repetition of the same?

Should we anymore tolerate, be it JVP or LTTE exploiting innocent children for their political activities?

ශ්‍රීමත් ආතර් සී ක්ලාක් මැතිතුමාගේ අභාවය ලෝකයට පිරිමැසිය නොහැකි පාඩුවක් - රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ Opposition leader appreciates the role played by Sir Arthur Clarke

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සිය වාසභූමිය කර ගනිමින් මෙරටට මහත් ගෞරවයක් හිමිකර දුන් කීර්තිමත් ජාත්‍යන්තර විද්‍යා ලේඛක ශ්‍රීමත් ආතර් සී ක්ලාක් මැතිතුමාගේ අභාවය පිළිබඳ පුවත අසා මම අතිශයින්ම සංවේගයට පත් වීමි.
 
අනාගත ලෝකය පිළිබඳ අපූර්ව ආකාරයේ ප්‍රබන්ධකරණ රැසක නියැලෙමින් ශ්‍රීමත් ආතර් සී ක්ලාක් මැතිතුමා මුල් වරට ලෝක ජනතාවගේ සුවිශේෂ අවධානයට පාත්‍ර වූයේ මීට දශක පහකට පමණ එපිට වකවානුවකදීය.

අපගේ වත්මන් ජීවිතයේ විවිධ පැතිකඩ හා බැඳී පවතින පෘථිවි චන්ද්‍රිකා තාක්‍ෂණය පිළිබඳව මෙන් ම තවත් බොහෝ නූතන තාක්‍ෂණික සංසිද්ධීන් පිළිබඳ ලෝක අවධානය යොමු කරමින් ශ්‍රීමත් ආතර් සී ක්ලාක් මැතිතුමන් විසින් පත් කළ විද්‍යාත්මක අනාවැකි ලෝකයේ ගමන් මග වෙනස් හා වේගවත් කිරීමට සෘජු ලෙස ම ඉවහල් විය.

තමන් ලෝක අවධානය දිනා ගත් සුවිශේෂී හා සම්බාවනීය පුද්ගලයෙකු බවට පත් වෙමින් සිටියදීම ඉන්දියන් සාගරයේ පිහිටි ස්වාභාවික සම්පතින් පිරි ලංකාව සිය වාසස්ථානය කර ගැනීමට හා අනතුරුව තමන්ට හිමිවන බොහෝ අවස්ථා උපයෝගී කර ගනිමින් මෙරට කෙරෙහි ලෝක වාසීන්ගේ අවධානය යොමු කිරීමට ශ්‍රීමත් ආතර් සී ක්ලාක් මැතිතුමා තුළ පැවති නැඹුරුව කෘතවේදීව සිහිපත් කරමි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ යොවුන් පරපුර වෙත ලොව නවීනතම තාක්‍ෂණික ඥානය ලබා දිමට හා ඒ ඔස්සේ ඔවුන්ගේ අනාගතය දීප්තිමත් කරලීමට ශ්‍රීමත් ආතර් සී ක්ලාක් මැතිතුමා ඉටු කළ සුවිසල් මෙහෙය මෙරට යොවුන් පරපුර මහත් කෘතවේදීතවයෙන් යුතුව සිහිපත් කරනු නො අනුමාන ය.

ශ්‍රී ලාංකික අප ඇතුළු සමස්ථ ලෝ වාසීන් වෙනුවෙන් සිය ජීවිත කාලය මුල්ල්ලේම ප්‍රශස්ත මෙහෙවරක් ඉටු කළ ශ්‍රීමත් ආතර් සී ක්ලාක් මැතිතුමාගේ අභාවය තත්කාලීන ලෝකයට පිරිමැසිය නොහැකි පාඩුවක් වනු නියතය

රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ
විපක්‍ෂනායක

Anura Bandaranaike was fooled by JVP, sister Sunethra says

Anura Bandaranaike helped to get the support of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) in forming a government without being aware of the true nature of the JVP says Sunethra Bandaranaike.

The eldest sister of the former parliamentarian said that the move to get JVP support was an opportunist political step in order to gain power.

Sunethra Bandaranaike told BBC Sandeshaya that every politician is an opportunist when it comes to gain power.

His eldest sister says Mr. Bandaranaike was very disappointed on policies of Rajapaksa administration in which he was a member until last year.

In November 2007, Mr. Bandaranaike joined the opposition at the vote for government’s budget proposals.

He did not vote against the budget, says Sunethra Bandaranaike, to protest government’s war strategy and rising cost of living.

Full article is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2008/03/080316_anura_dead.shtml

Our leaders had ears for astrologers, not for Arthur C. Clarke

Once dead, every Tom Dick and Harry have started eulogizing Sir Arthur C. Clarke, for his vision but what is interesting is how far his wise advices were taken or not by our leaders when he was still alive.

A clear case is how his advice was entirely ignored when Sir Arthur C. Clarke publicly requested the present government not to change back to GMT+5.30 standard from the earlier GMT+6.00 or what was popularly known as ‘Chandrika Time’.

In that occasion the advice of some astrologers’ bypassed Clarke’s and Sri Lanka continues to use the ‘Standard time’ that Clarke never wanted to.  

This was the full statement Sir Arthur C. Clarke issued. It is self explanatory why he prefers ‘Chandrika time’ or GMT+6.00 to ‘Mahinda Time’ or GMT+5.30.

I have followed with interest the current debate on readjusting Sri Lanka standard time to what it was before May 1996. It is a sign of our mature democracy that such proposals can be discussed widely before a final decision is made. I would like to offer my thoughts to help the government reach a rational decision.

As we can recall, the clock was adjusted in 1996 during a major electricity shortage,as a measure of daylight saving. A decade later, Sri Lanka is still struggling to meet the growing energy demands, and spending vast amounts on imported oil that generates more than half of our electricity supply. I understand from the CEB’s published data that the electricity use load in the evenings is considerably more than that in the mornings.

So if we put the clock back by half an hour as proposed, dusk will fall sooner — and households will be consuming more electricity for lighting. Both the country’s generation costs and individual electricity bills could go up as a result.

I do share the concern that the prevailing time requires some children to leave home for schools fairly early – sometimes while it is still dark. The best solution for this is to start school sessions later. (In neighbouring India, for example, most schools start at 9.30 or 10 am.) Let’s not forget that the current standard time allows an extra half hour of daylight in the evenings for adults to get back home and for children to play.

Beyond these very valid local concerns, I would like to draw attention to macro level implications of changing Sri Lanka’s standard time again. We standardise time because we need to deal with others. In the 19th century, for example, every little town in the US had its own time: the impossibility of running trains under this scheme gave rise to standard time. In today’s rapidly globalising world, Sri Lanka cannot afford to keep changing a fundamental attribute like standard time every few years. Such a move could harm the perception of foreign investors, international banks, airlines and tourists – at a time when we are trying to attract them all.

There are sound reasons for maintaining our standard time as GMT + 6 hours. The earlier time (GMT + 5:30) caused considerable confusion to those based outside Sri Lanka. Going back to that time can inconvenience over a million Sri Lankans now living and working overseas, whose remittances are vital to our economy. Sri Lankan companies competing for outsourced data processing and other business opportunities in the global knowledge economy have an advantage with the current standard time.

Indeed, most countries in the world have a full hour’s difference with GMT. (I have been telling every Indian VIP I meet that they should get rid of their half-hour difference!).

Older Sri Lankans can probably recall the consternation caused in the 1960s when we changed our weekend to follow the lunar calendar. It took years to recover from that misstep. I sincerely hope that wiser counsel would prevail on this occasion.

Vidya Jyothi Sir Arthur C Clarke

Colombo, 14 March 2006