Controversy Over Doctorate For Sarath Fonseka!

Honorary doctorates undoubtedly have created some intriguing controversy in Sri Lankan politics in the recent past. First it was a religious cum political scandal when Most Venerable Gangodawila Soma Thero went to Petersburg in Russia in December 2003 to receive an honorary doctorate from the so-called International University of Fundamental Studies.

He was found to be dead before receiving the ‘doctorate’ under suspicious circumstances and it was claimed that the offer of the honorary doctorate was a bait to take him to a place where he could secretively be killed. It was a serious charge. Immediately thereafter, there was even a campaign to regulate and legislate on the conferring of honorary doctorates by unscrupulous institutions or so-called universities, but the campaign was as usual short lived.

Then there was always the envy and controversy over Dr. MP Mervin Silva’s honorary doctorate and no one exactly knew from where he got it and nevertheless he used it without any hesitation or guilt feeling and others did the same for him as if that is something that he has ‘earned for this or that merit.’ However, I have never heard him claiming or insisting on his doctorate other than simply using it as a matter of fact.

There are many others, both politicians and non-politicians, who have collected or conferred with honorary doctorates from here and abroad but very few have used them as far as I am aware. The use of honorary doctorates by late Dr. Lester James Peiris or living Dr. Pabilis Silva of the Mount Lavinia Hotel has never been a controversy. On the other hand, I have known Mahinda Rajapaksa obtaining an honorary doctorate from India when he was the Leader of the Opposition, and after that I have never come across him using it or any other using it for him.

It is in the above context that Gen. Sarath Fonseka has come to the fray. As reported in the Daily Mirror on the 19th Saturday, Presidential Candidate Gen. Sarath Fonseka has charged at his inaugural election campaign the day before “that the service chiefs who were in office during the ultimate stages of war and some ruling party politicos were offered honorary awards by the University of Colombo but the government approved these honors only for the politicians.” This is undoubtedly a baseless charge.

Apart from the charge being utterly inaccurate and wrong, the ‘grievance of non-awarding of an honorary degree’ is a triviality by all means to utter at an inaugural election campaign of any candidate for the highest position like the Presidency of this serendipity island called Sri Lanka. It is simply inauspicious.

The people or the general masses of this country, however uneducated or poor they are, expect some vision, maturity, policy and realistic program/promises from the candidates for the highest position. They hardly expect personal grievances or trivialities of heart feelings. The nature of the heart felling is revealed when he further said, “Ultimately the service chiefs had to sit and watch the politicos accepting these honors.” It is not at all clear whether Gen. Fonseka’s sentiment is shared by the other service chiefs or whether it is his own feeling of victim-hood. I believe the latter and not the former.

When recognized or reputed universities offer honorary degrees to deserving personnel here or abroad there are certain procedures and considerations to follow. The highest academic body of any university in the British tradition is the Senate and this is where a decision on conferring an honorary degree is taken, originated from the Senate itself or from a relevant Faculty. As the University Council is the highest administrative authority of a university, these academic decisions are ratified by the Council although a Council does not initiate conferring honorary degrees without the initiation or concurrence of the Senate. While a Vice Chancellor has some discretion to determine the offering of honorary degrees, she or he does not usually use that discretion without concurrence of the Senate and the Council. Simply said military rule does not apply in the university system. This is what many academics fear today, rightly or wrongly.

In the case of offering honorary doctorates to President Mahinda Rajapakse as the Commander in Chief and Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapakse as the Secretary of Defense, it was I who proposed the motion in the Senate of the University of Colombo on the 29th May, seconded by many others instantly which carried the day unanimously without any objection. It was a measured decision, and nevertheless it was possible that some academic colleagues silently had reservations even on that decision, feeling that politicians would not merit academic distinction not to speak of the military. The feeling on our side was that President is the Head of State and the Secretary of Defense is a civil officer. Offering honorary degrees to politicians is not unusual in liberal democratic countries and offering honorary degrees to military personnel is also done under special circumstances.

The reason to limit the offer to two only was conscious without any prejudice to the service commanders or the chiefs. In the first place, it was not intended to offer too many honorary degrees. That is not good for any reputed university. What was highlighted in the selection was not directly the military defeat of the Tiger Guerrillas or the terrorists, or even the war victory, but the defense of the country and the territorial integrity plus unity. Of course the University of Colombo could have offered an honorary doctorate to Gen. Fonseka without any issue or to avoid any issue, as it has become now, but unfortunately it did not occur to the Senate at that time.

On the other hand, in offering honorary doctorates to the President, and the Secretary of Defense, few other considerations were taken into account. In the case of the President, it was particularly the Mahinda Chinthana that he enunciated and the commitment with which it was implemented that were of paramount consideration. In the case of the Secretary of Defense, his well known strategic planning and the execution of that plan through the whole of the defense sector were taken into consideration. Although there were no written documents to that effect at that time, his professional credentials were clear from many of the interviews that he gave to the media during the war period.

It may be the case that Gen. Sarath Fonseka has had equal or more credentials to deserve an honorary doctorate from the University of Colombo, but unfortunately it was not clear at that time. What has to be pointed out, however, is that honorary doctorate or any other honor is not something that someone should claim or clamor for. It is something one should humbly enjoy or accept. This is a lesson for anyone who wishes to obtain an honorary degree in the future, really deserving or not. It is not something to be fuss about especially at an inaugural campaign meeting for the presidency, particularly when the information is in doubt. Accusations or charges should not be leveled against any authority involving particularly a reputed university on the basis of hearsay or rumor. The University of Colombo has officially and categorically denied that there was any offer of honorary doctorates for service commanders and therefore the charge that the government had denied and obstructed the offer to them does not hold water, as Gen. Fonseka has claimed.

The Sunday Times on the 20th gave more prominence to the claim by Gen. Fonseka perhaps slightly sarcastically highlighting it separately and capturing it as "No doctorate for Fonseka." What it said was that "At this inaugural rally in Kandy on Friday, the 'common candidate' of main opposition parties, Gen. Fonseka, was to disclose that he was denied of an honorary doctorate from the University of Colombo."

It gave another ‘twist’ to the story, whether it was uttered by the General or not, that "The University had written to President Rajapaksa, expressing its decision to confer honorary doctorates on the three armed forces commanders” and “However…the President did not respond favorably." It added further ‘turn’ to the tale saying that “Instead, he [the President] and Defense Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (the President’s brother) went ahead and received their honorary doctorates.” The tale very clearly expressed the general campaign accusation of Gen. Fonseka et al that Rajapaksa’s are plundering the country, and in this case the honorary doctorates! This seems to be most intriguing controversy about honorary doctorates today.

What I know for sure is that when the honorary doctorate was initially offered, the President in fact was reluctant to accept it, if it particularly comes from the Vice Chancellor, since the Vice Chancellor is appointed by the President. My source is none other than the Vice Chancellor of the University of Colombo herself. It was finally accepted with much persuasion when he was told that it was a collective decision by the Senate and the Council without any dissent.

The University of Colombo was the first to offer an honorary doctorate to the President after the war, as it was the time for its annual convocation. Thereafter, many universities have offered the same to the President, the Secretary of Defense and all the Service Commanders including the Police Chief with usual pomp and ceremony. It might be the case that the President accepted all of them without a grumble perhaps not to deny the Service Commanders or the Police Chief of the same opportunity as he had obtained from the University of Colombo.

Otherwise his initial reluctance cannot be reconciled with the later behavior. This is however contrary to what is claimed by the Retired Gen. Sarath Fonseka as ‘grabbing doctorates’ from the service commanders by the President.

- Asian Tribune -