The following is an interview with Professor Sasanka
Perera of the South Asian University conducted by Mr. Ranjit Perera of
the Social Scientists Association of Sri Lanka via Skype on 18th August 2012.
Ranjit Perera: Cyberspace and virtual reality are
intertwined in the context of today’s communication technology; this
came to my mind while conducting this interview. Any thoughts on that
before we get down to more serious issues?
Sasanka Perera: Well, I am hesitant to get into a
philosophical discussion on these matters in an interview meant for
popular consumption. I guess we can have this chat separately. But
briefly, yes. This interview would not have taken place across national
borders if not for the internet and the fact that technology within it
is accessible, cheap and democratic in its reach. But this is not
virtual; you are there asking questions. I am here trying to answer
them. The only issue is that the physical distance between us have been
bridged because of the availability of certain technologies, which in
this case is Skype. I can see that the internet and its technologies
have been widely used in the context of the ongoing strike and related
activities of the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations. Its
internet presence literally seems like that group has jumped almost
overnight from what appeared to be pre-modern ages right up to
postmodernity. That is one reason I can still keep up with what is going
on even from New Delhi despite the misinformation routinely
manufactured by state media and uncritical sympathizers of the regime.
Ranjit Perera: Let’s talk a little bit about your recent
association with New Delhi. That was last year wasn’t it, soon after
your fieldwork in Tokyo was completed?
Sasanka Perera: Yes. I undertook fieldwork in Tokyo while
teaching there on sabbatical leave from about late March 2011. I arrived
in Japan two weeks after the devastating East Japan Earthquake and
Tsunami hit the country. I was one of the very few foreigners who came
to the Hitotsubashi University where I was based at the time. My
intention was to undertake limited ethnographic fieldwork focused on the
Sinhala immigrants settled in Tokyo; some were very legitimate; but
many were literally living under the radar. The second part of the
research was supposed to be in New York in association with Cornel
University. For that, I had already won the Fulbright Fellowship. My
hope was to undertake the same kind of research in New York as it was a
more established diasporic centre for the Sinhalas. This was supposed to
be a comparative study to understand how home was recreated away from
home and how a sense of cultural identity and affiliation was
transformed or did not change in the context of migration and settlement
in a new country; in a new city. But the New York part of the research
could not be undertaken as I ended up in New Delhi, and as a result, I
declined my Fulbright Fellowship as well.
Ranjit Perera: How did this happen? Not too many people
would willingly give up a Fulbright scholarship, and would opt to go to
New Delhi instead of New York.
Sasanka Perera: May be you are right. But for me, New York
is not some kind of an emotional site where I was dying to go. It was
simply a research location just as much as Tokyo was, Katmandu was years
ago and many locations in Sri Lanka, from Anuradhapura to Kandy and
Kataragama. But from a research point of view, it was a pity I could not
go to New York to complete my work as planned. As it is now, I have the
material from Tokyo only. So either I have to write up my research
based on the work in Tokyo or schedule to visit New York again sometime
in the future to complete what was originally planned. But right now, it
is very difficult for me to plan something like that given my somewhat
hectic work schedule. From an ideological point of view, the diversion
to New Delhi was not a difficult thing to do.
Ranjit Perera: You mean your affiliation with the South Asian University? How exactly did this happen?
Sasanka Perera: Well, many years ago a group of friends from
across South Asia met at different locations in the region to discuss
the possibility of such a university. I came into the circuit quite
late. There were people like Imtiaz Ahamed from Bangladesh, Ashish Nady
from India, Kanak Dixit from Nepal and many others involved in these
discussions. It was grand plan to establish the university with
different faculties in different cities. It was grand, intensely
challenging and completely unpractical as I know now. So it fizzled out,
and the people involved went in different directions. But for me, it
remained an extremely interesting idea that was worth pursuing though in
a more pragmatic scale. Years after all this, the Prime Minister of
India, Dr. Man Mohan Singh came up with the same idea. But his was a
more pragmatic idea, to create a South Asian University accessible to
scholars and students from the region as a centre for producing cutting
edge knowledge and base it in one city while the possibility of
establishing regional centers in other cities exist in the present plan.
This was a very powerful idea that had the backing of the Government of
India and all other countries in South Asian Association of Regional
Cooperation. All these countries except Pakistan at present fund the
university; India spends an enormous amount of money on the construction
of a new campus in New Delhi which has not started yet. We have about
100 acres of land. India also spends considerable funds for scholarships
for students. Right now, the university is based in Akbar Bhawan,
Chanakyapuri which is the diplomatic area of New Delhi.
Ranjit Perera: So the university invited you to join its staff?
Sasanka Perera: No, there was a letter that was sent to many
universities in the region by the president of South Asian University. I
got a copy of it directed to me by the Vice Chancellor of the Colombo
University, and I simply sent in an application. As I said before, I was
already attracted to the idea in ideological and intellectual terms.
Besides, the challenge of actually setting up a brand new institution
for intellectual excellence for young people from our region was quite
enticing. So I was interviewed while I was in Tokyo, again by Skype.
Think about the world without this kind of cheap technology. It would be
a very different place. This was in June 2011 I think. About a month
after the interview, I was offered the job as Professor of Sociology at
the new department that was about to start, and it was agreed that I
could assume duties in late October or early November 2011 once my work
in Japan was over.
Ranjit Perera: So you are the founding professor of sociology at South Asian University?
Sasanka Perera: Yes, but it is more complicated than it
seems. Soon after I arrived numerous administrative responsibilities
fell on me that I hardly had the time to breathe. These are the kinds of
things that I very judiciously avoided in Colombo except for the last
two years or so when I ran out of excuses and choices. So less than one
year since I assumed duties, I am not only the founding chair of
sociology but also the founding Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences.
Strangely enough, I am also the chair of the Department of International
Relations, a discipline I know only as a layman. This happened due to
the lack of senior scholars to take over these responsibilities. But I
think now the issues with the International Relations Department could
be handled effectively as we have recently recruited many young scholars
as well as two senior scholars who can lead the department. I think IR
will now begin to grow. One of the things I have insisted on over the
last 10 months or so and would continue to do so, is the need to
introduce inter-disciplinary courses and approaches within the
intersections of sociology and international relations as disciplines,
and beyond. This is one of the things I would like to see happening with
the induction of new people into both IR and Sociology Departments over
the next year or so. As it is, I think the Faculty of Social Sciences
and the two departments currently located in it are doing quite well.
Already, we are capable of offering as good an education as any
established departments. Sociology, I might add is doing particularly
well within academic limits as well as with regard to extra-curricular
activities. Personally, my interest was not to simply set up a little
training shop, but to establish an institute that was worth its salt.
Overall, this will take considerable time and effort. But already I can
see the results of our efforts. It is good when one’s colleagues also
share a common dream and are showing considerable enthusiasm. In Sri
Lanka I was getting tired of having to work with people who could not
see the difference between a vision and a hallucination which also
frustrated many well meaning people within the university system, and
many of them succumbed to that sense of intellectual lethargy.
Ranjit Perera: Is that why you resigned? Many people in the university system and not just in Colombo were very surprised at your resignation.
Sasanka Perera: No that was not why I resigned. I did not
have any intention of resigning or leaving the country for too long when
I applied for this position at South Asian University. My intention was
solely to help set up a university for which tax payers of our country
and seven other SAARC countries are contributing heavily, and return in
five years or less once that institution had achieved some stability. On
one hand, I was following a personal dream in trying to set up an
institution that I thought would be a centre for academic excellence. On
the other hand, I enjoy teaching. It is under a similar situation I
resigned from the World Bank and came back to the Colombo University
about 10 years ago when I was offered a permanent job in the World Bank.
Ranjit Perera: So at that time, you came from the affluence of the World Bank to the poverty of the University of Colombo.
Sasanka Perera: Yes. As many people said at the time, it was
financial suicide. But Ideologically, I still think I made the right
decision. But the poverty I faced at the University of Colombo was not
only financial. It was also intellectual. But this is an unenviable
situation one can see in all of our universities, and not just in
Colombo. I never regret my decisions; it would simply a waste of time.
Hopefully, some students benefited from my decision. But as recent
events have clearly shown, obviously the university itself did not
appreciate it nor had any need for my services. But then, who am I to
question the collective wisdom of its entire governing board, which
thought that I should not be given five years no-pay leave to set up a
regional university which our country was partly paying for, but instead
thought my resignation was more preferable.
Ranjit Perera: After nearly 20 years of service to the
university and the country, the attitude of the University of Colombo
must have made you very angry and bitter? I know you have quite a
temper!
Sasanka Perera: I take these things in a stride. The temper
you talk about comes and goes. But like a dangerous animal who must be
caged, I have caged it quite well. It still comes out once in a way. But
I throw it back in. So in this instance anger had no resonance in the
feelings I had. I kind of expected the university’s attitude as I had
watched quite sadly its intellectual caliber diminishing and mediocrity
being entrenched in recent times. I may have been saddened, but not
angered. As I said before, who am I to question the collective decision
of such an august body like the governing board?
Ranjit Perera: But isn’t that denial illegal?
Sasanka Perera: No it is not. I was already on sabbatical
leave, and it was to run out in June or July 2013. What I asked for was
no-pay leave for a period of just over four years so that I could
complete the work in New Delhi that I was planning to begin in late
October. I made my application in July 2011. Up to today, this is August
2012, I never got a response to my request from the Colombo University.
Perhaps the Vice Chancellor was very busy. But I know, legally the
university does not have to give that kind of leave ordinarily. But this
is not an ordinary request or an ordinary situation. This was a
prestigious appointment and recognition conferred upon a scholar from
the University of Colombo. In any civilized part of the world, any
university would have perceived this as an honor that should be
celebrated. In such climates, if the necessary legal frameworks or
regulations did not exist, I think they would have done their best to
find means to accommodate something like this. The bottom line is that I
did not even get a response to my letter at least rejecting the request
for leave. Our universities are very quick to offer unconditional leave
that is annually extended if this was a political appointment. Here,
this was an academic appointment of significant propositions. But
unfortunately, no interest was shown in this matter whatsoever. So I had
no option but to resign.
Ranjit Perera: So is Sri Lanka well represented in the South Asian University’s academic staff?
Sasanka Perera: No. I am the only professor and senior
academic administrator. Sri Lanka cannot and will not be well
represented if scholars with an interest to come to South Asian
University from any Sri Lankan university have to undergo what I had to
endure. Unfortunately, it also created a very bad impression of Colombo
University in particular and Sri Lankan university system in general in
the minds of the many people who got to know about the incident.
Compared to this very Sri Lankan attitude, I was very touched by the
extent to which people in Delhi went to accommodate me even though they
did not know me personally at all. They went that far only because of my
qualifications and experience. Nothing else. I think this is something
the university system and the Higher Education Ministry should look
into. What this effectively means is that despite the enormous amount of
money Sri Lanka annually spends on the South Asian University, country’
scholars will not be able to serve it unless they resign. If this
happens, then the country will lose individuals which it can ill afford
when the government is quite flippantly talking about creating a
knowledge hub. Perhaps our politicians can create instead a gossip hub
where mediocrity will reign supreme. Compared to this situation,
individuals from all other countries have been given leave by their
parental universities or other organizations on very flexible terms to
come and serve the South Asian University and return if they wish. So it
is not an accident that Sri Lanka is underrepresented among the
academics of the South Asian University. And it will remain so.
Ranjit Perera: Well, even though you may not be appreciated
by the powers that be, you are at the forefront of establishing a
regional university of significant proportions. From that
institution-building and intellectual perspective, what is your take on
the status of Sri Lankan universities at present and the ongoing strike
by FUTA?
Sasanka Perera: I have written about this many times focused
on higher education in social sciences and humanities generally and
about the status of my own discipline in particular. In general,
universities started going into a decline since about the 1970s, and
this is much more visible in the social sciences and humanities. It is
also clear in medical education I think where an over-emphasis on the
technical aspects of medicine has shorn the training given of the
philosophical aspects of that profession. This whole issue is a separate
discussion and I doubt of we have the time for it today. But by now,
and particularly under the ruling oligarchy, higher education has seen
incredible reversals in recent times. Today, amongst our vice
chancellors, in my assessment there are only handful of people, if at
all, who have the intellectual caliber to hold such positions. This is
not a matter of having a PhD. That I hope everyone has. This is about
having the intellectual sensibility, integrity and leadership qualities
to be true leaders and innovators in the local academia. Instead of
scholars with wisdom, we have petty politicians who owe their
appointments and survival to the party in power. So their interest is
not academic but narrowly and crudely political and self-serving. You
can see this in the so called ‘voice cuts’ that many such people offered
on behalf of the incumbent president and Sarath Foneska at the last
general election. Meddling in party politics and peddling influence in
local politics should not be the vocation of any academic yet alone vice
chancellors. They can naturally vote for whoever they want, but they
have no business getting into such predictably compromised positions
while they hold office. Unfortunately today, most people interested in
high positions within universities are not necessarily the best and the
brightest. Given the entrenched pettiness in these institutes, many such
people are those who are willing to compromise and who have no sense of
self worth. Of course there are exceptions, but this is generally no
longer the rule.
Ranjit Perera: So you consider FUTA’s struggle a just one
even though the regime says it is playing with the future of the younger
generation. And academics deserve a pay hike?
Sasanka Perera: Well, you need to take different things in
their specific contexts. Personally, like many other citizens I know, I
have no doubt it is a just agitation. I also think, it is an overdue
agitation. As you know quite well, academics in our country have hardly
resorted to serious and sustained industrial action, and this is
certainly the case over the last two decades or so. Asking for six
percent of the GDP be set aside for education and requesting that they
be consulted in decision-making that has to do with the education sector
are not only reasonable but necessary. The issue is that it has taken
this much time for academics to get their act together to make this and
other related demands. As for the salary increase, I think most people
in Sri Lanka except politicians need a salary increase. If it does not
come as a process of regular policy-making, then it must be acquired.
This is what is going on now. If anyone is playing with the future of
the younger generation, it is the ruling oligarchy for its singular
inability and lack of interest and vision to deal with the prevailing
situation.
Ranjit Perera: One could always say you are over sympathetic
to your former colleagues and that you do not see their faults? After
all, you have been involved in the academic trade union system for quite
some time.
Sasanka Perera: Unenlightened people can say what they want
as they have many times before, and as they will many times in the
future. It makes no difference to me. When I joined the University of
Colombo in the early 1990s, I became the secretary of the University of
Colombo Teachers’ Association. At that time, the president was Chanadana
Jayaratne from the Faculty of Science. When the Arts Faculty Teachers
Association Colombo University was initiated a few years ago, I was the
founder president; most of my time was taken up trying to get a
constitution formulated. Compared to the activism of teachers at
present, my involvement was marginal. But none of this means that I am
incapable of seeing the failures and fault lines of the system. As I
mentioned a little while ago, a dangerous mediocratization and
politicization of universities have been going on for quite some time.
It would be naïve to assume that the negative processes in the wider
society would not be reflected in universities. Whatever is wrong in our
society is also visible in the universities. So given this situation,
there are many individuals who should never have been in universities.
But they are there due to the failures in the system. But right now, as a
trade union collective, it is not within FUTA’s mandate or that of any
other university trade union to look into this matter. It is beyond
help. What can be done is to ensure that at least in the future more
stringent entry requirements are imposed for university recruitments.
But to encourage good people to come into the system, they have to be
attracted with a decent salary and better working conditions which means
academic freedom among other things. That is one of the demands of FUTA
which I fully support.
Ranjit Perera: Then you would support any program that is
put in place to attract competent scholars from other countries to Sri
Lankan universities?
Sasanka Perera: Naturally, I would. I have heard that there
is some interest at UGC to lure back some of our own people who left the
island for greener pastures. I do not know the authenticity of this
story. But if the government’s demonstrated attitude and marked
hostility towards FUTA’s demands as well as the public vilification of
its leaders and blatant threats against them are an indication, I guess
this is a mere story with no substance. I doubt if the university system
or the government and its agencies are capable of attracting anyone of
significant caliber from oversees to our universities when they cannot
even keep the ones who are already here in place. My own recent
experience demonstrates this quite well. The slogan of creating a
knowledge hub that the government is repeating like a manthra
amounts to nothing other than a series of words that does not make
sense. To do this kind of thing, not only the universities but
associated services as well as the nature of the public sphere itself
and forums of cultural and intellectual production have to radically
transform. I don’t see this happening, and I also do not see anyone in
the oligarchy or the bureaucracy with the imagination to even think of
such things. Some academics on the other hand can help do this, even
though their voices are constantly stifled.
Ranjit Perera: Let’s get back to the South Asian University.
I have heard from some people in the diplomatic circle that the
decision to establish the university in New Delhi came about as a result
of arm-twisting by Indians and that it would have been better if it was
established in a more neutral place like Kathmandu or Colombo. What is
your take on that?
Sasanka Perera: Well, I am not privy to all the diplomatic
intrigue and discussions that might have preceded the establishment of
the university. But there was a clear agreement that New Delhi should be
the location for the university though there are provisions for
regional campuses in other cities in the region. Where else other than
Delhi would you be able to set up something like this? In cultural and
intellectual terms and in terms of the availability of facilities such
as libraries, Delhi clearly is the best place. Naturally, Colombo is a
more functional city where everything works relatively well; but
intellectually and culturally it is dead, and on top of that we are
encumbered with a regime that has not shown any vision when it comes to
higher education. In my mind, that disqualifies Colombo. If Sri Lanka
was given the option, the university might have ended up in Hambantota
and might have been named after the president.
Ranjit Perera: So in your own mind, this is the right thing to do?
Sasanka Perera: Absolutely. It is a brilliant idea. But it
is not a fairy tale. There are a lot of problems. These are not
intellectual problems but procedural ones. For instance, as a foreigner,
despite my five year special visa, I had a tough time opening a bank
account and it is quite difficult to send money home in an emergency.
Getting a gas cylinder for cooking was quite an operation. Visa itself
was a painfully slow process at the Indian embassy in Colombo. Even when
I finally got it, an endorsement was placed on my visa and that of my
wife’s saying that we had to register with the police each year. This is
despite an act of Parliament passed by the Indian Legislature trying to
make this a smooth process. Finding accommodation was very tough and
the university itself offered no help in this regard. These kinds of
situations would clearly discourage foreign academics coming to the
university. Naturally a lot of things need to improve. But then, it has
only been in operation for about two years.
Ranjit Perera: Is there anything else you would like to say before we conclude? It has been good talking to you after quite some time.
Sasanka Perera: Not really. I have already talked too much.
But I don’t believe that in our region and in our country or for that
matter, anywhere else in the world, regimes should be allowed to shape
our realities, dreams and the future beyond a point. This is
particularly so when it comes to situations where regimes have failed
their moral authority to govern. Citizens have to take decisions that
would shape their own destinies or at least they must try.
