{"id":111326,"date":"2021-02-04T17:41:33","date_gmt":"2021-02-05T00:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=111326"},"modified":"2021-02-04T17:41:33","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T00:41:33","slug":"cricket-is-language-blind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/02\/04\/cricket-is-language-blind\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket is language-blind!"},"content":{"rendered":"

C. Wijeyawickrema, LL.B., Ph.D.<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Note: Supreme Court judges are still not willing or not\nskilled to write their judgements in Sinhala. They have a mental blockade, a\nEurocentric fever. So, they want their pupils to learn English. They ignored\nthe 1956 Official Language Act for over 60 years. That is two generations of unfair\nprivileged status! The gazette to go back to English by the council of legal\neducation (CLE) had to wait until a non-Sinhala minister of justice lands as a\nnational list MP. They better be ready with valid reasons to justify their stealth\ndecision when the country gets this bad news.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previous three essays, this essay and one more to\ncome were written as responses to past attempts made by black-white souls to\npromote English as panacea for politician-generated problems in Ceylon\n(Sinhale)\/Sri Lanka. The expectation is that CLE members and other Eurocentric NGO\nagents etc. would get an idea by reading these, what the other side think.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

================<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Island-Opinion, 2008\/08\/22<\/strong><\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thank Gamini Gunawardane for his article on the\nevolution of Sinhala Cricket (Island<\/em>, 8\/15\/2008). If Ajantha had to pass\nan English language test before he could play cricket, he would have missed the\nbus, and with teams of English-speaking cricketers, Sri Lanka would not have won\na place in world cricket. I see a personal connection here because I was able\nto become a college professor and a director of research in the USA because of\nthe language-blind university entrance exam in 1960-61. In fact, I did not take\neven Sinhala as one of the four subjects!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of Gamini\u2019s reply and because of Bandula\nAbeyewardene\u2019s (BA) total misunderstanding of my response (Island<\/em>, 8\/2),\nmy task is reduced to answering a few, below the belt personal and private\nissues raised by BA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of his inability to understand the message\nin my letter, BA has now made another mistake by placing patriotism and fluency\nin English on a collision path (Island<\/em>, 8\/9). I see no direct connection\nbetween the two except that I know that some people stress the fact that when\ntwo Tamils meet or when Indians meet each other, they always speak in Tamil or\nHindi respectively, but when two Sinhalyas meet, they tend to use English. I do\nnot worry about such habits. SWRD who helped the Sinhala people had a grade three\nlevel student\u2019s ability in reading and writing in Sinhala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was only challenging BA\u2019s idea that “a\nSinhala cricketer who might become a cricket hero at a future date could avoid\nthe \u2018embarrassment\u2019 of not being able to speak in English if cricketer-training\nincludes tutoring in English. I did not oppose English or people learning it as\na second language. The gist of my letter was to tell people not to take the\nraft (English) on to your shoulders after using it to cross the river. Learning\nEnglish or any language for that matter is like learning how to swim or how to\nride a bicycle. We do not carry the bicycle on our backs when we walk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem in the former colony called Ceylon is\nthat those who had money could learn English and they used it as an extra weapon\nin their hands to oppress those who could not learn it. I wrote two essays\npreviously on this subject: \u2018Gurulugomi to the rescue: the re-enthronement of\nthe English language\u2019 (Island<\/em>, 4\/13\/2001) and \u2018Empowering law students\nwith an English language education\u2019 (Island<\/em>, 3\/19\/2008)) and BA would be\nable to better understand my point, if he cares to read them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said he had a colonial mentality because of the\nstatements I saw in his responses (I have not seen the response of Daya\nRanasinghe as I do not know when it appeared in The Island<\/em>) revealing a\nmind blocked with an English-based inferiority complex. He sank further and\ndeeper with his new theory that the language of cricket is English. So, if\nSusanthika wins an Olympic gold medal, then what would be the language of\nrunning, according to BA? If an American wins 8 gold medals in swimming, then\nwhat will be the language of swimming?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went to the Peradeniya University through the\nSinhala medium and studied law later in English. Dr. Joe Silva, who was a past\nLaw College principal, was my classmate. As a grade school student, I went to a\nnight school in Panadura to learn English. My father used to tell me that he\ntoo learned his English by attending a night school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This brings me to the question BA has about my name.\nLike Don Baron Jayatilleke, my father\u2019s name was Gilton Don Manis. My mother\u2019s\nname was Dona Baby Manamperi. My mother was a teacher and named me Chandrasiri\n(in the birth certificate it appears in English as Chandarasiri) not Conrad.\nWhat BA needs to understand is that the name given to one by his or her parents\nhas nothing to do with what that person does later in his or her life. SWRD did\nso many things that his parents or relatives never expected him to do. Parents\nin the past gave their children one Sinhala and one English\nname\u2014Chandra-Richard, Ananda-Edward, Cyril-Banda are examples. I knew\npersonally how Cyril-Banda used his names, depending on with whom he was\ntalking, he used what he thought was the appropriate name!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BA also needs to understand that because he was\nrelated to Sir DBJ, he cannot have an automatic share of DBJ\u2019s past glory. BA\nhas to earn his own place by his own work. No doubt the connection to DBJ\nhelps, but it is not a free lunch. During the past 10 years, by way of marriage\nconnections, I came to know about the second or third generation DBJ relatives,\nand I found that they had nothing of their own in serving the public that would\nhave made DBJ feel proud of them. This is called “vanse kabal\ngaama.” <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BA\u2019s story reminded me of the stories I heard about\nAnil Moonesinghe when he was Chairman, CTB. He had a life-size picture of\nAnagaarika Dharmapala on the wall behind his desk. The uncle and nephew,\nhowever, were poles apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About eight years ago I helped to begin an evening\nEnglish school (two days of the week) at the Siri Siddhartharamaya, Walana,\nPanadura for the poor children who did not have money for English tuition\nclasses. It now has about 100 students. I did this because when I was growing\nup in Walana, my mother had a hard time in giving me the monthly tuition fee of\nRs.5\/- for my English tuition. Rather than feeling embarrassed, BA could have\ncontacted Ajantha Mendis privately and offered him free tuition. I hope BA\ncould find time to visit the temple at Walana (Ven. Walane Siddhartha was the\nperson who began the Parama Dhamma Chethiya Pirivena at Ratmalana from which\ncame the two monks who started Vidyodaya and Vidyalankara Privenas) and started\na similar free English school in his temple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to BA, patriots are those who stay in the\ncountry. If that is the case, then Sri Lanka already has over 18 million\npatriots! Black whites frequently use two interrelated phrases\u2014greener pastures\nand second-class citizens\u2014to sling mud at people who for various reasons left\nSri Lanka on a temporary or permanent basis. Those who went to universities in\nthe swabasha mediums left Sri Lanka in frustration after failing to serve the\nmotherland, and USA took them in without a language test. This group is now Sri\nLanka\u2019s Seventh Great Force (sixth force is janitors and maids toiling in Arab\nlands pumping money for the Colombo people to import BMWs). They became\nsuccessful in their lives after hard work and personal sacrifices and if the\nSri Lanka Government is ready, there will be thousands of them who will come.\nWhether or not one is a second-class citizen in a new country is a state of\nmind. For example, in my country of birth in Sri Lanka, with caste and class\ndiscrimination and nepotism, so many times I felt that I was a second-class\ncitizen. I was often asked whether I was from Galle because of my last name. I\nhad to tell them that my parents (if BA wants to know govigama caste) were from\nHorana and that my last name was spelt as Wije-ya-wickrema not Wijewickrema. In\nthe USA, I was in an ocean of white people, but did not feel that I was second\nclass. I have white and black Americans working under me and I got my jobs\nafter a country-wide competition. If I go to a KKK meeting, may be they will be\ntreat me as a second class citizen, but I can live freely selecting what I want\nor do not want to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ceylon (Sri Lanka) has had two circuits, the\nEnglish-speaking Colombo circuit, and the Sinhala and Tamil Speaking non-Colombo\ncircuit. In 1956, this began to change. After 1959, both the UNP and the SLFP\nmismanaged the country and after 1977, the country fell into a hell.\nFortunately, a reverse gear has been on since November 2005. BA is a person\ncaught in this transition but making money out of it. I know some outrageous\nstories of how English tuition masters fleece money out of poor mothers who are\nled to believe that if their children know English, nirvana<\/em> is just\naround the corner for them. If this is the case, then the English-speaking\ncountries in the world should not have all kinds of problems, including poverty\nand misery. The plight of poor Americans around me is even worse than that of\nthe Sri Lankan poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel sad when I see Sri Lanka copying bad things\nfrom the West, that the West itself is trying to get rid of Kentucky Fried\nChicken, Coke and Hamburgers. The bath kade<\/em> idea of BA is an example of\ncopying the unhealthy American fast-food businesses. Save time to do what,\nwatch TV? No wonder 30-40% of Sri Lankan people are now suffering from\ndiabetes. Free trade, globalization, privatization took mung<\/em> beans, kadala<\/em>\nand kurakkan<\/em> away from homes. We, the Seventh Great Force in Sri Lanka,\nnot the English tuition masters, are in a better position to take an\nenlightened approach to help the Sri Lankan masses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

C. Wijeyawickrema, LL.B., Ph.D. Note: Supreme Court judges are still not willing or not skilled to write their judgements in Sinhala. They have a mental blockade, a Eurocentric fever. So, they want their pupils to learn English. They ignored the 1956 Official Language Act for over 60 years. That is two generations of unfair privileged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c-wijeyawickrema"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}