Sunday Times 2
Old school mottoes
View(s):I was amusing myself, for want of anything better to do, by musing about the various mottoes of some of the better known boys’ schools in this country.
When they are first established, all these schools are given stirring school anthems and noble school mottoes designed to inculcate values and a certain ethos in those who enter their halls. The phrase chosen as the school motto is intended to encapsulate the ideals and the beliefs that will guide the institution and its pupils. The purpose of education is to teach one to think intensively, to think critically – and to develop a morally upright and strong character. The motto therefore needs to epitomise the school’s values.
Take for example the motto of one of our premier Buddhist educational institutions Ananda College. Its noble motto, a Pali quotation from the Dhammapada, Appamado Amathapadan, which translates as Heedfulness and Punctuality lead to Emancipation. Other good examples of similar wise words to guide pupils are the Pali motto of Isipathana College: Dalahang Paganatha Viriyang, which translates as Strive With Determination – and those of the two prominent Catholic schools, St Joseph’s College and St Peter’s College. The former uses as its motto the Latin phrase In Scientia et Virtute, meaning In Knowledge and Virtue while the latter employs the same theme of Virtue and Truth (Virtus et Veritas in Latin). Jaffna Hindu College has a particularly long motto taken from the Thirukkural: Katka Kasadarak Katravai Katrapin Nitka Adatkut Thaka, which translates as Learn moral guidelines faultlessly and then live by those lessons. Nalanda College simply tells its students Apadana Sobhini Pangna (Wisdom Illuminates Character).
It is always good, of course, to invoke God in one’s Learning – as Zahira College does with its motto Alhamdulillah Praise be to Allah.
Wisdom, Virtue, Punctuality, Determination, Obedience – all these are exemplary qualities with which one would hope that all students who undertake their education in this country will be imbued.
Interestingly, I was drawn to the mottoes of two of the oldest schools in Colombo – Royal College, Colombo founded in 1836 and S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia which was founded in 1851. In a strange sense, I felt that the mottoes of these two schools appear to have been tailor made for some of our current crop of politicians who have attended these schools (although they may not have received much of an education at the schools which they attended).
Take politicians like Namal Rajapaksa and Keheliya Rambukwella, past pupils of S. Thomas College whose motto is the Latin phrase Esto Perpetua. Although often mistranslated (even by many present-day old Thomians) as Be Thou Forever, the more accurate translation of this Latin phrase is Let it be Perpetual.
Namal exemplifies the fond hope of his family that the rule of the Rajapaksas and the unholy stranglehold of the family on the country’s economy will be perpetual or never-ending. Just like the aptly named company Perpetual Treasuries owned by Arjun Aloysius which purchased over half the controversial Central Bank bond issue in February 2015, the Rajapaksa family seems to be deluding themselves that, like the Georges and Elizabeths and Charlies of Britain, they too are entitled by Divine Right to rule this nation in perpetuity.
The other past pupil of Namal’s school I was thinking about is the embattled health minister, Keheliya Rambukwella, who is facing a vote of no confidence next month. He too attended S. Thomas – although it appears that he did not acquire much of an education while enrolled at that hallowed institution. Having contributed brilliant products like Dudley Senanayake, Dr N.M Perera, SWRD Bandaranaike and SJV Chelvanayakam to this nation’s public life, S. Thomas’ College now has to acknowledge people like Namal Rajapaksa and Keheliya Rambukwella as its past pupils in the legislature.
SJB parliamentarian S.M. Marikkar explained recently that the reason for bringing a no-confidence motion against the health minister is that the opposition has reason to believe that large-scale corruption and the import of poor-quality medicinal drugs have become rampant in the health ministry – resulting in dangerous and poor quality medicines being foisted on the public.
Keheliya now seems to think that he can arrogantly ride out the storm, and that (true to the Thomian motto) he too can remain a minister in perpetuity.
He would do well to remember the motto of the other big Colombo school: Royal College – which states in Latin Disce, aut discēde meaning Learn or depart. It will be a tough lesson for him to learn. He has allegedly done things that in the eyes of the public are not only dangerous to patients but are also morally reprehensible. He has refused to follow established guidelines for the procurement of medicines, he has advocated in the cabinet the acceptance of unsolicited proposals for the sale of drugs from Indian companies (like that run by his friend Kaushik Neelakanthan of Chennai) and the bypassing of established tender procedures. He has committed sins of omission and commission – and if he has any semblance of moral rectitude, he will have to depart.
He may not be aware that the Royal College motto comes from a Latin hexameter poem – and that the next line of this poem explains what happens to people who neither learn nor leave. It goes as follows: manet sors tertia, caedī – which means that, if you neither learn nor depart, there is a third alternative – be defeated/stricken/beaten.
Let us hope that Rambukwella departs before he is defeated – or worse, stricken or beaten.