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Oh dear! Ms Harini Amarasuriya’s ambitious plans for educational reforms with same-sex on the school menu for 10- or 11-year-old kids suddenly seem to have come a cropper after it was revealed that the English module for students in Grade 6 contains a weblink that leads to an adult gay chat room.

The revelation made by a prominent Buddhist monk at a media conference on Wednesday has led to such a cyclonic storm of public outrage that it left Harini, in the early hours of the newly dawned New Year, with her head on the chopping block awaiting the executioner’s axe to fall.

But will it? Will the far-flung hopes of ministers accepting responsibility for acts or omissions of their ministry instead of the kudos alone materialise? We shall see.

In the wake of Wednesday’s revelation, which has caused mass consternation and rising alarm among parents, the Secretary to the Ministry of Education, Nalaka Kaluwewe, told the media that he has lodged a complaint with the CID. This follows the discovery of a link to an ‘inappropriate website’ in the newly printed English module for Grade 6 kids.

‘Inappropriate’? Hardly the word to use, is it, when it refers to a link that grants access to an adult gay site?

Kaluwewe also told the media that it is suspected an external party had conspiratorially inserted the reference. The CID has been asked to immediately probe those responsible for the unauthorised act.

HARINI: In a soup

External party? That’s interesting, isn’t it? Does he claim that some lesbian or homosexually bent person or some NGO hack broke into the Education Ministry’s computers to insert this weblink to a gay site which greets users with its logo that shows two naked men entwined in each other’s arms in a passionate embrace?

Does Kulawewe claim that no one saw this photograph? A photograph that’s worth a thousand words?

• That the Education Ministry’s army of proofreaders didn’t spot the weblink even when it’s highlighted in blue on anyone’s computer?
• That no one spotted its highlighted presence on its ascent to the top?
• That even if someone had noticed its presence in blue, natural curiosity hadn’t inspired them enough to tap the link and see what a new world of knowledge would unfold for 10-plus-year-old children to discover?
• That even Kulawewe himself—as the highest public official of the ministry—had not spotted the devious blue-highlighted presence of the perverse weblink?
• That even Harini Amarasuriya herself—as the highest political representative of the ministry, answerable to the people—hadn’t spotted this.

With the JVP coming to power last year and with Harini being ensconced in the prime seat of education, she had become so obsessed with educational reforms that she made it her life’s mission to implement them in classrooms before the year was out.

Top of the list of priorities was to brainwash the seed and blossom of Lanka by holding them captive in schools and naturalising them step by step to believe in the philosophy of lesbians, homosexuals, bisexuals and transgenders, plus a lot they called ‘queer’ for no explicable reason.

DIRECTOR NIE: Professor Manjula

Whenever Harini was asked at what age this sex experiment would begin in schools, her stock euphemistic answer had always been: ‘At an appropriate age.’

In the first place, say why sex should be taught to 10-year-old children when the slightest stirrings of any sexual feelings haven’t still arisen in their loins? What’s the awful hurry?

No doubt, it would have shocked everyone in the land—except, of course, the LGBTQ community—to know that the idea of an ‘appropriate age’ to start teaching sex to school children was at the age of 10 plus.

No one is personally against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and even transgenders, all of whom have coexisted with heterosexuals throughout the course of Lanka’s history.  But it’s the aim to institutionalise LGBTQ culture as the official culture of the land, which nearly all are staunchly against.

THE OFFENDING PAGES IN THE MODULES FOR GRADE 6 CHILDREN: Access to gay sites

In October this year, when the Tourist Board promoted Lanka as an LGBTQ paradise, it attracted vehement objections from religious leaders.

The Mahanayakas of the three Nikayas broke their silence and, in a joint letter addressed to President Anura Kumara, lodged their ‘deep displeasure over government moves to promote laws and practices at the behest of a small minority group, disregarding social institutions and the country’s moral identity.’

The Mahanayake’s letter further declared: ‘The failure of public representatives to understand that passing such laws would create imbalance in social institutions and lead to the collapse of the social strata and social degradation clearly demonstrates the failure of the political leadership to understand the country’s cultural value systems.’

The letter warned, ‘We emphasise that promoting unethical practices under the guise of economic development is a short-sighted act that leads to anarchy in a country. The government should refrain from such actions and focus on promoting morality and values based on the country’s long-standing cultural values. If not heeded, the government will have to suffer the severe consequences of public opposition to these unworkable amendments.’

As for the Cardinal, needless to say, he was outraged. From his Sunday pulpit, he breathed once more fire and brimstone, denouncing official moves to make Lanka an LGBTQ-friendly port of call.

Delivering a fiery sermon, the outraged Cardinal Malcom Ranjith declared, ‘Sri Lanka must not allow its children and youth to become victims of foreigners who arrive here to fulfil unacceptable desires. We are unsure whether President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is aware of the implications, but we hope he understands the seriousness of the matter. Citizens must be vigilant against those seeking to undermine Sri Lanka’s cultural values.’

He called for compassion towards those with same-sex attraction; Cardinal Ranjith drew a distinction between those he believes are born with such inclinations and those who take to unnatural sexual practices due to external corruptive influences.

On November 16, commenting on the battle between Church and State over sex education in schools, THE SUNDAY PUNCH declared:

‘The Head of the Catholic Church in Lanka, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, in a pulpit blast last Sunday, made a scathing attack on government plans to radically reform education and enthrone literature promoting LGBTQs as the third sex of the human species in school classrooms, with students brainwashed in their formative years to accept this freak deviation of nature as part and parcel of nature?

He said, ‘The government is now getting ready with teachers and textbooks to teach sex education to children from Grade Six. Some organisations are trying to destroy the cultural and moral foundations of our country. What is the meaning of this? Is this really education? Isn’t it the parents’ responsibility to teach such matters to their children at the right time?’

The Cardinal alleged, ‘But they are going to teach children even as young as eleven all this and make them know how to make same-sex relations. Behind all this are international organisations that are trying to destroy our society. They have given money to the government, money to the education ministry to print the necessary textbooks to send our country’s children astray. These lessons are going to be taught in our schools from January next year, from grade 6 children onwards. What is all this for? How can a civilised government allow such uncivilised things to be brought into the country and taught to our children?’

He charged that the government was ‘importing degraded values of a Western world religion.

How much more livid would he have been had he known in advance the Education Ministry plans to set the skies ablaze on New Year’s Eve with a stupendous firework explosion with the revelation that over 10-year-old school children would not only be taught about same-sex relationships in the new year but would also be provided with a weblink to gain access to adult gay sites, including access to gay chat rooms?

With Buddhist monks, with Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, with social media and with desperately worried parents, all of them braying for blood, the hunt began to find a willing and ready scapegoat upon which to pile the ministry’s sins and pack off to the wilderness to spend some time there until the dust settles down.

It was soon found. TV news reported that ‘at the alleged urging of the Minister, the Director General of the National Institute of Education, Professor Manjula Withanapathirana, has decided to resign from her post pending the completion of an investigation into the controversial Grade 6 English Module.’

But let the professor beware. The same warning goes to the minister.

On Friday it was reported in newspapers: ‘Ministry Secretary Nalaka Kaluwewe said that Rs.60 million had been spent for printing these modules in 350,000 copies.‘

Whoever—be it the Education Minister who bears final responsibility or a Ministry official—is found guilty by a court of law for causing a financial loss to the state faces a jail sentence.

How many years? Take your guess. Former Minister Mahindananda receives 25 years for importing carrom boards and distributing them to sports clubs islandwide. In having to reprint a section of English modules for Grade 6 students islandwide, how many years in prison do you think a judge will give?