Quality
in Action
This
one is for our Commissioner of Elections and his cohorts!
I
give a background of my entry into Quality in action.
From
selection to execution it has to be perfect.
In
other words Total Quality Management (TQM) of elections without fear
psychosis (especially for Tamils and Muslims).
We
do not won’t extraordinary measures but strict laid down (written
instructions form declaration of intent to final closure and 10 days
afterward) procedures (especially for police and I do not fear the armed
forces).
If
he has to shoot on the head (not below knee as stated) and eliminate
them, be that so, we need to wean out bad genes before procreation
and repetition for future generations to suffer.
Let
me start with one of my school teachers (I was instrument in chasing
him out from our school).
He ended up in politics and cut a sorry figure.
He published, university intellectual property belonged to the
university as of his own.
Thanks
to JRJ who demolished English department and Pali department, this
guy became famous.
This guy was recording the committee stage
discussions of over 50 guys’ and girls’ intellectual property and
he took the written notes home (never acknowledged as co-authors,
which is a standard procedure in the universities) and published them
as his own.
Stealing
intellectual property at the highest level (not an offense in this
country).
He
ended up in quality control unit of the government and when I visited
this institute many years after his retirement there was not a single
balance (quality assured) in that unit (I verified personally).
Then
to nepotism in style.
I
was interested in becoming a reserved air force officer (seconded
officer) as a young guy.
I
loved flying or be with the flying guys, including drones and dragon
flies.
I
applied with few others and followed the papers to its final
destination for selections.
I
had all the qualifications including sports, cadeting, the height, the
chest and the rest.
Sometime
later, I heard a guy who was six inches shorter was selected (that to
state that I am not a short guy and could clear a good distance in
long jump; once I bettered the university (not national) champion’s
jump by a few inches).
I
did not pursue this any further and left this country in the first
opportunity I had (but never to return home was in the back of my
mind).
Many
moons later, I met this guy who had retired as a brigadier but never
served in combat zone (thank god they have to retire at 55 years).
I
ended up as a flying doctor (that the level of my perseverance) in New
Zealand.
I chose the remotest hospital in there where local guys hate
to serve with a good air strip and an annual air show.
New
Zealand has over 20 off shore islands.
They
may be bad in cricket but excellent in haka and flying small
aircrafts.
I
joined a leading private hospital in Colombo (before my sojourn
abroad) and took over the laboratory performing badly in techniques
and performance.
I told the management that the hospital should enter
the National Quality Award and I will train them with the help of a
quality guy (recruited by me and paid him hefty) and I need three
months of training myself. I entered for a seminar organized by a
lady, through a paper advertisement (forget from where she came, not
from the standard bureau, I visited personally) by shear chance
occurrence.
This
where I got a chance to have a head on clash with air force guys who
followed the same course.
They
had just won the quality award.
The
same year they lost all but one aircraft in combat with LTTE in
Jaffna.
I
told them you don’t practice what you preach and surely you should
practice quality (never to lose one), at least with foreign aid.
They
did improve drastically some years later.
I
was happy then, that I never got a officer batch to adorn, myself.
I
took a little bite at the expense of the trainees.
Suffice
is to say they became pals.
My
teacher did not have quality.
The
air force did not have quality approach and probably army in the
distant past (used to kill JVP guys) did not.
The
standard bureau did not.
The
private hospital did not.
University
did not.
Within
three months I transformed the Unit to be the best in Colombo
overtaking the rival laboratory run by a guy (not a doc) from Kandy.
I
checked quality procedures with a Singapore institute.
A
guy would go to Singapore every Friday (chemical tests) fly back on
Saturday and would also purchase the best equipments available at that
time (training done by the company who delivered the gadgets).
I
was lucky to join the university under Professor Ranjith Mendis and
twisted him arm to introduce Quality Teaching in Peradeniya.
We
established a Quality Forum, it went into defunct state within three
months of Rail becoming PM under Chandrika.
Now
my grouse with the Ranil Wicramasinghe who like JRJ wants to destroy
the universities (not only Pali and language departments, which JRJ
initiated) is that he replaced Professor Ranjith and also the
university reforms envisaged -long term- by the team of University
Dons.
He
put a stooge with no knowledge in Quality and University Education as
the UGC Chairman and his selection of Ministers of Education is
arbitrary.
Good
guys are leaving and bad guys are coming to roost.
By the way I visited the private hospital years later for courtesy call and sadly quality had a nose dip with an Indian guy running the place.
