Dharmapala Senaratne’s letter (The Island, 29 August) raises interesting, but sad to say, valid points. Firstly, we must learn to distinguish between local "Professors" and their counterparts in advanced countries that have meaningful systems of education and appropriate appointments to their universities. As I can judge from conversations with my numerous friends in academia in this country, a "Professor" should represent the highest in the academic scale. But neither our educational process nor our selection procedures, so it seems, will produce those individuals in this country. For one thing, I am entertained to hear from my friends about the hare- brained "points scheme" of the UGC for appointment of "Professors". It should be like my mosquito net which should keep out the pestilential mosquitoes, but it is, like the UGC ‘points scheme’, so full of holes that these vermin just creep in. So how on earth can we ensure that our "Professors" are intellectuals, worthy of their post and make sane and vital contributions to our national scene? Till such time, if it ever comes, we have a price to pay, as Mr. Senaratne says, and what, a price it is just now.

As for "intellectuals", there isn’t a more abused word in our national media, especially the press, and that includes letters from writers who should know better what the word "intellectual" means. It also reflects on the gullibility of the public who keep writing ad nauseam about this "intellectual" and that "intellectual" in our country. This is not the place for a discussion of what an "intellectual" is. One of my academic friends made me read a book on this topic, Edward W. Said’s "Representations of the Intellectual" and after reading that, it was painful for me to conclude that we have exceedingly few intellectuals visible in this country, but have instead cartloads of all-too-visible pseudo-intellectuals especially of the ‘media’ variety. Some of them are self-confessedly, so I am told, very fond of publicity. What a cheap way to establish their credentials! It is curious that they did not feature in the skit of yesteryear, Always Breakdown. The very few true intellectuals we have, and certainly we have them, would justifiably, but sadly, prefer to remain silent lest they be lumped with the pseudo-intellectuals, if they made contributions in the daily press or on television, while the illiterate public on the other hand might not be able to discriminate between the quality of the comments of these two groups - the true intellectuals and the pseudo-intellectuals.

My plea is to the managers of the press and television, and then to the public, to try to learn to discriminate between post-seeking, power-hungry pseudo-intellectuals and those few, genuine intellectuals whose contributions to our degenerate society we sorely need.
Stephen Bamunusinghe,
Kandy.