I refer to my colleague R. P. Perera’s letter (Sunday Island, 23 Jan, 2005) — Tsunami — Early warning, on the ‘asinine’ (ass-like) comments of Tissa Vitarana, so-called Minister of Science & Technology (Heaven forbid) on the holidaying journalists journalists and public servants — notably those in charge of emergency services in this country such as the earthquake monitoring services.

I remember listening to a public lecture given by a senior professor of the Peradeniya University, sometime ago, on the constraints that science in Sri Lanka faces. He quite rightly pointed out how administrators in charge of science in this unfortunate country are the main cause of the ruin of science through their maladministration. Vitarana’s gaffe is a fine example of such maladministration. Our teaching of science is already bad, but with people like TV in charge of science, there is no future at all for the little science that we have, to grow into proportions that would contribute to the survival, let alone the growth of our science and, hence, of this poor country.