Voicing their concerns about the future of their children's education in Qatar, Parents of school children of Stafford Sri Lanka Doha School accused President Maithripala Sirisena for the ongoing debacle that has thrown the future of over 1000 Sri Lankan children into a world of uncertainty.
Two days ago the government of Sri Lanka headed by President Maithripala Sirisena empowered the current ambassador A.S.P. LIyanage to officially make a complaint to the Ministry of Interior to have the current founder / Chairman Kumudu Fonseka deported from Qatar in their quest to forcibly take over the school.
The school currently has over Rs 500 million in its bank account.
Chairman Fonseka was summoned to the Criminal Investigation Department and given an ultimatum based on the orders of the Ministry of Interior.
An employee of the school speaking on condition of anonymity said "Chairman Kumudu Fonseka went to meet the authorities around 9:30 pm last Wednesday. He was given an ultimatum. 'Be deported, languish in jail in Qatar or provide a written statement that you will have nothing to do with the school anymore' he was told. He chose to provide the assurance that he will walk away and submitted a letter to the Ministry of Interior that he won’t have anything to do anymore with the school he himself founded 18 years ago and walked away."
Prior to going to meet the CID Chairman Fonseka sent a message to parents of the school children which read " I will be prisoned today. I have reason to be sad".
Lanka News Web attempted to contact the local sponsor Yusuf Fridoni. However a source close to Fridoni said " Yusuf Fridoni does not wish to speak to any media on this topic. He is angered with the entire Sri Lankan community here in Qatar for the bad publicity ambassador A.S.P.Liyanage has caused to the school and for even tarnishing his good name. He started this free of charge because of his friendship with Kumudu Fonseka and was pleased for the progress the school had made over the last 18 years. It is commonly know that Chairman Fonseka and his Board of Trustees have done an honorary service for 18 long years and he is an honest man. Not a single person can come forward and say that Fonseka or his Board of Trustees have stolen a red cent. They have been people of integrity. Appointed Ambassadors to a country should be running consular affairs not schools. For example Qatar opened its borders for over 80 nationalities to enter its country without visas. Sadly Sri Lanka is not part of that group of 80 countries. He should be canvassing and obtaining things of such nature for the people of Sri Lanka. Even with Qatar experiencing a blockade from four countries including neighbors such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, he has not initiated any trade from Sri Lanka to mitigate the issues Qatar faces. I am aware the ambassador is after the funds that are available in the bank account that belongs to children of this school. Yusuf Fridoni said he will ensure that he will not release a single Qatari Riyal to this politically appointed stooge."
Earlier on the 6th of July 2018 Ambassador Liyanage arrived at the school premise with a requested police escort and hood winked the local sponsor Yusuf Fridoni stating he has a court order to obtain the keys belonging to the Stafford Sri Lanka School Doha.
He thereafter placed private security belonging to another Sri Lankan Pantain Perera and ransacked the entire school office breaking the safes and stealing monies and vital documents. He then ordered the name boards of the school be taken down and replaced with a new name calling it Sri Lanka Community School.
Stafford Sri Lanka School Doha was founded in 2001 and is governed by a constitution and run by an elected group headed by Chairman and Founder Kumudu Fonseka and a board of Trustees.
However Ambassador Liyanage has now appointed his own Chairman a Sri Lankan expatriate named Roshan Balasooriya.
It is commonly known among the Sri Lankan community in Doha that Roshan Balasooriya was once immensely helped by Chairman Kumudu Fonseka and the Stafford Sri Lanka School Doha with huge financial assistance to treat his child who has a speech and hearing defect.
However with no prior experiencing in running affairs of a school and its curriculum parents of students of Stafford Sri Lanka School Doha are in a quandary about their childrens educational future.
Speaking to a cross section of parents Lanka News Web was told the following strictly on condition of anonymity as they were worried to speak out in the open due to ambassador Liyanage's threats made to the community:
“This is the only Sri Lankan school we have here in Doha. Thanks to Chairman Kumudud Fonseka we have the opportunity of educating our children here in Qatar and remaining united as a family. Now we don’t know what the future holds for us as schooling in other schools is very expensive"
“Sadly we have no rights in this country as we are mere expatriates who are employees working for various companies. We can be deported from the country if we speak out openly as this arrogant ambassador Liyanage who is protected by diplomatic immunity will file a case against us and have us deported like what he has now done to our Chairman Kumudu Fonseka"
"Chairman Kumudu Fonseka personally helped me when I was struggling financially to pay my child's school fees. He continued to provide us assistance with our child's education till I was financially able to settle outstanding fees"
"The change of school name has a huge bearing on our children's documentation".
"My child was planning to follow the O/Level study programme during the summer holidays here in Doha as the exams are to be held in December. Now thanks to our stupid ambassador Liyange even those schedule classes have ben stopped depriving my child of receiving that education".
Despite all the on goings parents were summoned to meet Ambassador Liyanage and his illegally appointed new Chairman Roshan Weerasooriya and new committee.
A parent who attended the meeting this morning speaking to Lanka News Web said "Ambassador A.SP. Liyanage started off by saying good evening to everyone present when in fact it was 9 o'clock in the morning. Then he started off by claiming to be a good Christian of the Catholic faith. Thereafter he spoke about himself for a considerable period of time and there was no proper agenda for the meeting. Strangely when queries were made about the breaking of the school's safe and stealing of monies after they forcibly took over the shcool physically on the 6th of July 2018, Ambassador Liyanage stated that the safe was broken and monies stolen by Tennyson Silva who owns a chain of Sri Lankan Restaurants named ' White Oceanic' It was a total waste of our time. President Maithripala Sirisena will have hell to pay for what he has done especially to the children and caused so much of heart ache to all of us Sri Lanka expatriates living here so peacefully all this time. He can be rest assured his numbers in office are numbered. We voted him in and it is us who will now vote him out too. If he has any love for his people in Qatar he should take back this arrogant Ambassador of a thug back to Colombo and send us a career diplomat instead. That's the least he could do at this time for us".