Engineering, fundamental to global advancement

Text of the speech made by the President of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka, Eng. (Dr) Ananda Ranasinghe soon after his induction as the President 2011/2012 Eng. (Dr) Ranasinghe was inducted as the President of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka (IESL) for the Session 2011/2012, at the inauguration of its 105th Annual Sessions at the BMICH on October 21st.

He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka, a Corporate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, London and an Associate of the Institution of Structural Engineers, UK. He is also an Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme Court. The inaugural speech of the new President by which he outlined his plans and strategies in steering the Institution towards achieving its stated goals in keeping with its stated vision and mission is carried below.

Continued from January 3

They appear to exert an influence in the formulation of policies and in the direction of events, whereas we engineers remain in the background and at most are occasionally asked for advice on a project of national importance which has been initiated by our lay brothers and sisters. This has to be changed.

A degree course in engineering is one of the most demanding of university courses, with considerable analytical content but possibly with only a limited concentration on the wider scene and on the use and application of the written and spoken word.

Engineers at a construction site. File photo

It is perhaps unfortunate, that we do not learn language skills in our seats of learning. Effective understanding and even more effective communication is vital in our professional and business life.

The English language is one of the greatest assets which we should nurture and cherish.

Therefore I will make an effort to improve the language skills of our engineers.

When engineers meet, they talk about engineering experiences, problems and solutions, because we are intensely interested in and enthralled by our profession, and have little interest in affairs beyond our own boundaries. We tend to ignore other professions and the politicians. Our apparent failure in our search for status could well be echoed by Cassius in Julius Caesar: 'The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves...'. Acceptance in the social order is transient, largely dependent on public acclaim, and certainly in the popularity ratings of today is the pop star, TV actor and the professional cricketer who are well ahead of the engineer.

Fast-changing world

However, it was not always so, and Kulasinghe, Rampala, Wimalasurendra and Ray Wijewardene were relatively well-known household names in their days and were held in high esteem in society and were considered to be great benefactors to the nation. They were honoured by the nation and their great works were very well acknowledged.

Our status and our self-esteem, call it what you will, lies within ourselves - there is no Holy Grail for which we must search, on finding the prestige which we seek.

Our status is dependent on ourselves alone and can only be earned by our own exertions and our integrity within our chosen profession.

It is by strength of character, by independence, integrity and mental courage and vision that we could impress. If we engineers are to make a greater impact on our society, then we too must penetrate the confining boundaries of technology into the wider world of influence.

I would like to remind you of the theme of my address, 'Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better'.

We live in a fast-changing world and there is no doubt that to survive in the confused seas of changing social and professional philosophies we must have the courage to set our sails to take full advantage of the veering winds of change.

Council members

I would also like to mention something about an important event that occurred recently in our institution, that is the annual elections that we held in order to select the members for the Council.

It is extremely disappointing that there are at least six positions for which nobody has contested.

This is not a very good situation. We are boasting about our numbers when we say that we have 14,000 members, out of which I presume at least 5,000 are corporate members. The participation in Council activities and other functions of the IESL is extremely poor.

However, there are a lot of critics from the membership stating that the Council does not perform. It should be noted that all the work that is done by the Council members are voluntary, and apart from this the members have to incur expenditure on travelling and sometimes spend three to four hours at a meeting or function.

Therefore, I request especially the young members, to participate in these meetings and other activities of the IESL.

Sometimes it is embarrassing to note that there are only a very few people attending the memorial lectures which we have organized to honour our past engineers.

If we do not protect the institution there will be nobody to protect us.

It is depressing to mention that there are a few members who are working against the interests of the IESL, which was evident when we met the ministers and other politicians to get our Act amended and to get the Registration of Engineers Act recognized.

The Institution always recognizes its members whether they have enrolled from the University or any other institution, as long as they have fulfilled the requirements necessary to obtain corporate membership.

Therefore please join hands with the institution and support our activities. It is very encouraging to us when a person enters as a student and completes his professional examination conducted by the IESL. We are proud of such achievements.

We want our professional engineers to be competent to work anywhere in the world and not second to any other foreign engineer. Unity is our strength.

There are many works ahead of us which have to be completed and implemented and I need your cooperation and commitment to fulfil these goals. I wish you all the best."

Concluded