The Hon. (Prof.) A.H.M.H. Abayarathna - Minister of Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Government
Hon. (Prof.) A.H.M.H. Abayarathna responded to a remark by Hon. Dayasiri Jayasekara regarding his use of the title “Professor.” He stated that after leaving university service he instructed officials not to use the title unless it was formally conferred as “Professor Emeritus,” and said the University of Kelaniya has since conferred that title on him. He clarified that departmental heads were notified through his Secretary and that no media notice was issued.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Madam Presiding Member, a short while ago Hon. Dayasiri Jayasekara made a statement about me which is not entirely correct. After I became Minister, some officials used “Professor” before my name. I served as Professor and later Senior Professor from 2009 to 2024. However, once you leave university service, you may use “Doctor” if earned, but “Professor” should only be used if conferred by the university as “Professor Emeritus.” Therefore I wrote to my Secretary instructing not to use “Professor” before my name. He notified departmental heads accordingly; there was no media notice. Subsequently, the University of Kelaniya conferred on me the title of Professor Emeritus in recognition of my service, after which I may use it. Thus the Hon. Member’s remark was a half-truth, not the full picture.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Friday, 8 May 2026 ·No. 23554 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
- Page · column
- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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Cite as: The Hon. (Prof.) A.H.M.H. Abayarathna - Minister of Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Government. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 8 May 2026. No. 23554. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/22756