Memories of Early Years

Mohamed Muhsin, who also served as Vice President and CIO at the World Bank, fondly remembers his days at Trinity College, his first assignment as a teacher at Trinity and his days as a journalist.

The Boy at Trinity College
Born in Kandy, M.V.Muhsin attended the elite Trinity College at Kandy, a school providing primary and secondary education and founded by the Anglican missionaries.

While at Trinity, he got involved with the Social Service Union by offering his services at a dispensary run by Trinity at Mahiayawa, which treated the poor and underprivileged. The seeds of working towards human development were first sown at Trinity.

At Trinity, he was also was the Head Prefect and was also awarded the Ryde Gold Medal (an annual award for the best student) in 1962. He was also the editor of the school magazine. Mohamed Muhsin wanted to pursue a career in medicine which eventually did not come to light. After his secondary education, he took up a teaching career with Trinity for a year.

Passion for Journalism
Being urged by his mother to pursue further studies, he migrated to Colombo to study Accountancy. Mohamed Muhsin is a Chartered Accountant and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka.
As he pursued his career in Accountancy, M.V.Muhsin also became extremely passionate about journalism. Journalism, according to Mohamed Muhsin, brings into us a discipline - a discipline of analysis, a discipline of meeting deadlines and a discipline of being balanced and of verifying your facts. He recollects his teaching career and life in journalism as the most satisfying periods in his life. He wrote articles for the Times of Ceylon. An incident worth recollecting is, when, the then Minister of Sport K.B. Ratnayake, changed the cricket team players after reading reviews from one of his sports columns.

Orator and Philanthropist
Mohamed Muhsin is involved in foundations which globally promotes the use of computer-related techniques to share knowledge. He is also the Vice Chairman of World Links, a global organization, which promotes computer literacy in schools in the developing world. Muhsin envisage a time when computers in Sri Lanka can be of great help to both children and the farmer.

Mohamed Muhsin is an eloquent speaker and has been a highly favored keynote speaker at global IT conferences. His speeches and articles have been great sources of inspiration to students, parents and teachers alike.

His love for cricket has led him to write several newspaper columns in Sri Lanka's National newspapers. Supporting the anti-tobacco campaigns in his article, To smoke or not to smoke, that is the question, he has provided specifics and the sentiment of people around the world towards the campaign. Another of his thought provoking articles Beg No More to a daily gives novel ways on poverty reduction.

M.V.Muhsin now lives in Washington DC., with his wife Sithy. She is an alumnus of Ladies' College, Colombo. Sithy runs a school in Sri Lanka. They have two children - daughter who is in New York and a son in San Francisco. He also has three grandsons. He takes part in philanthropic activities, some of which are in Kandy. Mohamed Muhsin is deeply religious and believes that the role played by humans in human development and economic development is God's own work.

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MPs line up behind early NDP leadership favourites

Four NDP MPs have come out in support of Thomas Mulcair in a leadership bid he hasn't actually declared yet.

At a two-day meeting with little news and few policy announcements, leadership quickly became the subject most people focused on.

The NDP's leadership nomination process officially began on Thursday.

Only Brian Topp, who is stepping down from his position as the party's president, has said he will run for the leadership.

On Thursday, Manitoba MP Niki Ashton added her name to the lengthy list of caucus members who are testing the leadership waters, including Nathan Cullen, Libby Davies, Paul Dewar, Peter Julian, Thomas Mulcair and Peggy Nash.

Pat Martin has also said he'll run if no other candidate is open to working with the Liberal Party, though he emphasized he's staying away from the word merger.

The NDP caucus was in Quebec City for planning and strategy meetings as they prepare to head back to the House of Commons next Monday.

Heading into Thursday's morning session, Quebec MPs Robert Aubin, Jamie Nicholls and François Lapointe stopped to say they support Mulcair for leader and hope he'll declare his candidacy.

"I'd like to encourage him to come out and declare because I think that there's a groundswell of support for him," Nicholls said.

Asked what constitutes a groundswell, Nicholls said he has "talked to a few people and they're ready to support Tom."

He said Mulcair did not ask him to declare his support.

Coming out of the morning meeting, Quebec MP Claude Patry also said he'll vote for Mulcair. Patry is a former union leader, potentially an important supporter for Mulcair, who leans to the right among NDP MPs.

Mulcair said Tuesday he wouldn't make an official announcement about his candidacy until he had lined up his campaign team.

"We're weighing all our options, we're looking at the types of people who can help us, we're getting a lot of support and encouragement across Canada. And when and if we do announce, it'll be with a full team capable of taking up the challenge of leading the Official Opposition," he said Wednesday.

Mulcair's declared supporters so far, however, are much lower profile than Topp's biggest booster, former NDP leader Ed Broadbent.

The Canadian Press is reporting that Romeo Saganash, an MP and Cree leader from northern Quebec who had been pondering his own leadership bid, is expected to throw his support behind Topp on Friday.

B.C. MP Peter Julian, who also is considering a leadership bid, picked up his first two endorsements Thursday.

"I think he'd make an excellent candidate," said Windsor, Ont., MP Brian Masse. "I think it's healthy to have a number of people in there."

Toronto MP Rathika Sitsabaiesan said she believes Julian would make "a good prime minister." She said the bilingual MP is personable, "brilliant and very articulate" and would be able to connect with folks at both the boardroom table and the kitchen table.

Turmel announced Wednesday rules requiring those with parliamentary or caucus functions to step down, although she left the deputy leader off the list of positions whose holders would have to give up their files during the race. That means high-profile critics, like foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar or finance critic Peggy Nash, would have to relinquish their titles while deputy leaders Mulcair and Davies could hang onto theirs.

At least two caucus members said they thought the deputy leaders were covered by that rule, leading to confusion as MPs left their morning meeting.

MPs, however, emphasized unity throughout interviews Tuesday and Wednesday, with officials saying they intend to focus on applying pressure to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government over the economy, and on outreach to hang onto supporters and win new ones.

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