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by Subash Wickramasinghe

The UPFA Government has decided to offer 27,000 jobs for the unemployed graduates. This is a unique occasion where State takes it as its duty to offer jobs to graduates passed out from state universities. Before the election according to statistics there had been only 27,000 graduates unemployed and as a result UPFA promised to accommodate such number.

However according to figures appeared in the local press, up to date about 51,000 have applied. Among the applicants there had been applications from graduates employed in the private sector and undergraduates who are in the final year of the universities. A unique case where even before graduation they expect to be absorbed as graduates.

According to statistics there are about 12,000 vacancies under the Western Provincial Council and 6,000 in the Education sector. What the Government had in mind at that time seems to be to help the graduates who were unemployed. Hence the graduates should be really grateful to the government for creating a situation for them to be absorbed.

However, it is better to bear in mind that the State is not an employment agency and the voters or any employable citizens must not demand jobs from the State. What they should demand from the State is to have infrastructure in place. Create an environment suitable for investment. Nothing else is needed for the generation of jobs.

University undergraduates or for that matter any citizen who needs an opportunity to be gainfully employed should not look up to State to get employed. In Sri Lanka the education is free up to the graduation.

Once graduated it is the duty of the graduate to be gainfully employed. Why he cannot get employed with the strength of his degree is a different matter. Or for that matter that is the crux of the matter.

The duty of the State is to find out why the graduate cannot be gainfully employed without help from the State and remedy the situation but not act as an employment agency.

For example the mere offer to absorb unemployed graduates by the State, even under-employed or private sector employed graduates and the undergraduates in the university prompted to apply.

That is because Sri Lankan society expects everything from the State. For example the State has no option but to refuse an undergraduate in the final year about to be graduated, for this scheme of employment. Such an applicant will be rejected mainly because he is not a graduate at the time of submitting the application.

But he will become a suitable candidate later on. Can the State afford to offer employment to each and every graduate soon after his graduation? It cannot be done and they will feel discriminated. As far as they are concerned the State or the Government has ignored them or ill-treated them.

That is why it is said that it is not the duty of the State to find jobs for each and every suitable person. But create an environment suitable for generation of jobs. Put infrastructure in place then job opportunities will be generated.

The State includes both the government and the governed. Government is only the machinery through which the purposes of the State are to be realized.

It is said, "the State is an organization to enable the mass to men to realize social good on the largest possible scale. It exists of enable men, at least potentially, to realize the best that is in themselves. Men can be enabled to realize 'the best that is in themselves' only if the State provides rights. Rights are the groundwork of the State" - Harold Laski.

So the government as the machinery of the State has to provide the rights or groundwork that enables people to work. In other words government has to set the infrastructure in place and create an atmosphere suitable for entrepreneurs to invest. Such a situation automatically opens up avenues and generates employment opportunities for people to work. On the other hand job opportunities should not be created artificially.

Really speaking the granting of 27000 jobs in the State sector by this government becomes a unique event. What the government had done was to absorb the graduates as trainees and after the two-year training period to be enroled as fully trained graduates.

The intention of the government had been to create opportunities during the two-year training period to accommodate them after completing the training period.

That is why this government proposal becomes unique. What happens normally is the other way round.

First employment generating situations are built up in a certain period of time and then look for people to be enroled for opportunities thus created.

It is up to the State to create an environment suitable for investments and the much-needed infrastructure for such investors to carry on their businesses.

For example the road network is not at all suitable for transportation. The availability of electricity is restricted for urban and suburban areas.

Availability of pipe borne water is much to be desired. Telecommunication does not serve the purpose it is created for. Without these basic necessities in place, no investor would come in here to invest.

Sri Lanka is blessed with fine climatic condition right throughout the year. Linked with international air and sea-lanes the country is situated where East meets West. The country is renowned for its excellent literacy rate and the highly trained work force. If these natural traits are utilized to the benefit of the country, there won't arise a situation for the State to create jobs artificially.

It is a fact that majority of the unemployed graduates have selected Arts subjects for their degrees. These degrees are not aimed at the job market and hence they are unemployable. Though they carry a degree their employability is very low. To make matters worse they do not converse in English language. Their knowledge of English is next to nothing.

The university unionism has indirectly taught them to ignore English as it belongs to the elite. It is the elite that these graduates were being brainwashed to attack. Hence they de-taste the language and those who use it. Once out of the university they realize the power of the language but then it is too late.

On the other hand school leavers from Colombo schools do not find it that difficult find employment in the private sector.

But graduates find it almost impossible to get employed in the private sector. The reason for such disparity is the unbridgeable gap between the English and Sinhala language.

Even though the official language is Sinhala language the private sector works in English language and the State sector in Sinhala language.

Hence the school leaver who speaks in English gets better treatment even though he is not a graduate. The graduate when speaking in Sinhala language cannot beat the school leaver and will not get selected.

The English speaking person can go up the ladder by getting professional qualifications in the relevant field. The graduate stagnates in a government corporation.

In a way that is the type of lifestyle this type of graduates wish. They are not pushy enough to go forward.

They consider themselves second class or suffer from inferiority complex in the English speaking society. With their inherent drawback they prefer to be in the State sector and demand for rights through work stoppages.

Whereas the English speaking person uses his language knowledge to further enhance his ability to get promotions but the graduate employee uses the trade union weapon to get his promotions.

It is because the graduates know their abilities and disabilities that they go on even death fasts to obtain state sector employment. They know they are safe there and can work within their abilities.

In order to erase this type of self imposed discrimination, State could offer facilities to non-English speaking graduates to be trained in languages and put infrastructure in place to create an environment suitable for its citizens to obtain a decent employment.

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