The week that was...

The week that passed was indeed eventful. Some University students were at it again, at the campuses, Grants Commission, on the streets and with a physical attack on Ruhunu University's Vice Chancellor. In France, there were mass strikes against pension reforms and before that on the implementation of the Burka ban. There were fears of students getting into revolt, like it was in the sixties with the Coup de etudiant.

Sang his song

All of this brought back memories of our own university days. We were at the Keleniya University, at the time called Viyalankara University. Minister I M R A Iriyagolla, translator of the French novel Les Miserabels as Manuthapaya and lyricist of the patriotic song Loken Utum Rata Lankawai fame, was the then Education Minister. He made all schoolchildren sing his song at their school assemblies and the national anthem then went into hibernation.

We had the privilege of being the first batch to enter the earlier institution of Buddhist learning, the Vidyalankara Pirivena, which was upgraded to university status spearheaded by the very amiable and colourful political personality Dr Wijayananda Dahanayake. Like it was at our twin institution, Vidyodaya, now Sri Jayawardenapura University, we came in with General Advanced Level examination results and had the unique privilege of being the first co-ed batch to enter the institution. Wow! It was we who ushered in girls to what was described by a Pirivena period Kurutu Gee poet as "Kathun nathi katharaka athara mang wee sitiyemu apa" (Lost in a desert without any women around).

University students at a protest rally. File photo

Iriyagolla was autocratic and we had lots of youthful energy to spare on him. It was 1968 and student activism was at a height, like it had been never before on the international arena. We had teachers the likes of Reggie Siriwardene, Gaminie Hatthotuwegama, Professor F R Jayasuriya, Tilak Ratnakara, Ranjith Gunawardena, Lakshman Fernando and the youthful Chandrasiri Palliyaguru who all kept us abreast of what was happening around the world at large.

The global student revolt that began in Paris spread all over the world. Daniel Cohen Bendit, a student of Germanic origin was the leader of the movement in France. He later became a European Parliamentarian, keeping true to his days of activism. In Sri Lanka, the first ever organized inter-university student protest movement came into being, with the Colombo and Peradeniya Universities much in to it. M A Justin, G D I Dharmasekera (now an Anagarika), Mahinda Wijesekera, Neville Perera, V K Nanayakkara, Malcolm Vijithapala and Vitus Fernando are the other key student leaders of the time whose names come into my mind.

No puppetry

Our student leaders were truly home grown. The Samajawadi Sishya Sangamaya, Samawadi Sishya Sangamaya and Nidahas Sishya Sangamaya, were the formal registered student associations. They represented the left, right and the centre and it made good sense. There were supposed political party affiliations for each of these sangamayas. Yet, there were no acts of puppetry on student reactions, by any one of them at the time.

A case in point is how I, who did not belong to any organized political party at any time in my life, was invited to be the senior treasurer of the Samajawadi Sishya Sangamaya, when I was later serving on the university's academic staff.

Seeds of resent

I recall one of our key leaders Sena Yaddehige. He, like most of us was in it as we sincerely believed that students needed to have social justice. Don't ask me to define the social justice we sought. For I could not have done it then, nor can I now. Yet, it was just three years thereafter that we saw the first ever youth revolt take place in Sri Lanka in 1971. Even we were oblivious to the germination of the seeds of that resent that gave birth to this new front at the time.

Dr Sena is today, the owner of one of the largest business conglomerates in Sri Lanka employing thousands of people and is an accomplished business person internationally. Then, there were others in other universities and our own. Some became politicians and even ministers, often switching sides from the 'socialist' to the 'capitalist' camp from time to time. Yet, others served as school teachers, lawyers, bankers, administrators, dramatists and professional writers. I was on my part in charge of media and public relations of our student movement. A skill I horned somewhat, thanks to the several close encounters we had to manage in the process of our activities.

Beginning of the end

What we perhaps wanted then, was recognition as youth for who we were and for what we were. No political agenda of overturning governments. We were happy with our victim; Iriyagolla, the Minister of Education. Our justification came from a book Bendit wrote, we read in English and shared with others the way we knew how. It's title The Beginning of the End.

Our demand was to encounter authority and present our 'just' demands. More lecture halls, hostels for the girls, a better library, autonomy for the universities from the UGC etc. This was not for TV cameras. There was none of it then. We had to have demands to agitate and I recall how each committee member contributed one. The minister in his arrogance refused to see us. It then had to be coup de etudiant, Sri Lanka style.

Without breaking the law of unlawful assembly, we gathered at an appointed time at Education Ministry then located at Malay Street, Slave Island. We came in ones, twos and threes. At 10.30 am on that day, we were several hundred students inside the Ministry sitting on the ground surrounding the Minister's office and his official vehicle. We sat in protest, seeking the meeting, placards in hand, shouting slogans.

A senior police officer with good PR skills approached us to perhaps drive some sense into all of that. I recollect vividly, that he was mild-mannered and pleasant. We were a mob and mob psychology was at play. He was hooted down. Minutes later a whole battalion of policemen marched in, armed with shield and baton (Kullai pollai).

It was the command 'Charge' that started the merciless beating. The sprinters, wrestlers and the meek among us were beaten in different degrees and it was each fending for each, until our regrouping in front of the Lake House. Speeches made, several other bloody incidence and the 'struggle' went on for several weeks later, growing into being an islandwide student agitation.

Lessons left unlearnt

Space would not permit me to give a broader analytical account of what it all meant to us then as young university students. My intent is not to belittle the power of student agitation but to draw on lessons learnt or left unlearnt by us as students and the authorities in governance then. Just three years later Sri Lanka saw the first ever youth insurrection take place and the emergence of the JVP. With it came sweeping changes in the whole canvass of student politics in our universities and indeed in the rest of our body-polity.

Like fever is but a symptom of illness and not the illness itself, we need to realize that student or youth agitation in any form is not the problem, but is the manifestation of the existence of fault-lines. A problem our leaders will want to address with much understanding, a sense of urgency, resilience and firm resolve.