Campus politics

Campuses are seats of learning, expected to mould the character of young educated, places where the future leaders of the country are to be groomed. However, judging by what has been taking place in this country for some time, it appears that the youth in the campuses of this country tend to forget that they are only the ‘future’ leaders, if at all, and thus in the process tend to usurp the role of leadership quite prematurely.

Why do campus students in Sri Lanka revolt against the prevailing leadership more as a rule than as an exception? Why do they feel that their current leadership is always wrong and unreasonable and that only they know what is best for them and for the country? This is a question of national importance that deserves examining, deciphering and analysis by the country’s best thoughts.

Student unrest

The history of university student unrest in this country dates back to the 60s and it reached a peak in the 1970s. In 1976, a student at the Peradeniya campus was shot dead by the police during an agitation and the event was so politicized to be considered the precursor to the fall of Bandaranaike government in 1977.

That time the university students just disapproved everything that strongman of that government, Felix R Dias Bandaranaike did and he was made to appear incorrigible, indomitable and intransigent! But today with time there is a change of heart and there is wide acceptance of the thankless services rendered to the nation by that upright and honest Felix Dias Bandaranaike during those difficult times of our nation.

In the same vein it should be a matter of interest to find out where those agitating students are today? Are those just and righteous people among our present day politicians and bureaucrats?

This brings us to the question of who has been wrong, unreasonable and unjust all this while; is it those in authority or is all these ‘wrongs’ some imaginary state created due to the utopian aspirations entertained by the youth? Youth is the time of passion, for dreams, for exuberance and the time that you feel that sky is the limit. It is also the time that you think that you know everything about everything. Young world is a world without barriers and limits. However, when people advance in age they begin to realize the limits of everything. To start with, we realize the limits of our own physical selves as we mature and then we begin to see everything in a more realistic perspective.

University system

We did learn in our youth but it is only in maturity that we understand the value of what we learnt. We realize how stupid we have been in demanding a just world when nature brings everything to this world by sheer chance. We realize that this so called generation gap is just another name for ‘ignorance’ and ‘lack of maturity’! Thus, we see that this unrest is more a problem of the youth than a problem of the university system and even if these present rebelling youth are allowed to takeover the university administration there would still be demonstrations, protests walks and boycotting of lectures.

Now, having come to the conclusion that unrest is inherent in youth, what course of action should the authorities take to keep this unrest at a manageable level? How do they mange such situations in universities of other countries? My eldest son had to join a university in the States because he was not fortunate to get a placement in a local university. Today he is studying for his Masters and since he had never mentioned about an unrest in his university for the past five years I casually posed this issue of university unrest in Sri Lanka to him. “Appachchi, all this unrest is because these fellows in Sri Lanka do not have to work eight hours like me and then study another eight hours. So they have quite a lot of spare time at their disposal to indulge in politics.” This response shook me and woke me up from my romantic dream with regard to free education in Sri Lanka.

CWW Kannangara introduced Free Education to Sri Lanka to have a level playing field in national education. However if Kannagara comes to know that the system he introduced with best intentions is today being abused to instill unrest with passionate politics he would certainly not hesitate to prescribe a ‘period of national duty’ to every candidate who seeks free education. After all, it is human nature to discount anything that is offered free!

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