University unrest posers

While the continued unrest in some local universities is a matter for deep concern, considerable satisfaction could be derived from the fact that the university system in general is continuing unhampered. Except for the Jayawardhanapura University, which has apparently turned out to be a hotbed of student unrest, and the Rajarata University Medical Faculty, academic activities are being carried out without interruption in most other universities at present and the hope of the public is likely to be that things would continue this way.

However, there could be no room for complacency on these issues and we urge the authorities to study them in depth prior to taking what may seem to be remedial action. While there seem to be grounds to believe that the current bout of undergraduate unrest is, for the most part, politically-motivated, addressing student hopes and aspirations on a systematic basis could prove invaluable in neutralizing the disruptive behaviour of students.

If some undergraduates are proving susceptible to the designs of scheming political forces, it is mainly because they see their futures as bleak. It is such perceptions that need to change if students are to prove less manipulable.

As could be seen, ragging is continuing to stalk some of our universities and this disease of the mind is at the bottom of many of the current university crises.

One does not need to be a professional psychiatrist to discern that it is continuing frustration and the perception that ones future is not as bright as it should be that generates in a person, resentment towards the authorities and ones fellow students. These are the roots of the sadistic behaviour which is euphemistically termed ragging.

While evil cannot be condoned and ragging is an unmitigated evil, the policy and decision-makers may need to think of ragging in a holistic way if we are to bring the malaise within containable limits. If base conduct is brought about by self-hate and the perception that ones socio-economic aspirations are being frustrated, then, improving the material lot of our undergraduates is one very important way of controlling the evil of ragging.

Thus, the country needs to forge steadily ahead on the development path if we are to guard against the outbreak of behavioural anomalies, such as, 'ragging'. This is indeed happening and the prospects of the people are brighter than they used to be some decades ago, but our current material improvements need to translate quickly into livelihoods and vocations, if the lot of the average youth is to improve further.

That said, it cannot be denied that undergraduate unrest is also considerably bound-up with the politics of the larger society. The most disturbing and graphic illustration of this link-up was the bloody student upheaval of the late eighties and the early nineties which ensured the prolonged closure of our seats of higher learning. Those have been the worst of times, so far, from the point of view of student agitational behaviour and it should be the endeavour of all concerned to ensure that those gruesome times do not befall us once again.

The more impressionable and unexposed undergraduates have always fallen prey to disruptive, anti-democratic political forces in the larger society and the current agitational style of some sections of our undergraduates, lends credence to the view that they are being turned into cat's paws by anti-government elements.

Thus, the state is obliged to take all relevant law and order measures against these disruptive political forces, while listening empathetically to the legitimate grievances of our undergraduates.Come what may, this country cannot depart from the Rule of Law.

The state is duty-bound to ensure law and order and it may need to deal firmly with those forces which are intent on triggering social disorder. However, the state should also give evidence of being able to give ear to legitimate grievances.