End this agonizing wait!
As the work stoppage by
our university Dons exceeds one month, the question on the minds
of many an undergraduate and parent is, when the prolonged and
intense agony of waiting for a resolution to this crisis is
going to end. Apparently, there does not seem to be any sense of
urgency among those concerned to resolve the problem. The
observer is compelled to infer that neither of the major parties
to the issue, the striking Dons nor the state, are particularly
inclined to negotiate a quick end to the crisis, because their
immediate interests are in no way undermined by the continued
stand-off. Hopefully, this line of thinking will be proved
wrong. The strike by our Dons should be considered an issue of
the first magnitude and resolved expeditiously, since it is
causing intense agony to the waiting undergraduates and their
parents.
The majority of the latter care very deeply for the future of
their children and could be said to be enduring this crisis in
mute distress. May be, they too must be expressive and impress
on the Dons as well as the state that this state of affairs
cannot be allowed to continue but be satisfactorily resolved.
Even from a broader national interest viewpoint, the crisis
cannot be allowed to prolong itself. Our best minds are needed
to sustain the productive sectors of the local economy and this
cannot come to pass if our students are compelled to languish at
home for no fault of theirs and denied the opportunity of
obtaining their educational qualifications in time.
Besides, it needs to be considered that a modern
industrialized society is impossible without the search for new
knowledge and competencies. These important needs cannot be met
if our seats of higher learning are to be paralyzed and
incapacitated. Accordingly, it would not be an exaggeration to
state that the national interest is being imperiled by strikes
of this kind, which are not quickly resolved. In fact, the
striking academics need to take the national interest deeply
into consideration, now that their negotiations with the
government seem to be deadlocked. We hardly need tell them that
this state of paralysis in which our universities are finding
themselves would not be doing the Dons or the country any good.
We call on the Dons to be flexible for the purpose of nudging
forward the negotiating process. The academics could be assured
that the state is not engaging in a 'beggar thy neighbour'
policy on this issue.
The state is for a 'win-win' solution to this problem and
such an approach offers opportunities which should be wisely
used to advance the interests of all concerned.
Therefore, we call for a constructive mindset on the part of
all relevant parties to this issue, including the state, and
request that the national interest be focused on. This is on
account of the fact that it is only such a focus which would
enable the parties to abandon particular and narrow interests
and arrive at a consensual solution which would satisfy all
stakeholders to the issue at hand. It is only a national
perspective which would enable the parties to focus on
commonalities rather than press for the furtherance of selfish
interests.
The parties to the issue also need to focus on the human
questions of relevance. The strikers and the state could afford
to prolong the stalemate somewhat because they are by no means
the main sufferers in this confrontation. It is the students and
their parents who are being made to suffer intensely and grimly
on account of the delay in arriving at a solution. Therefore, we
call on the sides to be motivated by a sense of humanity from
now on and arrive at a consensual solution, so as to ending the
agony of the students and their close kith and kin.
In fact, all those strikers on our streets today, protesting
and projecting numerous causes, need to consider the enormous
harm they are doing to the national and common interest by
adopting an attitude of obduracy and confrontation. Such
approaches only have the effect of hardening attitudes and of
making a policy of give-and-take impossible to adopt.
Accordingly, the time seems ripe for a 'humanizing' of these
protests and strike actions. To be sure, patience of people
usually wares thin, if the state is unmoved by what are seen as
just causes, but the adoption of constructive approaches by
strikers could enable them to engage the state more easily.
However, the state too is obliged to be flexible and
constructive in resolving contentious questions. |