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Thursday, 16 August 2012

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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.

‘Post-conflict recovery at a steady pace’ - Part II:

The importance of the LLRC

As Archbishop Desmond Tutu states: "As our experience in South Africa has taught us, each society must discover its own route to reconciliation. Reconciliation cannot be imposed from outside, nor can someone else's map get us to our destination: it must be our own solution.

Full Story

Socio-economic scene

Reforming government

When the various colonial powers invaded and conquered areas of Sri Lanka, they adopted a system of administration which was a mixture of that from the metropolitan country and that which already prevailed here.

Full Story

Sixteenth death anniversary of Prof. Sarachchandra today:

Integral dramatist, doyen among intellectuals

Among the Sri Lankan intellectuals engaged in the noble task, Ediriweera Sarachchandra ranks above most of his contemporaries. Through good and ill-fortune alike Sri Lanka has never lost sight of the quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. The achievement we celebrate in late Professor Sarachchandra is but a step, an opening of opportunity to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us,

Full Story

 

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