Exercise a spirit of compromise

The response of the state to the crisis created by the university Dons' agitation which has shut down our universities should be public knowledge by now, and it is clear that the government is making some effort to redress the grievances of the striking academics. There are a number of interesting provisions in the joint memorandum put forward to the Cabinet for its approval by the Economic Development and Higher Education Ministers, and we call on our Dons to give the document deep thought instead of merely perpetuating their protest. There could very well be points of contention in the memorandum but the way out is not to adopt a confrontational attitude towards the state but to resolve them through a process of dialogue between the parties.

As we could see it, there needs to be a spirit of compromise between the striking university teachers and the government. If the intention of the strikers is not to harm the national interest but to further it, they would sit at the negotiating table with the state and arrive at amicable settlements to their issues.

We call on the parties to focus exclusively on a 'win-win' solution, without losing sight of the fact that the intended settlement should also be in accord with the public good. We do not intend to go into the so-called nitty-gritty of the memorandum but wish to point out that universities which remain shut bode ill for a country. Such a distressing situation is symbolic of a breakdown in a country's intellectual and scholarly activity and we need hardly add that this is indicative of alarming retrogression and cultural and spiritual backwardness. The people of this country are bound to find this state of affairs very reprehensible and saddening. We know for a fact that this sorry situation is driving many an undergraduate to despair. It is hard to believe that our academic community could even for a moment forget that they are standard bearers in society. It is up to them to conduct themselves in the most exemplary and inspiring fashion, but right now they give the impression of having lost all their moral bearings.

The suffering of others can never be a means to an end but the striking Dons seem to be thinking so. We hope we will be proved wrong on this score and that the Dons will enter into a process of robust and meaningful dialogue with the state and resolve their issues in a spirit of give-and-take once and for all.

While some of the demands put forward by the strikers cannot be resolved in the short term, some others could be and we call on the state to address their minds to the latter matters so as to hastening the re-opening of our universities.

The striking academics should feel reassured that their salary grievances, for instance, would be resolved in the near future, if we are to entertain any hope of the universities launching academic activities once again.

However, ideally, the academics and the state should also enter into a meaningful and result-oriented dialogue on the role of higher educational institutions in the furtherance of the national good. The Dons in particular should set for themselves norms and values from which they would not depart in the course of their diurnal activities.

For instance, they should ensure that the best interests of the students are served at all times. Besides, the academics should see strike action as wasteful and destructive of the public good.

We call on the parties to this crisis to act with a tremendous sense of urgency.

Our minds are taken back to those dark days of the late eighties and early nineties when our universities were crippled for what seemed to be an eternity. In that crisis all were losers and very bad ones at that.

A recurrence of this situation should be avoided and the relevant parties have it in them to prevent such a catastrophe.