“An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so. Now the law of nonviolence says that violence should be resisted not by counter-violence but by non violence. This I do by breaking the law and by peacefully submitting to arrest and imprisonment.” – Mahatma Gandhi
With the economic and political crises, the country is experiencing at the moment, Sri Lankan citizens, protesters, anti-protesters, and present trying to stop the protests alike, have to be careful in their decision-making process, especially since the country is basically at the mercy of donor agencies such as the IMF.
According to the IMF blog itself there have been reports of social unrest coming from about 130 countries this year including some advance economies such as Canada, France, and New Zealand.
They expect it to increase even further due to rising food and fuel prices around the world and that could pose a risk to the recovery of post-pandemic global economy. Therefore, it is the responsibility of every citizen to refrain from any activity that will work against the economic recovery of his/her own country, not to mention the repercussions of such actions on the world economy.
If Sri Lanka is to receive any support from the IMF or any other international organisation of it certainly will have to adhere to their requirements including a visible reduction of corruption, establishing transparency in Government activities, and respecting and protecting the rights of all the citizens.
The Supreme Court decision stating the unconstitutionality of the ‘Bureau of Rehabilitation’ bill may have been a step in the right direction to show the international community that at least the judiciary is acting responsibly in Sri Lanka. If the law makers are only trying to suppress the protest movements instead of trying to understand the root causes of the sentiment or if the protesters’ only intention is to disrupt the government, then outcome, for the whole country, will be negative.
Freedom
Most of the political protests around the world have been initiated or led by citizens between 18 and 40 years of age which included university students.
There are several reasons such as: the freedom they experience coming out of school systems, improved knowledge through university education, fear of not having a better standard of living in the future yet not being afraid of getting punished for their behaviour, feeling that their rights are being violated, and not seeing any other option mainly due to not being heard and respected; why particularly university students get involved in such protests.
Most of the governments around the world have tried to crush student movements before trying to understand the root causes behind their actions. During the height of Nazi regime, students from the University of Munich formed a non-violent resistance group called ‘Whit Rose’ that lasted about one year until five of its leaders were arrested and executed.
Students at the Kent State University in Ohio, USA, began a protest against the Vietnam War, in 1970, that led to violence between the protesters and the armed forces that ended with four dead protesters. Police shot and killed two students when thousands of high school and university students protested peacefully against apartheid in South Africa in 1976 exposing the brutality of the apartheid regime to the world. Chinese Government literally crushed the student protesters killing thousands in the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.
Before taking such drastic actions against protesters, most of these governments launched massive propaganda campaigns demonising the movements and particularly the university students. Usual rhetoric paints a picture of unpatriotic, ungrateful, ignorant, misguided youth being manipulated by local political parties opposing the Government or the international players who are working on regime change with intentions of installing their puppet governments.
Ignorant
Once they brainwash the silent majority, the justification of using excessive force against the protesters becomes easier. Sri Lankans may also have noticed that university students involved in protests have been labeled as ignorant undergraduates of the Faculties of Arts who have no opportunities of getting a job even after graduation and are being manipulated by certain political parties who want to topple the Government. Citizens may have noticed that the ragging issue also has suddenly become a topic of discussion in most of the mainstream media.
It probably would be better for both the protesters (or would be protesters) and the Government to first and foremost to be clear about their intentions. Ideally, both these groups should have the same intention: to give the best for the country.
Then it becomes a difference of opinions about what each group defines as the best and how each group is trying to achieve it. University students are not only the same students who were in the school system of the country just a few years back but also the cream of the crop who managed to get selected to the universities after facing perhaps one of the most competitive examinations in the world.
If the lawmakers feel that they need to be rehabilitated now, they should seriously evaluate our education system to find out how these youngsters got to that position after so many years of schooling. If the education system is producing hundreds of thousands of mentally deranged youngsters who are in need of rehabilitation at the end of their student career, then the responsibility of such an education system falls back again on the law makers and educators in the country.
University students who are fighting for the rights of people should think about their actions and see whether they can justify violating the rights of new students when they engage in ragging.
Monsters
They should seriously think about the reasons of losing their credibility not only among the lawmakers but also among the general public. They should understand that one of the main reasons why they are seen as inhumane monsters is the physical and mental agonies, they inflict upon new students by ragging them. Parents of such monstrous raggers should think about effectiveness of their parenting and see whether they have done their duty to the country by being an influential part of making that monster.
Parents of the new students who are complaining about their innocent children getting harassed and bullied by these monsters should try to find out who those monsters are next year. If they find their innocent children, who are second years now, ragging the new students, then they should think about how those innocent children became such monsters.
Therefore, before we all become trigger happy and point the gun at the other and even try to bring legislation to put the raggers and protesters through another form of ragging, it would be better for individuals in either group (Government and the protesters) and for the country if we educate ourselves about what our contribution should be towards the wellbeing of the fellow citizens and the country as a whole.
The writer has served in the higher education sector as an academic for over twenty years in the USA and fifteen years in Sri Lanka and he can be contacted at [email protected]