IMPORTANCE OF UNIVERSITY TEACHERS’ STRUGGLE

July 8, 2012, 12:00 pm , the island

Opening a sports complex in Nawalapitiya on July 2nd, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said that his aim was to create a "healthy" generation that could win the world. Given the context of the speech, he was obviously referring to the enhancement of the physical health of the people, to be precise, the younger generation, the thaarunyaya, of the country. This expressed commitment to enhancing the physical health of the younger generation is no doubt a noble one. Nevertheless, in a context where the mental health of the same generation is virtually ignored and the concept of health is reduced to physical health, this commitment becomes rather problematic.

Universities in general and state universities in particular play a central role in defining the mental health of a society. They operate as the main sites of knowledge production and dissemination. One of their main aims is/should be to produce thinkers who are "more open than usual". However, the present situation in Sri Lanka with regard to the state universities of the country indicates that this noble role assigned to universities is increasingly being undermined and devalued. The alleged death threats to the faculty members who are leading the ongoing trade union action, the introduction of laws and regulations that have a critical impact on the country’s tertiary education sector without any consultation with the broader academic community, cheap comments made by the "patrons" of the university system with the aim of ridiculing the university lecturer’s role, the militarization of the university system through the so called leadership training given to the incoming students, and the increased political interventions that are taking place in the university system indicate the degree of this devaluation.

In a context where the pressing problems in the university sector in particular and the education sector in general are being totally and consistently ignored, the President’s statement reflects the dominant outlook that seems to value muscle power over intellectual power in today’s context.The readiness with which the government spends huge sums of public money on promoting sports, sometimes even with the help of Bollywood stars who are flown to and from the country at the public’s expense,points to the marked superiority that physicality enjoys over intellectuality in the current Sri Lankan society.

The demotion of intellectuality and promotion of physicality harmonize well with the militarization that is taking place in our society. The success of the militarization process largely depends on its ability to divert the younger generation, better known as the thaarunyaya in the present political rhetoric, from intellectual activities. The destabilization of the state university system is a necessary step towards achieving this goal. The blind-eye-and-iron-fist theory with which the current problems in the university system are being dealt with should be understood in this broader context.

In such a context, the current trade union action launched by university lecturers could be seen as an attempt to swim against the massive tide of militarization. It reminds both the rulers and the public that the primacy of intellectual power needs to be (re)established over muscle power. It sends a clear message to the rulers that the intellectuals do not approve of the ongoing militarization of society. It reminds society that producing sensitive human beings and thinkers who are "more open than usual" is more important than producing human machines that can only play roles that are already defined for them. Above all, it points to the crucial need for protecting the state university system as the oasis of intellectual freedom of the Sri Lankan academia.

Nandaka Maduranga

Kalugampitiya