Editorial

Patriots and traitors

September 20, 2012, 11:03 pm , The Island

The government propaganda mill is in overdrive, vilifying the office bearers of the Federation of University Teachers' Associations (FUTA) in a bid to turn public opinion against the striking dons. Having concocted a conspiracy theory, it is all out to brand the prominent FUTA members as a bunch of traitors on a mission to effect a regime change. Either the government is beginning to believe in its own lies or has taken the masses for asses.

It looks as if the government wanted to hunt down 'traitors' the way 'witches' were got rid of in England in the 16th Century. Now that it has a two-third majority in the House, it might even pass laws to persecute 'traitors' like the Elizabethan Witchcraft Act (1563) and the Jacobean Witchcraft Act (1604).

We have argued previously in these columns that a protracted trade union dispute is like an abandoned anthill, into which venomous serpents usually creep. Hence, the need for the government to address labour issues urgently and adopt remedial measures to keep the work force content! Unfortunately, it keeps testing workers' patience. Strikes may not bring down the government overnight but, constant dropping, as they say, wears away a stone.

FUTA consists of intelligent men and women and President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said he is for a win-win situation. Therefore, instead of trying to pillory the FUTA leaders, the government ought to have more discussions with the striking dons, make a genuine effort to reach middle ground and be done with it. Both parties have to be less intransigent and stop the on-going hawk-dove game, which will only plunge universities into a deeper crisis.

If the government thinks its tar-and-feather tactics will help tame FUTA, it is mistaken. It must not lose sight of the fact that most of the strikers have backed it at past elections.

The government seems to have confused patriotism with one's blind allegiance to the powers that be. Ironically, while wrapping itself in the flag and calling other traitors, it has no qualms about having within its ranks former terrorists who massacred armed forces and police personnel, politicians who collaborated with the enemy and racketeers whose crooked deals have cost the country dear.