Solitude in Jaffna and the silence of a city

After a Long Journey Home:

September 20, 2012, 7:47 pm 

By Dayapala Thiranagama

Starting a family in Jaffna with Rajani, in the midst of the Tamil community was a life enriching experience. Having two young daughters added happiness and an extra stability for us. However, the apparent tranquillity in Jaffna could not be taken for granted. The subsequent years the situation began to change from bad to worse.  We never expected that the life was going to be smooth but we never envisaged what was to follow. The war and its horrors that tore apart so many family lives made a lasting impact on the whole community.  Returning to Jaffna again to painfully revisit the past was a difficult experience.

This summer, after 23 years, I drove to Jaffna from Galle with my eldest daughter. We travelled through the heart of Sri Lanka on the A9 road, passing Kandy, Matale, Dambulla and Kekirawa. We drove past areas where I had worked in 1986 as a member of the Vikalpa Kandayama (Alternative Group), laying down an underground political structure. At the time, I had left my academic job in the university to do fulltime political work and was confronted by two great dangers: increasing political repression from the UNP government on the one hand and the JVP’s second insurrection on the other. In my journey from the place of my birth, Galle, to Jaffna in the north, I retraced my own political journey in Sri Lanka to its conclusion, the grave of my wife Rajani.

Starting a family in Jaffna with Rajani, in the midst of the Tamil community was a life enriching experience. Having two young daughters added happiness and an extra stability for us. However, the apparent tranquillity in Jaffna could not be taken for granted. The subsequent years the situation began to change from bad to worse.  We never expected that the life was going to be smooth but we never envisaged what was to follow. The war and its horrors that tore apart so many family lives made a lasting impact on the whole community.  Returning to Jaffna again to painfully revisit the past was a difficult experience.

The Jaffna I returned to this year after 23 years has been marked by war and atrocity, not just in its crumbling infrastructure and its bombed out buildings but also its social fabric. Our old neighbourhood has completely disappeared and the buildings that remain empty have walls marked by the bullets. New owners occupy some houses but my local friends have simply disappeared. The middle classes who were once so dominant in Jaffna society are no longer visible. It is as if two or three generations of people have simply gone missing. The city itself looks subdued and grim, showing the effects of decades of stagnation in comparison with the cities we were passing on the A9 from Kandy onwards. Even Killinochi appears to be developing faster, powered perhaps by behind the scenes political patronage, and could soon be outbidding Jaffna as a commercial centre.

Jaffna as a living city, a centre of economic, political and social activity was destroyed from within, and without, conquered repeatedly by those who claimed to be its liberators. The city I knew as Jaffna started losing its soul and its pluralistic character in that violent moment when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) forcibly evicted its Muslim population within 24 hours in October 1990. This tragedy for Jaffna and the Tamil people cannot solely be attributed to the LTTE’s political ruthlessness. It was an aggressive statement of intent about the LTTE’s vision of Tamil Eelam, the annexation of Tamil nationalism into the personal project of the LTTE and its leader, Prabhakharan. In an almost parallel development they expelled Muslims from Jaffna, destroyed all other militant groups, assassinated the Tamil political leaders in the Tamil Liberation United Front (TULF) as well as the members of Left parties, forcibly recruited children to carry out their political crimes and gunned down its vocal critics without any mercy.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the silent partner of the LTTE political criminality was fully behind this process. There was no one who was able to stand up for the rights of the Tamil community against the LTTE’s extreme political violence and political suppression that had been confounded by the despair and darkness of the Tamil community’s plight. Within the climate of fear that settled over Jaffna, the LTTE were able to intimidate many people into remaining silent, using the public executions of dissenters as a terrifying warning.

My daughter told me that during the late 1980s, people in Jaffna joked that when a knock came on the door at midnight, families would inquire carefully, "who is it?" only to be asked in return "who do you want it to be?"

After returning to Jaffna in Nallur for more than two decades, I feel ‘free’ but the happy family home I had known now resounds with silence. At each turning of this empty house now, I exist in an illusion of a few seconds trying hear Rajani’s voice until my body is enveloped with the renewed knowledge of her death. The family we had tried to create together with our young daughters was a place where ethnic, linguistic religious and cultural differences were acknowledged and respected, where our common and deep humanity could be expressed. The war the LTTE conducted for nearly three decades, in fact, was fought against such fundamental ideals, destroying a vision that belonged to the humanity of evolving social relationships. In the fate of its most tragic victims, Sri Lanka’s civil war ultimately became one fought between two contrasting ideas, between those who were willing to commit any kind of atrocity for their own goals and the other, which affirmed the sanctity of life. In the frontlines of this war, guerrillas and soldiers were confronted by students, children, housewives, doctors, teachers, ordinary men and women from all walks of life who were suddenly thrust into the front line of a battle they had never signed up for and which they could not escape even in their own homes or their minds.

In today’s Jaffna, keeping the city under political and military strangulation appears to be a key political objective. Even after three years of comprehensively defeating the LTTE, you suddenly bump into armed patrols from nowhere when you are going around, that shows who is in charge. This kind of tight grip on the city appears to serve twin military and political objectives: Firstly, the view of the UPFA government is that any military revival of the LTTE could be nipped in the bud. Secondly, the devolution of power to the Tami community could be postponed to satisfy the Sinhala Buddhist supremacist fears that it would pave the way for separation.

We have reached a stage where such military and political fears could be reasonably dealt only with the implementation of the 13th Amendment without further delay. The Sinhalese leadership has never been able to understand in strategic terms that not all the Tamils are Tiger supporters or sympathetic to their demand for a separate state but yet, there are genuine grievances that need to be resolved. This failure has cost the country politically in the past and will be further damaged ethnic harmony leading to dangerous political polarisation, if the current impasse continues. The hopelessness of the Tamil community is facing at present after the war shows when hundreds of people attempting to flee the country every day even with young children by impoverish fishing boats to Australia. The economic development is important but the issues arising from national oppression will not be resolved only by economic development alone.

The best course of action is both the government and the TNA to return to the negotiating table and resume negotiation. If the TNA expects to make alliances with other political parties in the South and negotiate with them when they come to power that will be a non-starter. The possibility of the UPFA’s electoral defeat in the immediate future or at the next election is remote. Their electoral base remains stable. The UNP, the main opposition party is hopelessly divided and bickering at present and they look like a hopeless coalition that is trying survive rather than a united political party. Their electoral base is severally restricted due to numerous internal divisions. Other opposition parties, like the JVP and their splinter group, the FSP (Frontline Socialist Party) have lost their electoral base and are unable to make any influence in a regime change.

Even if they have any political clout, it should be noted that they are the sworn enemies of the devolution of power to the Tamil community. Despite the UPFA’s government’s right abuses, the culture of impunity, corruption and authoritarian tendencies, any replication of an Arab spring type regime change would not be possible because the people still have faith in parliamentary elections for a change of government. At present, any such expectation emanates from incredible political naivety on the pat of the political opposition and their lack of ideas to forge a joint political programme. Therefore, the TNA’s best bet is to return to the negotiation table.

The TNA has a responsibility to renounce political violence as they had associated with the LTTE. When the LTTE began to use the brute force against their unarmed critics and murdered them, when they recruited child soldiers by force, and when they expelled Muslims from Jaffna in pursuit of ethnic cleansing within 24 hours, the TNA’s silence was unforgivable. It is a profound political mistake on our part to let the TNA get away with this. This is very important to heal wounds within the Tamil community or to achieve internal reconciliation. This also would ensure that they would not support any kind of murderous violent politics in the community in the future. It would have been more significant, and politically worthwhile and brave for the TNA to make a public apology for all the political mistakes they have done rather than to show the national flag on the stage when they had the May Day rally in Jaffna with Rail Wickramesinghe, the UNP leader. But this is not forth coming.

After the war particularly during peacetime, the Sri Lanka needs leaders who are able rise above the tribal politics in both communities and resolve the issues because further polarizations of the community divide will not pave the way for the durable peace. Unfortunately, there are no such great leaders in the country today. Vijaya Kumaratunga would have been such a leader if he had been alive today but the JVP assassinated him because of his support for the devolution of power to the Tamil community.

The Jaffna and its suburbs looks a city that has been conquered and its gloom is epitomised by the helplessness of the Tamil community. It has suffered from two conquering forces: the LTTE and the government armed forces. After three decades of the brutal war the Sinhala leadership has not shown any appetite for a political solution. It appears that the party, which defeated the Tamil Tigers, are not likely to be the party that will work to win the peace. Similarly, the TNA being a proxy to the Tamil Tigers, even after the defeat, have not shown their ability to work for compromises and throw away the ambiguous political rhetoric and the language of separation. Both parties should understand that their inflexibility and the sticking to the tribal loyalties would cost the both communities dear. They have a primary responsibility to do whatever possible to stop repeating the horrors of personal tragedies that will cost the lives of innocent people. That requires a political solution that is acceptable to both communities as a positive start. The grandiose economic projects alone will not give a community their dignity and political rights.

I had undertaken this journey to visit Rajani’s grave for the first time. Engraved on the tombstone were the words chosen by her mother Mahila Ruppiam, a devout Christian: "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven". She outlived her daughter by nearly two decades and her ashes are now buried with her. I wondered, when I read those words, whether she had chosen those words as a rebuke to the LTTE and their fervent supporters who had denounced her daughter as a ‘traitor’ to the Tamil people, declared her as an outcast from Tamil Eelam and then brutally murdered her.

My personal experience of the war and the unbearable loss my family had to undergo is no way unique. The war has brought unspeakable horrors, destruction and death to hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children in both communities over three decades including the final days of the war. We will never know their stories particularly those innocent civilians who perished at Vellimullaivikkal. At least, I know where Rajani was buried. I had a home to return to. When we left Jaffna after a short stay those were the selfish thoughts that gave me some comfort.

 

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.

Striking dons to march from Galle to Colombo

Seeking immediate solution for FUTA demands

September 20, 2012, 10:38 pm 

by Dasun Edirisinghe, The Island

Striking university teachers will launch a four-day protest march from Galle to Colombo on Monday (24) seeking to force the government to give in to their demands.

President of the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri told The Island that politicians from Opposition parties, trade unionists, intellectuals, university students would join the striking teachers from all universities in the protest march.

He said that after discussions with Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa last Friday, the government had yet to fix a date for the next round of talks.

"Now, the government is ignoring us, but we will not give up until our demands are met," Dr. Dewasiri said. "Our struggle is not for personal gains, but to protect the free education system."

The FUTA held a protest march from the Peradeniya University to Galaha junction yesterday and it was followed by a rally.

Sack us if you can – Nirmal

Lankatruth   

The Commissioner of Labour has again written to them regarding an arbitration process, they would never agree to such a process and they challenge authorities to sack them from service if possible said the President of Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) Dr.Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri.

Speaking further a media meeting held at the Public Library Auditorium yesterday (18th) to inform regarding the future activities of FUTA Dr. Devasiri said the issue has not been resolved not due to the university teachers but due to two views that exist within the government regarding a solution. He requested the government to mediate effectively regarding the issue of university teachers.

He said despite Minister Basil Rajapaksa and the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance are attempting to solve the issues in an effective manner, the Minister of Higher Education and a group of pseudo patriots have begun to vilify them.

Speaking regarding the request of the Minister of Education to be compassionate towards students and commence evaluation of A/L answer scripts Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri said everyone remembers compassion only when they have exhausted all their tricks and stated that evaluation process will commence without anyone’s bidding as soon as solutions have been given for their issues.

Several university teachers including Senior Lecturer Ven. Dhambara Amila Thera also participated.

Where were the patriotic university teachers, asks Peradeniya FUTA

September 18, 2012, 11:56 pm 

By Cyril Wimalasurendre, The Island

KANDY: The university teachers launched their trade union action two and a half months ago, but where were the so-called Patriotic University Teachers’ Alliance and its convenor? the Peradeniya Federation of University Teachers Association asked yesterday.

This question was raised by the PFUTA at a media conference held to brief the media on the public meeting organised by FUTA in Kandy on Thursday (20).

The meeting, one in a series of public meetings, organised by the FUTA, will be held at the Getambe Municipal playground commencing at 3.30 p.m.

Urging the government to increase funds for education, according to the so-called Patriotic University Teachers’ Alliance is unpatriotic. Then what is patriotic, asked Professor Anura Wickremasinghe, of the Engineering Faculty of the University of Peradeniya.

He asked whether it was unpatriotic to provide a good education to the children.

Professor Wickremasinghe who was earlier Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Peradeniya said that there had been, throughout history, such selfish characters like the so-called Patriotic University Teachers’ Alliance who would do anything for personal gain.

Dr. Prasanna Gunawardana said the campaign launched and continued for over two months by the FUTA should not be underestimated since the university teachers had resorted to trade union action for the benefit of the country’s future generation.

The so-called Patriotic University Teachers’ Alliance was misleading the public, Dr. Gunawardana added.

Professor Carmen Wickremagamage said that the statement by the so-called Patriotic University Teachers’ Organisation should not be taken serious.

Dr. Sanjeewa Maithripala, Dr. Ruwan Jayasinghe, Dr. Shyama Kumara Banneheka, Dr. H. Jayawardana and student leaders Janaka Thilanga Madushantha also addressed media at the Faculty of Agriculture, Peradeniya.

Bandula appeals to striking dons to evaluate A/L answer scripts

September 18, 2012, 6:52 am 

by Dasun Edirisinghe, The Island

The Education Ministry yesterday appealed to striking university teachers to consider the plight of innocent students and begin GCE (A/L) answer script evaluation.

Addressing a media conference at the Ministry auditorium, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena said that the ministry had been compelled to to postpone the answer script evaluation indefinitely due to the on going strike by university teachers.

"We need 400 university teachers for answer script evaluation," he said adding that those university professors and lecturers assisted 12,000 – 15,000 teachers in paper marking.

The GCE (A/L) examination ended on August 30 and 277,097 candidates answered a total of 523 question papers at the examination.

Gunawardena said that there were 1.8 million answer scripts to be evaluated and they could not evaluate papers without university teachers.

He said that they would not think of any other options to mark answer scripts, other than with involvement of university teachers.

"From our side we have provided all necessities for university teachers including the right to admit their children to popular schools without any hesitation," Gunawardena said.

Commissioner General of Examinations W. M. N. J. Pushpakumara said that he sent letters to university teachers yesterday asking them to participate in paper marking.

He said that the department had earlier scheduled to evaluate answer scripts in three steps from Sept. 01 to Oct. 07.

"If university teachers express their willingness to evaluate answer scripts we will conduct it in two steps at 50 schools to expedite the process," Pushpakumara said adding that earlier it had planned to hold paper marking only in 23 schools.

He said that the delay in paper marking could lead to several problems including delay in university admissions, applying for foreign universities, local higher educational institutions and jobs.

When contacted by The Island for comment, President of the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri said that they had no problem with innocent students, but they could not participate in paper marking while on a strike.

The lack of guidance or alternatives

The Care of Children — 9

September 16, 2012, 8:00 pm , The Island

By Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha

A friend from England who was visiting recently was surprised when someone of the same age, with a son doing O/Levels, just as her daughter is, was not deeply concerned about what the youngster would do next. I thought her concern excessive, until it struck me that Sri Lankans living in Colombo are as concerned as she is about the educational prospects of their children. It is the rural folk who think less about the matter.

Obviously this is not because they are less concerned about what their children will do. Rather, it is because there is no point in thinking. In the vast majority of rural areas, there are simply no alternatives for the children. They have to go through the school system for what it is worth, many of them without opportunity to do well in Maths or Science, so that they would have options as to careers.

So they strive desperately to do well in their O/Levels, with the sole aim of going through to the next step on the ladder, which is A/Levels. Here life is even more competitive, and they strive even harder, with hours spent travelling to and from tuition classes where such are available (and sometimes whole days over the weekend spent in those classes) to qualify for university.

At university they can relax, since whether they work hard or not, whether they think about their subject or not, they will get a degree. A few strive to get into Special Degree courses, and a few of these develop their thinking powers and go into academia (and some do this without developing their thinking powers to any appreciable extent). The vast majority do what is termed a General Degree, which is not really General, since they do not necessarily develop soft skills, but rather learn less than a third of what their Special Degrees counterparts do in each of three subjects. Often the combination includes something called Civilisation, and a Language, and subjects such as Sociology or Mass Communication, which should require greater specialisation if they are to be useful, rather than less than a third of a full course.

So they emerge, after usually more than three years, given that students or staff or non-academic staff are on strike for substantial periods, at different times just to ensure rest without responsibility for each other, with a degree that does not equip them for employment. Government then provides employment for them, without suitable training, so that many do not really contribute to the departments they are thrust into. Even at this stage government does not provide career guidance or training, but leaves individual administrators to help them to swim or allow them to sink. So many just spend their time dreaming about permanence, and higher salaries, as I found in many meetings at the Divisional Secretariats to which they have been allocated. Instead of hearing of the problems of the area, I had many questions about permanence, none about training programmes or skills development. Hardly any it seemed were Science Graduates, as I found when wondering whether they might help to fill the gaps in teaching of these subjects.

There was no point in being annoyed with them for their keenness to get permanent employment without anything they could do effectively. The system had created them, and the system would have to absorb them, with no effort to ensure fulfillment of whatever potential they had, or useful contributions to the society which had engendered them.

The situation my friend from England knows is very different, as indeed is the situation in the big towns, where students are helped to focus on particular careers and given additional skills that will enable them to do well in different spheres. I have written already about the importance of extra-curricular activities, to develop inter-personal and organisations skills, as well as discipline and coordination and also the ability to cope with success and failure and adjust one’s responses accordingly. But in rural areas there are hardly any extra-curricular activities, and no incentives for principals or teachers to arrange them.

Even more upsetting is the guidance that teachers should provide. We have what are termed Teacher Counsellors, and they get a modicum of training, but except in the case of a few committed souls, they do very little. There is also no concerted effort to provide the different types of guidance that are needed, with regard to careers as well as psycho-social needs.

This is understandable though, because there is nothing to guide children towards. There are no respectable alternatives to university. I use the word ‘respectable’ ironically but accurately, for teachers would not dream of directing their charges towards careers in construction or motor mechanics or farming or fishing or even as care givers.

Perhaps this is because there are no careers in such fields, only basic employment. The type of training institute we should have at least in every Division is lacking all over the country. Vocational Training Centres do not provide soft skills for those who could then move on to higher positions in the field in which they have technical skills. We do not provide those with such skills with Diplomas and even Degrees that would make clear the advanced status of their capabilities, while increasing their general capacities so that they could be employed as more than just artisans.

In short, we do not encourage youngsters to develop whatever capacities they have while adding to their general capacity to find employment. Nor do we study the different areas that are opening up for employment all over the world, and adjust accordingly the provision that is made. And so we leave children to the sausage machine which our present education system resembles, and wonder that its products are not content with the fate they have undergone.

 

U’grads in protest today

September 16, 2012, 8:51 pm 

by Dasun Edirisinghe, The Island

Undergraduates will launch a fresh protest today (17) demanding that the government solve problems in the university sector immediately.

Convener of the Inter University Students’ Federation, the organizing body of the protest, Sanjeewa Bandara told The Island that they would begin a protest march from the Kelaniya University and begin a continuous Sathyagraha opposite the university.

"We cannot mention where the protest march will end due to security reasons," he said.

Bandara said that they will continue the Sathyagraha until the government gives into the demands of the University teachers.

The Academic calendar had been disrupted in all universities for over two months due to the strike launched by the teachers, he said.

The student activist said that before the teachers launched a strike, academic activities had been halted for one month due to a strike launched by university non-academic staff.

The government gave an assurance that it would rectify the salary anomalies and the non-academic staff ended their strike, but the government has still failed to rectify the anomalies in their salaries. "As a result, they could launch another strike in the near future," he said.

Bandara said that the government was purposely ignoring the university teachers’ problems too.

"We are demanding that the government recommence the academic activities in universities by solving problems of the university teachers and non-academic staff immediately," he said.

Bandara said that they had also started collecting signatures for a public petition demanding an immediate solution to the ongoing university crisis.

University crisis: SB accused of undermining Basil’s settlement bid

September 16, 2012, 8:51 pm 

by Dasun Edirisinghe, The Island

Striking university teachers yesterday accused Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake of trying to sabotage ongoing efforts, by Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, to re-commence academic activities in universities.

President of the Federation of University Teachers’ Association (FUTA) Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri told The Island that last Friday’s discussion between Minister Basil Rajapaksa and the FUTA went on well, though Minister Dissanayake was bent on disrupting them. Dr. Dewasiri alleged that the Higher Education Minister was hindering their efforts.

An irate Dewasiri said that the FUTA wouldn’t succumb to Minister Dissanayake’s tactics and would pursue its strategy until it achieved its demands. Their main demands were allocation of 6 per cent of the GDP to education, consult university teachers when taking decisions on higher education and a pay hike. The FUTA launched its ongoing strike on July 4.

"We called for a meeting with Treasury Secretary Dr. P. B. Jayasundara and all Vice Chancellors of universities at Friday’s meeting," he said, adding that minister Rajapaksa agreed to arrange a meeting with them. The senior academic said that they would be called for the next meeting shortly.

The FUTA rejected the voluntarily arbitration offered by the Labour Department last week to solve the problem. Dr. Dewasiri said minister Rajapaksa also agreed to cancel the arbitration process.

 

FUTA battle: Some dons strike a discordant note

September 16, 2012, 9:26 pm 

by Dasun Edirisinghe, The Island

A section of university teachers yesterday condemned the ongoing strike, by the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA), claiming it was a joke to demand an allocation of six per cent of the GDP for education.

Addressing a press conference in Colombo, Convener of the Patriotic University Teachers’ Alliance Nemsiri Jayathilake said that the total government expenditure was 24 per cent of the GDP. He asked how the government could allocate one fourth of it for education?

"FUTA wants a salary hike, but it pretends that its strike is aimed at protecting free education," he said.

Senior lecturer Jayathilake said that FUTA claimed that according to UNESCO standards six per cent of the GDP should be allocated for education, which was not true.

The UNESCO had only stated that not less than six per cent of the GDP should be allocated for education, but had not said that the allocation should be made by the government, he said, adding that the UN body was of the view that ‘six per cent’ should come from both public and private sector.

Jayathilake said that the Examinations Department had been compelled to postpone the GCE (A/L) answer script evaluation indefinitely due to the FUTAstrike.

According to him, it was very unfair by the innocent students to boycott answer script evaluation.

"When doctors launch continuous strikes, they engage in emergency services," the senior academic said, noting that it was very unfair of FUTA to boycott all educational activities.

Jayathilake said that when FUTA struck work last year, the government had promised to increase salaries, and the university teachers got salary increments in July 2011; they would get another pay hike next month (October). President Mahinda Rajapaksa had promised to address the issue in the next budget, he said.

As most intelligent people of the country, the FUTA must solve their problems with the government through discussions, not by trade union action, he said.

Jayathilake said that a majority of university teachers had been misled by FUTA’s top officials who had a hidden agenda.

When contacted by The Island for comment FUTA President Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri said that if the FUTAhad misled university teachers, the patriotic teachers could convince the strikers and persuade them to report back for work.

"We have held discussions with several government members, including Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga, Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake, National Salaries and Cadre Commission and Labour Department," Dr. Dewasiri said, adding they had recognised their demands.