Leadership training for new undergrads from Nov.15

October 16, 2012, 10:04 pm , The Island

The leadership training programme for the next batch of university students will begin on November 15 in three batches, according to a decision of the Higher Education Ministry.

The Ministry plans to accommodate 9000 students in each batch to be trained at tri-forces and police camps.

In order to avoid any future problems over the training programme, it had decided to obtain the opinion of the Attorney General’s Department prior to embarking on the latest exercise, a senior official of the Ministry said.

Following the Z-score fiasco, the Supreme Court ordered the University Grants Commission to admit additional students to the universities with the next intake so that no student would be victimized by it and because of the additional students the Ministry has been forced to divide the training into three batches.

Six per cent GDP on education: From a fantasy to a real programme

October 16, 2012, 6:19 pm , The Island


By Sumanasiri Liyanage

Of the four trade union actions, the Federation of University Teachers’ Association (FUTA) has been so far engaged in, in its about three decades of history, the one that came to conclusion last week was the first that ended with no tangible material results. On the other hand, the last trade union action was of great significance for two reasons. First, it was the first strike action by the university teachers. FUTA had resorted to different kinds of protests, namely resigning from voluntary positions that the university teachers held in normal situation. Secondly, extending its 2011 strategy of taking the issue of education reforms beyond the boundaries of the university to the general masses, FUTA this time highlighted more general issues of education reforms than the specific demands of its members. Hence FUTA was able to generate a broader discussion on the educational reforms that the country is badly in need of. Ending a TU action with no concrete results is not an uncommon thing in the trade union history since the trade union action means a struggle between two opposite forces with substantially different interests. Just because the TU action failed to secure concrete and tangible gains, it does not necessarily mean that it was a failure. Similarly, even it is a failure, it is not a ground for a discontent or disappointment if the union membership and its leaders are able to decode the reasons of the failure and take necessary actions not to repeat them in future trade union actions. So it is imperative that FUTA have a critical reflection on the past union actions. Why did it fail to win its demands notwithstanding the fact that it was the trade union action which received the participation and the support of more than 90% of the university teachers and generated support of the significant layer of the society? Was it because that some of the FUTA demands are not achievable in the prevailing economic and social context without far reaching changes? Was there a basic flaw in the frame of struggle? Can the failure be attributed to the fact that although the FUTA was able to build pressure through mass action, FUTA negotiation team had failed at the negotiation table? In my opinion, these are the issues FUTA should discuss and reflect on if it wants to continue as a trade union? Although I have my own views on the above issues, I do not intend to discuss them in this article. My intention here is to redraw the boundaries of the discussion on FUTA demand on 6% of GDP on education.

Fantasies are of great importance and useful in building social movements. It is interesting to note that the FUTA was able to fantasize the demand of 6% of the GDP on education especially among the Sri Lankan internet community that is growing. Keeping the demand at the level of fantasy during the time of trade union action might also have facilitated the trade union action. Nonetheless, in the post-strike phase, it is imperative to reread the demand in the light of the ideas that were flagged in the discussion. There were two criticisms of FUTA demand to which I intend to turn shortly.

1. Critique of the Economists and the FUTA’s failure to respond: The economists reacted negatively to the demand for 6% of GDP on education focusing on the demand’s practicality. They correctly pointed out that the state’s contribution to the GDP had greatly reduced with the introduction of neo-liberal economic policies since 1977. The total government expenditure as a proportion of the GDP has come down to 22 per cent in recent years. So, spending 6 per cent out of this total government expenditure, according to them, is not practically possible. This may be the reason why many economists attached to the department of economics, University of Colombo refused take part in the trade union action. The answer to this criticism of the side of FUTA was not satisfactory. FUTA argued that 6% can be spent if the government was ready to reduce defence expenditure substantially and/or curtail corruption and waste. This argument does not hold water. The main portion of the current defence expenditure is of recurrent nature. If the proposal for substantial reduction of it is not linked with decommissioning with alternative employment, the implementation of such a proposal would create so many new problems. So, in order materialize FUTA’s demand for 6 percent of GDP on education, the demand should be linked with the expansion of the public economy. In other words, it means a reversal of the 1977 neo-liberal economic policies. Without moving towards an economy that is substantially dominated by the public sector, 6 per cent is just an empty signifier. Only such an economy can provide adequate expenditure on education, health, public transport etc. Not allowing room for misunderstanding let me explain what I meant by public economy that is qualitatively different from the statist economy and/ private economy. Services such as health, education, public transport should not be allowed to be controlled either by state bureaucracy or by surplus-seeking capital. Having based on the past experience, it is necessary t design a new system of management for these sectors. FUTA’s demand would be meaningful if and only if it is linked with such far-reaching changes in the prevailing economic system.

2. Teachers would have learned from the students: In the course of the FUTA struggle, a clear difference emerged between the position of FUTA and that of the Inter-University Students Federation (IUSF). While FUTA stood for the defence of ‘state education’, IUSF had the slogan of defending ‘free education’. Is this mere a semantic difference? In my view, two demands are qualitatively different. FUTA’s position implies that it has no objection for the presence of private sector education controlled by the logic of surplus-seeking capital with the state education. Secondly, it also means the continuance of the present system as a system controlled by the state bureaucracy especially in school education. On the other hand, IUSF wanted to continue the free education system originally initiated by C. W. W. Kannangara. In Sri Lankan education discourse, the term widely used to denote public education system has been free education. Why did FUTA change it? No explanation was given. Although IUSF demand is not clear about the system of management of free education system or how the free education system should be freed from the state bureaucracy and put under a democratic control of the educationists, its demand at least emphasize the need of inversing the changes that are now clearly visible in the education system.

What I have said above on public education system can be equally applicable to other sectors like health that need to be freed from two dominant control mechanisms, namely, capitalist and statist. Humankind has come to a stage where it should discover new mechanisms to govern their lives.

The writer is a co-coordinator of the Marx School, Colombo, Kandy and Negombo.

The Brahmins and the springs

October 16, 2012, 6:21 pm


By Nalin de Silva, The Island

A reader commenting on my statement at a public meeting that I would be against a decision by the government to increase the salaries of academics had asked why need enemies when there are friends like me. Probably, the reader thought that I was a friend of the trade union struggle of FUTA that ended on last Thursday after hundred days. The strike by the academics that began on July 04 ended on Oct. 11, after long marches, public rallies, exhibition of T-shirts with the symbol 6% printed on them, and more than anything else statements by various fora, that constitute fifteen to twenty people well known especially among the English educated public, and various trade unions supporting the strike. I was never a friend of this particular trade union struggle that began more than two years ago with token strikes, resignation of heads of departments etc. The struggle culminated in, or rather began to decline with, a continuous strike. The Brahmins supported the strike probably dreaming of Springs. However, when they awoke temporarily from their deep slumber they had a nightmare experience of a fall and a winter. They think that they are active but they act only in their dreams. As far as the general non-Brahmin public is concerned they are far away from the people. With respect to the non Brahmin public the Brahmins are in a deep slumber. The particular reader has to be excused as the public had been given the impression by the FUTA leadership that the strike would be over after a couple of discussions with Minister Basil Rajapaksa. The reader must have thought that I was obstructing the Minister and the leadership of FUTA coming to an amicable solution probably with a salary increase with my statement. The government had an understanding of the Brahmins and their Springs, and it was clear to non-Brahmin public that FUTA was not going to get anything as a result of the strike.

I find Dr. Mahim Mendis making the following statement to The Island. "The IUSF (The Inter University Student Federation) was not physically with us but IUSF was with us spiritually. And there was no party which was not with us. It is no exaggeration. Except SB Dissanayake and few fellows, some cronies - people like Nalin De Silva — all the people were with us." This implies that even the SLFP was with the FUTA! Dr. Mendis may think that I am a crony of the minister S. B. Dissanayake. However, it has to be placed on record that the Minister and the Ministry was against giving me an extension when a request to that effect was made to him by the University of Kelaniya. I opposed the FUTA trade union struggle while the ministry was opposing my extension in 2010. For, I could see the Brahmins were up to various schemes. I do not have to go into details as these have been discussed by me and others in newspapers including The Island and at various discussions over the electronic media in the last few months. In any event with all that support FUTA had from the political parties, trade unions, various fora, IUSF and others why did the strike fail to achieve anything other than a letter from Dr. P B Jayasundera that did not promise anything effectively. If all the people other than a few of us were with the FUTA an Arab spring would have been there for the asking as they say. In Arab countries the westerners were able to topple the governments that they did not like with so called uprisings as there were enough and more disgruntled people opposed to the incumbent governments. The trouble with some of the academics and other Brahmins is that they think that their acquaintances constitute the people.

There is a caste system in Sri Lanka that pervades ethnic, religious and the usual Govigama, Karawa, Salagama, Durawa, Vellala cast systems. It is a caste system that depends on the western education that has been with us for the last two hundred years or so. The Brahmin cast spreads from those who have had an education up to the GCE A/L to those with degrees and professional qualifications. The Brahmin class in general has two layers. The Upper Brahmins are usually English educated and are professionals university lecturers etc. Some of them have worked for foreign institutes including the UN and are looked up to by the lower Brahmins who are usually Sinhala or Tamil educated and have had a western education in universities and schools including the so-called Buddhist schools, at least up to the GCE A/L. The Brahmins try to maintain their social status above the others and in general do not support the SLFP. The upper Brahmins in general support the UNP while the lower Brahmins in general support the leftist political parties. The upper Brahmins, and the lower Brahmins who do not support the leftist parties in the government, in general oppose the UPFA. The upper Brahmins who tolerate all the undemocratic acts of the UNP governments are up in arms against the SLFP-led governments with their usual slogans on good governance, freedom of speech, independence of judiciary etc. These concepts have been created within the western modernistic hegemony, and again in general the western educated elite are trapped in these concepts. It is not wrong to say that those who receive a western education are consciously or subconsciously used by the west to maintain the western hegemony. They cannot think outside the framework given by their education and are manipulated by the west through agents and/or education to achieve what the latter wants.

The Arab Spring was not merely an uprising by the people in the relevant countries. It is very clear that the West wanted to replace the governments that they did not like with their puppet governments. The so-called mass uprisings were manipulated for that purpose whether finally the west achieved what they wanted or not. In Sri Lanka, it is obvious that the West does not like the faces of two Rajapaksas. Though there may be a number of Rajapaksa associated with the government, including provincial councils, only Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa have incurred the wrath of the west. The politics in Sri Lanka, as far as the West is concerned is all about removing these two Rajapaksas from office. In this connection, various fora sponsored by some western embassies are being used to create a so-called educated opinion against the government. The FUTA trade union struggle that commenced over a mere salary issue, which was all about the take home pay was converted into a fight for a hike in the basic salary which no government is in a position to grant, with a view to creating instability in the country so that a wave of strikes would sweep across the country. However, the leadership of FUTA could not justify the demand for a pay hike and soon the so-called 6% demand was introduced. The Brahmins, both upper and lower, gave a push to this demand with rhetoric on freedom of education university autonomy etc. It is interesting to note how some of the former vice chancellors who project themselves as saints once went behind presidents and other powerful politicians in order to be appointed to their posts. The university autonomy has remained the same during the last thirty five years and these elites did not find anything wrong with system when they were going behind politicians.

The FUTA was being used by the anti-government Brahmins to make the government unstable and very soon the government realized what was happening. The academics are the highest paid in the public and corporate sector excluding those institutes that generate income, and enjoy much more freedom at the work place than any other employees in the public sector. It is clear that the government has not promised any salary increase to the academics and they would have to be satisfied with what Dr. P. B. Jayasundera has called a middle term solution, which is nothing but allowances given to the public sector in the annual budget of the government. The Arab Spring has failed miserably for the Brahmins and their mentors in the west, and now they are looking forward for a Pakistan type spring by promoting a crisis in the relationship between executive and the judicial. However, the majority of the non-Brahmins are with the government and this spring will also fall through like the other Springs.