Dr Sudath Gunasekara, First Secretary to the Ministry of Technical Education 1994

I myself saw this savage attack by police on University students on the TV. In fact it was a shame to have treated these boys and girls who had come to meet the authorities to seek redress to their burning problems in that manner. Instead of beating them like animals the authorities should have first listen to their grievances and tried to sort them out.  That is why people of this country have elected their politicians and got these officials placed in those positions at high cost. After all they are children of the people who pay the taxes to maintain all these irresponsible bunch of idiots. I was wondering whether these police officers who attacked these boys and girls in that brutal manner have children of their own at their homes. I don’t think they do. I also don’t think there is any difference between these students and your own children. This is the age of recent and adolescence of these children, which all of us, including those who attacked and ordered them to do so, have passed not long ago.

However much one tries to justify the attack, I don’t think any sensible man or woman will ever agree with such foolish treatment on students in that age group. For me it was nothing short of a battle field, an advancing killer army chasing after the enemy after their blood. Only thing missing here was shooting, beheading and killing, although it was very close to that when you watch. The way police officers madly charging and hammering the defenseless, the way helpless unarmed students running, falling,  bleeding  and were getting trampled on the highway (which also now belong to the M/Higher education under the present government) is real drama on the highway. No one could see it as an innocent attempt by a trained and disciplined set of police officers to disperse a boisterous set of students who had gathered there to ask for a glass of water to quench their immediate juvenile thirst.

I am sure these students have not come to declare war against anybody there. Nor were they at war with anyone. According to papers they have come to seek redress for few of their problems like recognition for HNDE, Enhancement of Mahapola payments, Issue of Private Universities and Student victimization. So why were they hammered like this and under whose orders the police carried out that ugly and merciless beating. As for me as a father, one time teacher cum Principal of a school and a Secretary of an Education Ministry and above all as a human being with common sense I cannot approve this kind of behavior either by police, officials or politicians at all.

As I was watching this rather uncivilized attack, my mind went back to 1994 when I had to face a similar situation as the newly appointed Secretary to the Ministry. That day also there was a similar demonstration outside the gates of the M/of education. We never summoned the police and asked them to disperse them as enemies. We though it is our bounded duty to listen to  them and to settle their grievances. A delegation of 5 0r 6 were invited in for a discussion. Mr M.D.D.Pieris who was the Secretary to the M/Higher Education was in the chair. Other participants were Prof Luxman Jayatilaka (Chairmen Education Commission and former VC Peradeniya), Acting Director Institute of HNDE Moratuwa and Principal Maradana Tech College. After initial talks with the Chairman the President of the Students body said that they have had127 similar meetings with officials and met the Minister 27 times previously with no results in spite of the promises made. Then he said they are walking out as they don’t see any difference between that meeting and the previous ones.

The same day at 2.30 PM I met those boys and girls at Moratuwa in the company of Luxman and was able to sort out the 3 year old dispute in about 20 minutes. The students return to their classes from next day and I was told there was no problems at Moratuwa thereafter for  about 3 years though I left the ministry to take up my new position as the Secretary to Mrs Bandaranaike’s Ministry few days thereafter.

I do not propose to go in to details as to how I resolved that here. If you are interested to know the magic formula I adopted (it it was no magic at all, but simple common sense only), I invite you to read Pages 156-162 of my book Deyata Ahimivana Ran Akara (A Godage Publication 2013) to find out as to how I sorted out that long standing problem within such a short time to everybody’s satisfaction. I have given a full description of the event from A-Z within those few pages for the benefit of posterity.

See how easily these problems could be resolved if you apply common sense. Of course one must address these problems with an open mind. Ministers and officials must realize that they are there to solve people’s problems. The irony is these problems are not created by the students. If you carefully look at them, finally you will find that all these problems have been created by none other than the politicians and the officials who now get the police to baton charge the innocent students. If these Governments continue to adopt this policy all our men will end up in Korea as labourers and women in the Middle East as domestic labour and  Sri Lanka will end up as the country in the Indian Ocean that supplies the cheapest human labour before long. I don’t think we need to have a Central Government with 225 Ministers,  an Executive President and a Prime Minister, nine Provincial Councils with 9 Governors, 9 Cheap Ministers, 45 Ministers and nearly 900 provincial Councilors’ and a gigantic public service with1 public Official to every 16 people in this country at such enormous cost and inconvenience to the general public.

In a civilized democratic society this incident alone is enough for the Minister and those who are vested with the responsibility of the subject of HNDA/E to resign immediately, of course if they have an iota of self respect and shame including who gave orders to baton charge the students that day. In my opinion the Minister should immediately tender his resignation taking full responsibility for this incident without trying to find any more lame excuses.

Finally it reminds me of a golden saying the Editor Island had penned few days back at this moment.

A monkey with a straight razor is less dangerous that a Politician”. Having watched this incident, I would add the word police Officer too to this adage.