Savages in universities

Tuesday 13th December, 2022

Sri Lankan universities, more often than not, are in the news for the wrong reason. The University of Peradeniya has grabbed the headlines again. A mob of undergraduates stormed the official residence of former Vice Chancellor, Senior Professor Athula Senaratne, and assaulted him and his son besides inflicting considerable damage on his property, over the weekend. What sparked this bestial violence, according to media reports, was an incident where two motorcycles toppled over when the don’s son tried to remove them as they were blocking his path.

Neither side to the dispute can be expected to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Only a thorough probe will reveal what actually happened. But the fact remains that the students should not have taken the law into their own hands; there are civilised ways of sorting out disputes. If the motorcycles had been damaged due to the fall, their owners could have reported the matter to the police and sought compensation. They and their savage attacks on the former vice chancellor and his son must be condemned unreservedly. This is not the first time they have gone berserk.

Education is said to bring about discipline, but the unruly university students like the ones who ran amok, on Sunday, at Peradeniya, have caused the veracity of this axiom to be doubted. This does not mean that all students should be painted with the same brush. Many of them are non-violent and desirous of pursuing their studies while enjoying university life. But when they remain silent, allowing the sociopaths among them to rule the roost, it is only natural that the public tends to use a broad-brush approach. The violent undergrads have become a law unto themselves. They have turned the university system into a human rights black hole while holding street protests purportedly to protect democracy!

University students have been agitating in the streets during the past several weeks, urging the government to respect the rule of law and desist from suppressing the democratic rights of people. They want everyone else to respect democracy and human rights, and remain unprovoked, but they resort to violence at the slightest provocation! It is a widely held belief that the most effective way of cleansing politics, straightening up public institutions and achieving national progress is to have educated persons in key positions of the state service and in political institutions, especially Parliament. But given the sorry state of affairs in the universities, the question is whether it is realistic to expect the so-called ‘educated’ persons to make a difference! There is a semblance of order in Parliament, but the same cannot be said about most universities, which are perennially in chaos. One sees hardly any difference between aggressive politicians who abuse power to intimidate their rivals, and the university student unions that do not tolerate dissent and unleash violence to frighten others into submission.

The police are reported to have launched a probe into Sunday’s attack at Peradeniya. All those involved therein must be arrested and prosecuted without further delay. Some of the attackers are reported to have been suspended, but much more needs to be done. These rowdies must be made to face the full force of the law. They are a threat to not only the university but also society at large. It should be found out whether they need psychiatric treatment.

University teachers have condemned the attack on the former Peradeniya VC and his son. They must go beyond throwing paper missiles, as it were, at violent student groups and ensure that justice is done. They haul politicians over the coals for human rights abuses and the breakdown of law and order, and with reason. But universities have become hellholes where democratic dissent is violently suppressed, and the rights of students who refuse to give in to ultra-radical elements with an anarchic agenda blatantly violated. A few weeks ago, a group of Peradeniya law students were attacked while they were having lunch at an Arts Faculty canteen, which some thugs in the garb of undergrads had audaciously declared out of bounds for the victims because of their campaign against ragging. Let the university teachers be urged to take the lead in liberating the universities from the clutches of undergraduate thugs.