Youth, and sombre presage of trouble

Saturday 2nd January, 2021

The present Parliament is not without cultured, intelligent members who fight for the rights of the public. SJB National List MP Imtiaz Bakir Marker has recently told the media that the Sri Lankan youth have been denied a fair deal anent political representation. He has called for increasing the number of young representatives in political institutions. One could not agree with him more. There is no gainsaying that the youth who account for nearly one fourth of the country’s population deserve a better deal.

The electoral system should be changed to have many more young members in political institutions, but that alone will not help solve the issues affecting the youth. We have had a considerable number of young MPs all these years, but how many of them have taken up the cudgels for the rights of the youth? Most leaders of the political parties currently represented in Parliament entered politics while they were still young, but have done little for the country’s youth; they have only looked after their offspring and relatives. Therefore, besides increasing the representation of the youth at all three tiers of government—Parliament, the provincial councils and the local government institutions—governments ought to work hard to develop this country so that opportunities will be available for the youth to achieve their goals.

Most youth are reluctant to live in this country, which they will leave, at the first opportunity. This is the sad truth successive governments have chosen to ignore. All these decades, other countries have benefited from Sri Lanka’s free education system in that the best brains produced here have served them. We have been feeding the proverbial cow, which other nations have been milking. Many Sri Lankan professionals sent overseas for further education or training have neither returned nor paid for violating their agreements with the state.

The youth are politically conscious and active albeit on a different plane, which is basically digital. If one studies popular social media posts, one will realise how creative the youth are in expressing their frustration. Iconoclasm is associated with the rebellious youth, who are known for calling anyone on the carpet at the drop of a hat, but these posts are indicative of a deep-seated antipathy towards politicians and political institutions. The vast majority of young social media activists are cynics. Their cynicism is symptomatic of their disenchantment with the system and fraught with the danger of finding expression in popular uprisings like the Arab Spring, which turned out to be a winter of despair for the countries where it was staged. Pent-up anger of the youth gives a turbo boost to the sinister outfits with extra-parliamentary agendas. This may explain why the JVP succeeded in making the youth take up arms, plunge the country into a bloodbath and perish in two abortive insurrections.

One may recall that the wall art spree that followed the 2019 regime change; thousands of young artists turned the country into an art gallery. They acted on their own and received public assistance; it was a form of catharsis. But they lost interest in their artistic endeavour after a few weeks probably because the new government failed to live up to their expectations, and the promised new beginning became yet another false dawn.

The yahapalana government apparently thought the youth lived on data. Hence its offer of free Wi-Fi in public places. The present dispensation seems to think ball games will keep the youth happy. It is not only the old birds that cannot be caught with chaff; the young birds are also wise in this country and cannot be easily fooled. They need opportunities to pursue education and secure employment. The majority of students who qualify for university admission are left out as the universities lack facilities and resources to accommodate them. Only the progeny of the rich could afford private education. The local job market is almost saturated, and most of the educated youth are either unemployed or underemployed.

The present-day leaders had better secure copies of the report of the Presidential Commission on Youth (1990) and read and understand its findings and recommendations. (Imtiaz has referred to this valuable document, which he must have read as a young MP at the time.) Only a few of the commission recommendations have been implemented.

The Youth Commission was appointed following the brutal suppression of the second JVP insurrection (1987-89). Three decades have elapsed since the publication of its report, and the incumbent government should give serious thought to appointing a new youth commission to ascertain the views of the youth on the various issues they are faced with and how they think they can be tackled. The frustration of their wishes has made the youth resentful and their consternation is palpable. This, we reckon, is a sombre presage of trouble.