{"id":55445,"date":"2012-09-29T18:30:19","date_gmt":"2012-09-29T18:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=55445"},"modified":"2012-10-03T08:46:14","modified_gmt":"2012-10-03T08:46:14","slug":"dissolving-governments-and-insoluble-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/dissolving-governments-and-insoluble-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Dissolving Governments And Insoluble People"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri<\/a><\/span>, President of the Federation of University Teachers\u2019 Association (FUTA<\/a><\/span>) came up with a classic re-quote (i.e. from Bertold Brecht): \u2018Although the Government accuses us of falling pretty to the designs of various political parties, our union action is not about regime-change but affecting democratic social transformation, not of bringing a new government to power but to obtain a new public, a new people that can comprehend well the existing social injustice.\u2019<\/p>\n

The condescension about public intelligence aside, it is nevertheless an admirable stand to take.\u00a0 FUTA, for all its many flaws, has made a mark for itself, thanks largely to Devasiri\u2019s leadership.\u00a0 The march from Galle to Colombo was disciplined and conducted with minimal inconvenience to the general public.\u00a0 This is all the more significant considering that the parties that marched with FUTA by both habit and intent wanted otherwise and moreover had the arm-twisting options of capital and numbers.\u00a0 Devasiri is reported to have said that if the lines were broken, they could leave.\u00a0 That is courage, conviction, the spirit of democracy and exceptional leadership.\u00a0 Salutations are in order!<\/p>\n

The following Facebook status message is symptomatic of public angst and hope: I don\u2019t care (if) FUTA is \u2018sensational\u2019 coz it is not just some Silva\u2019s drama, but something worth \u2018sensationalizing\u2019 for publicity!\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

FUTA, for all its many flaws, has made a mark for itself, thanks largely to Devasiri\u2019s leadership.<\/p><\/div>\n

This was my response: \u2018True..it\u2019s not some Silva\u2019s drama, but drama nevertheless.\u00a0 Not a great script, poor acting, some shady \u2018producers\u2019 and all that\u2026but still, there are good people, honest intention and decency. That\u2019s something to cheer.\u2019<\/p>\n

This was endorsed: \u2018What I meant was it is for a worthy cause\u2019.\u00a0 And I elaborated, \u2018\u201d6%\u201d is part of the sensationalism.\u00a0 That\u2019s not \u2018cause\u2019 but \u2018effect\u2019.\u00a0 There is a lot of MIS-education about this free education business (but) the Government is the FIRST Respondent in this case.<\/p>\n

FUTA doesn\u2019t have much of a case when it comes to the salary issue.\u00a0 This is perhaps why it expanded the political ground by sidelining the legitimate pertaining to union action and choosing a wider platform, free education.\u00a0 They went further, or perhaps narrower, with the \u20186% demand\u2019 (i.e. a 6% of GDB equivalent as allocation for education<\/a><\/span>).\u00a0 Out went the details.\u00a0 Out went sober economic analysis.\u00a0 In came the matter of throwing more money into a flawed program, an eventuality that would most certainly exacerbate the problem.\u00a0 FUTA asked for the moon and called it \u2018free\u2019.\u00a0 Good for politics, bad for ethics.\u00a0 FUTA marketed \u2018free education\u2019 and kept mum on responsibility.\u00a0 Good for politics, bad for the future.<\/p>\n

For all this (perhaps necessary) frilling, there\u2019s something about this agitation that is solid.\u00a0 Hollow as the slogans are, the spark that might become a fire is real enough.\u00a0 That spark has been misnamed, but it is about policy or rather the lack of it.\u00a0 The Government is the First Respondent here.\u00a0 No question about it.\u00a0 Just as the 17th<\/sup> Amendment<\/a><\/span>, flawed though it was, was nevertheless the best intervention at obtaining better governance in almost 25 years and therefore deserved salutation, FUTA\u2019s position and action remains the best chance for getting the education policy right.\u00a0 Sparks can create infernos. They can also light lamp that dispel darkness.\u00a0 I don\u2019t see the Government getting any lamps ready.<\/p>\n

This is what makes Nirmal\u2019s Brechtian an important sentiment that also points to crisis as well as solution.\u00a0 Politicians just won\u2019t do it, and so the people must.\u00a0 It is a lovely idea of course.\u00a0 Where it falls flat is on the uneven map of the political.\u00a0 At least in this instance.<\/p>\n

The March was disciplined, but coherence of objective was absent.\u00a0 There were UNP supporters screaming \u2018Ape anagatha nayakathumaata jayaweva (Victory to our future leader)!\u2019 That\u2019s Sajith Premadasa.\u00a0 The front seats of the rally were reserved for UNP stalwarts.\u00a0 Nirmal had center stage of course and as a people\u2019s and power-to-people kind of articulator one can stretch the point and say that the parties (UNP and JVP) were off-staged.<\/p>\n

It also happened in the early 1990s, friends.<\/p>\n

Academics, journalists, NGO personalities and other activists took to the streets.\u00a0 It was not Chandrika Kumaratunga<\/a><\/span>\u2019s party they attended.\u00a0 She was just one more party to the euphoria of the possible.\u00a0 In 1994, there was an election.\u00a0 The party-makers turned into voters.\u00a0 The \u2018backers\u2019 ran for election.\u00a0 They went to Parliament.\u00a0 End of story.<\/p>\n

\u2018Making\u2019 a \u2018new\u2019 people is not easy.\u00a0 Political parties don\u2019t want people to be \u2018new\u2019.\u00a0 Nirmal has got the line right.\u00a0 He has to get the people right too.\u00a0 He is getting the Right people and they are not in love with anything but markets and capital.\u00a0 He has asked for pledges regarding free education.\u00a0 Chandrika was not asked to pledge, but she did vow to abolish the executive presidency<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 Nirmal can count on follower-naivet\u00e9 but that\u2019s not the way to go about making a \u2018new\u2019 people.<\/p>\n

It is the \u2018government\u2019 after all that according to Brecht dissolves the people and appoints another one.\u00a0 Governments can do that.\u00a0 Insoluble people are rare.\u00a0 They will be there at the end.\u00a0 And they are enough.\u00a0 Innocence is a necessary ingredient in all this.\u00a0 It is not sufficient.<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation<\/a>\u2018 and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":44732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[5157,5156,5158,5153,5155,5154],"class_list":["post-55445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial","tag-17th-amendment","tag-6-of-gdb-equivalent-as-allocation-for-education","tag-abolish-the-executive-presidency-sri-lanka","tag-bertold-brecht-quote","tag-free-education-in-sri-lanka","tag-futa-march-from-galle-to-colombo"],"yoast_head":"\nDissolving Governments And Insoluble People - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/dissolving-governments-and-insoluble-people\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dissolving Governments And Insoluble People - 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