Ceylon Today Editorial

Navel bigger than empty classrooms

Friday 13th November 2015

 
We cannot comprehend, despite the many hours spent pondering on it, how and why Western Province Chief Minister Isuru Dewapriya suggested bringing a ban for teachers wearing the saree below their navels.

Speaking to the media earlier this week Chief Minister Dewapriya had said that he hoped to introduce a circular, banning the school teachers in the Western Province wearing sarees displaying their navel. This report became notoriously condemned and criticized in a matter of hours up on social networks and was imbecilic enough to enrage trade union activists.

Ceylon Teachers' Union took the lead in criticizing this suggestion saying that Chief Minister Dewapriya has no power to issue such a circular. General Secretary of the Union Joseph Stalin claimed that this suggestion clearly shows the 'uncivilized mental status' of the Chief Minister. We cannot help but agree with him in this matter as even we have wondered and wasted plenty of time thinking of a mental condition he might be suffering from to come up with such a suggestion.
And to think, us, the general public voted him into politics.

Meanwhile, another hilariously similar proposal was brought to the limelight due to the brilliant thinking of the Chief Minister of the Uva Province.

According to the proposal that was brought forward by Chief Minister Chamara Sampath Dassanayake the use of mobile phones during school hours will be prohibited for teachers at schools within the Uva Province with effect from January next year. He stated that information has been received that certain students also bring mobile phones to school and that he has instructed relevant school principals to take proper action regarding the matter in the near future.

Addressing a gathering the Chief Minister Dassanayake had stated that teachers will be instructed to switch off their mobile phones and place them at the principal's office during school hours. He had said that school principal's telephone number can be provided as a means to contact the teachers during this time period in case of emergencies. Dassanayake had warned (stressed on the word 'warned') that teachers should be ready for a transfer if they were caught using mobile phone during school hours.

Public services are services which are provided by the government to people living within its jurisdiction, either directly (through the public sector) or by financing provision of services. In Sri Lanka, a majority of the education sector, apart from the private sector falls under the public services. Providing education, proper infrastructure and the financing of infrastructure and the wages of education providers (i.e. teachers) come under the purview of the Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Higher Education. The finances that are allocated accordingly by the ministries are distributed by the Provincial Councils to the necessary schools and education providers. It is the ministry that is in charge of bringing any kind of circular that would make any changes to the current education sector which, if necessary, will be argued in Parliament and be given approval.

No one has given the authority to the Provincial Council or its Chief Ministers to bring such circulars that would bring about a change in the country's education sector. Thus, it begs the question how these two ignoramus duo of Chief Ministers are going to bring about their navel issue circular and the no-phone proposal for teachers.

Sri Lanka's education system is in peril and has been at the brink of collapse since the dawn of the 21st century. There are schools that do not have proper buildings to hold students and teachers, no proper seats or desks, no proper libraries and reading material, sanitation facilities and water supplies that are non-existent. There are schools that have more than 500 students with only 10 teachers to teach them. In some cases these teachers, who are qualified to teach only one subject, teach all the subjects in the curriculum due to the lack of teachers.

More so, there are schools that are not properly equipped to present students who can continue their education into the universities. There aren't enough qualified teachers who are able handed and experienced. It has become a daily habit for university students to take to the streets demanding education rights, free of politics and bureaucracy. Teachers demand excess wages and wage hikes. Schools don't have proper facilities that are necessary for human beings to live in. School children are asking for a proper education which allows them to be successful in the long run.

All the while, the only things these politicians care about are the uncivilized taboo behind the female navel and mobile phones. Education has simply become buriya of the joke in this country.

Daily Mirror Editorial

The spirit of a just society comes alive

Friday 13th November 2015

 

While a grateful nation said farewell yesterday to Sobitha Hamuduruwo who played a crucial and frontline role in the peaceful battle to build a just society, a note of consolation and hope was that the spirit of this courageous, prophetic prelate appears to be coming alive in the leaders of the new National Unity Government.

Columnist Ranga Kalansuriya in our newspaper today makes an interesting and significant observation. If the peaceful people’s revolution that took place on January 8 could be compared to the world-famous liberation struggle in South Africa, something like the role of Archbishop Desmond Tutu was played by Sobitha Hamuduruwo here. Unfortunately Sri Lanka’s Nelson Mandela is still missing.

 Thankfully the spirit of Sobitha Hamuduruwo—with large crowds turning up to say a sincere thank you to him and the government giving him unprecedented State honours—that vital missing factor seems to be appearing like the dim light of a distant dawn.

 According to most reports, Sobitha Hamuduruwo during the past few months and specially during his grave illness had not been happy about how the National Unity Government was moving towards the vision, goals and aims that he and the new government leaders had promised to take in building a new Sri Lanka. He may not have said, “my spirit is crushed by sorrow to the point of death”, but after his cardiac surgery he had confided in close friends that the wounds were not healing, physically and mentally. One of the failures that disappointed him and most people was the mysterious delay in investigating and bringing to justice, politicians and officials who were allegedly involved in fraud, corruption and bribery. Since January 8, almost 2000 major complaints had been made to the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), and other agencies such as the Financial Crimes Investigation Department. But the evidence-gathering and prosecution processes were mired in mysterious delays with Sobitha Hamuduruwo and others asking whether  there was corruption within corruption now, whether personal or party interests were being put before the country’s interests and whether robbers, racketeers and other criminals were again trying to take control.

Amid much controversy on Wednesday, the eve of Sobitha Hamuduruwo’s funeral, President Maithripala Sirisena has directed officials to look at the possibility of the Sri Lanka Navy taking over the Avant Garde operation. As final preparations were being made for one of the biggest funerals in recent times, President Sirisena who is also the Defence Minister and Commander-in -Chief summoned a crisis meeting  of the Armed Services Chiefs, the Attorney General and others involved in or connected with this widely-publicised case. The crisis meeting came two days after Law and Order Minister Tilak Marapana, a former Attorney General, resigned.

Often in history, when a noble, sincere, selfless and sacrificial personality lives and dies for a cause such as a just society, his spirit comes alive in others. If this is happening, then though we said a sad farewell to Sobitha Hamuduruwo yesterday, we have reason to hope that his spirit will live on and Sri Lanka will march with more vigour and commitment towards good governance, democracy, social justice and public accountability.