Ceylon Today Editorial

Uproar in Upcountry

03 October 2016

 

Upcountry plantation workers are up in arms for the past one week demanding a thousand rupee increase to their basic salary.

In the past one week unlike in the previous agitations staged by the Upcountry plantation workers, almost all the trade unions have joined hands in demanding the pay hike.

In several areas in the Upcountry the protests staged by the labour force have crippled activities in the plantation sector and according to reports the Upcountry workers are adamant this time demanding their pay hike and in various places they have created road blocks to show their anger by burning tyres.

The Upcountry plantation workforce which was brought from South India by the British has a long history of 150 years. They were not only used in the plantation sector, but have also been used extensively in developing the infrastructure in the central hills.

Even now the living condition and the lifestyle of the workforce in most of the areas in the Upcountry remain the same as it was in the early days of their arrival in the island 150 years ago.

The majority of the Upcountry plantation workers being Hindus, for the past several years have been agitating for a pay hike when 'Deepavali' the foremost festival of Hindus, is around the corner in October.

People from South India were taken to various countries in South Asia and South East Asia in their thousands as a promising workforce to be used in the plantation sector when the Union Jack was flying high in South Asia and South East Asia. However, in several countries the living condition of the majority of the South Indian workforce brought by the British has improved significantly with their present generation excelling in various fields.

However, in Sri Lanka the living condition of the majority of plantation workers in the Upcountry remain in a pathetic state with various political forces and trade unions in the Upcountry hardly paying any attention to their poverty-stricken state.

Legendry Upcountry leader late

S. Thondaman who was the founder of the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) made a tremendous contribution in winning the political rights of the plantation workers and making them on par with other citizens in the country.

Despite the majority of people in the plantation sector living below the poverty line, a significant percentage of their present generation has enhanced themselves politically, academically and professionally in the island with Justice S. Thurairaja becoming the first Superior Court judge from the Upcountry recently.

So the ongoing uproar in the Upcountry has highlighted the plight of the plantation workers and how they have been hit below the belt.

The agitating plantation workers have pointed out that despite the expiry of the Mutual Agreement which decides their pay hike eighteen months ago, no firm action has been taken on their future salary scale.

Plantation workers who are up in arms against their trade unions and the planters have emphasized that they need the Rs 1,000 pay hike and it should be given to them without further delay.

They have also warned that they would isolate the trade unions and even stop making their contributions to them.

Plantations Minister, Navin Dissanayake, calling for the plantation workers to keep away from engaging in any form of civil disobedience, has pointed out that their salary issue should be sorted out through negotiations, and not by creating a chaotic situation.

It is not for the first time the plantation workers are agitating for their pay hike. Almost every year they stage protests to highlight their plight and emphasize the need of ensuring a healthy pay hike.

As there are several trade unions and political parties that have emerged from the hills with several Upcountry politicians holding ministerial portfolios, the burning issues of the innocent Upcountry workforce should be dealt with in a humanitarian manner without leaving room for people in the hills to cry forever.

Daily News Editorial

Cart before the horse?

03 October 2016

The government is to set up 670 new national schools countrywide, it is being reported. According to Public Administration and Management Minister Ranjith Madduma Bandara this is with a view to reduce competition for the 376 most popular schools in the country. The move indeed is most welcome if only it serves the purpose mentioned by the Minister.

In our view, no new schools, national or otherwise is going to change the entrenched mindsets of parents who have their own opinions as to what constitutes a popular school. No parent is going to put his/her child, say, to a Royal College in Gampaha or a St.Josephs College in Panadura. They prefer the genuine article and they cannot be blamed for this. Given the shenanigans parents undergo to get their children admitted to elite schools, such as taking temporary residence in the vicinity of such schools to qualify for the area rule, the doctoring of light bills and telephone bills etc. it is clear to what extent parents go to get their children admitted to the best of schools. The current demand by the doctors to get their children admitted to 12 selected schools is a case in point. They will not settle for anything less.

Hence, the government would do well to give this idea much thought before going ahead with the move. Instead what it should do is to improve and upgrade the quality of the existing schools. We say this because today most of the schools, particularly in the rural areas, are in a deplorable state. Some schools are without proper buildings to house students. Most schools, even in the cities, are in a derelict state. Many of them lack the basic facilities. Recently it was reported that some schools even lack drinking water and toilet facilities and come the rains classrooms starts leaking. In certain areas classes are held under trees due to lack of space.

Most schools in the rural outback don’t have teachers for subjects such as science, maths and English. Schools in the plantations are in a parlous state. Teachers are poorly paid and show little interest towards their jobs. All these matters should be rectified before thought is given to building new schools. There is also the question of school dropouts due to issues such as poverty. Although the government has set a compulsory age where children should attend school there is no means of knowing if this us been adhered to.

The government should also direct its attention to the type of education that is being imparted in our schools. The curricular should be more oriented towards job creation in this day and age dispensing with the age old practice of mere book knowledge being rammed into the heads of the students. The government should think of creating more vocational training institutes rather than building national schools all over the country. This would equip our youth with the necessary skills to face up to the future challenges in the employment sphere.

Attention should also be paid towards the quality of teachers. Today tutories are mushrooming by the day and children flock to tuition classes due to either the lackadaisical attitude of the teachers who shirk their duty towards the students or willfully neglect their charges to draw them to the tuition classes run by these teachers. If that indeed is the case the whole purpose of building schools will be lost and a waste of money. Besides, today there is a dearth of teachers and how will the government recruit teachers to the 670 schools that are to be built is the question. In short the government should reconsider the whole educational set up in the country and bring it up to date with the emerging scenario. Interference by politicians with the education set up over the years have not helped matters either. A comprehensive study should be undertaken by experts, knowledgeable in the education sphere, on the whole gamut of the ills affecting the country’s education system before schools are built willy nilly across the country. It will be akin to putting the cart before the horse.

A welcome move

More lands are to be released in the North for resettlement of internally displaced persons. According to our report quoting Rehabilitation and Resettlement Minister D. M. Swaminathan, President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has directed the Defence Ministry to release land, 454.2 acres in extent. The release of land for resettlement purposes in the North was commenced by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the present government is continuing with the process. These are after all persons who had to cede their lands either to the army or driven away by the LTTE during the war years. Hence no member of the Joint Opposition it is presumed will raise howls of protests at the move. The Minister also said that a lot of development activity will be launched side by side with the resettlement work. It is also hoped that livelihood projects too will be launched for these IDPs to facilitate the rebuilding of their lives that suffered dislocation due to the unfortunate events.

The Island Editorial

Another red herring

03 October 2016

 

We have recently pointed out, in these columns, that, in action flicks ,heroes and villains, in flight, kick garbage bins etc on their way to distract and obstruct their pursuers in a bid to make good their escape. Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam went out of his way to ban dress codes some schools had imposed on visiting parents. He used that ruse to distract the public from the burning issues in the education sector and the possibility of the GMOA resorting to trade union action over his alleged refusal to admit the children of its members on transfer to the state-run schools of their choice. Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government Faiszer Musthapha has apparently taken a leaf from Kariyawasam’s book.

Minister Musthapha has warned that unless ratepayers sort garbage themselves municipal councils won’t collect it. His much-publicized warning, if not threat, gives the impression that the government has sought to lay the blame for the garbage problem at the doorstep of Citizen Perera. Drawing heavy flak for postponing local government elections for political reasons Musthapha is apparently trying to have the public think he is doing something.

Sri Lankans have the bad habit of dumping refuse of all sorts into garbage bags or cans. They should be encouraged to separate refuse prior to disposal. However, the question is whether the municipal authorities have cared to provide the public with separate bags and bins for that purpose. There was such a system in place a long time ago, but it was left to wither on the vine. This newspaper has received several complaints from its readers that a waste material collection centre at Piliyandala, where people used to hand over used bottles, plastic etc., separately has been closed down. What action will Minister Musthapha take against those who closed down that centre?

Will Minister Musthapha tell the public what the local government bodies are going to do with the garbage separated by ratepayers? Do they have recycling facilities to handle glass, plastic, paper, leftover food etc? Or, are they planning to dump those waste materials separately in the outskirts of the towns and cities? The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC), which used to transport all its waste to Meethotamulla, is now without a garbage dump: the Meethotamulla people, on the warpath, have moved the courts against the mountain of garbage in thier neighbourhood and the residents of Ja-Ela, led by religious dignitaries, are protesting against a CMC move to set up a refuse dump in their area. How will the sorting of garbage at the domestic level help the CMC?

People get arrested for leaving their garbage in public places. But, the local government institutions, especially the CMC, dump their waste in suburbs, causing environmental pollution, with impunity! It also costs the public dear to have mosquito breeding places in and around their houses or business places, but the city stepfathers and their bureaucratic lackeys who allow mosquitoes to breed in wayside gutters and various other places get away with that offence and dengue continues to snuff out ratepayers’ lives.

Meanwhile, though the government has pathetically failed to handle municipal waste, it has demonstrated its adeptness at recycling political garbage. President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have used the National List for this purpose very effectively. People relegated quite a few candidates to the political dustbin at the last general election, but those rejects were taken out of the refuse dump, sanitised with the ‘yahapalana’ detergent, as it were, and sent to Parliament. What the champions of good governance have done may be likened to serving discarded food retrieved from a refuse bin.

The need for a concerted national effort to solve the garbage problem cannot be overemphasised. But, ad hoc remedies are bound to fail. Instead of scratching the surface of the issue, let Minister Musthapha be urged to hold the much-delayed local government elections fast without trying to draw red herrings.