President, jails and schools
03 March 2017
President Maithripala Sirisena has said he turned down an
invitation to declare open the Angunukolapalessa prison complex, as we
reported yesterday. But, he is ready to attend the opening of a school
anytime, he has said. His aversion to penal institutions is
understandable. Nobody likes pens, the mere sight of which is
depressing.
Luckily for President Sirisena, the Joint
Opposition has already said the leaders of the previous government
should be given the credit for building the Angunukolapaless prison.
Else, he would have been accused of setting up a jail in Hambantota,
the stronghold of the Rajapaksas, with an ulterior motive. Had he lost
the last presidential election the new prison would have been opened
with him as the first inmate!
President Sirisena’s refusal
to open jails should be appreciated. Similarly, it does not make any
sense for either him or the Prime Minister to expend their time and
energy and, above all, public funds to attend most other opening
ceremonies as well. There are many pressing national issues for them to
contend with and it is baffling how on earth they find time to travel
all over the country to grace so many functions. The same goes for
ministers who chase their tails and waste colossal amounts of taxpayers’
money to be seen at inauguration ceremonies and other such events
which serve no purpose. True, they may get some political mileage from
such functions, but they will surely gain much more politically if they
devote their time and energy to their work and make a serious effort
to solve the burning problems such as the high cost of living, the
deterioration of the law and order situation, the shocking depreciation
of the rupee, lack of foreign investment, dwindling foreign reserves
and the ever worsening balance of payment woes.
The opening
of a school is tantamount to the closing down of a jail, as a local
saying goes. One may ask whether it is the closure of so many schools
during the last several decades which has led to the setting up of new
prisons. The last ten years or so have seen the closure of as many as
220 underprivileged schools in all parts of the country, according to
teachers’ trade unions. Interestingly, towards the tail end of the
Rajapaksa government, the number of schools suddenly rose from 9,661 to
10,220. This was due to a sleight of hand rather than the construction
of new schools. Primary sections were separated from many schools and
this jilmaat (trick) was used to dupe the public. The Education
Ministry website has since chosen to black out the data that can be
used to find out the number of schools already closed or earmarked for
closure, trade unionists say.
Jails are a necessary evil.
Lawbreakers who are a threat to society have to be kept somewhere.
(Police may be convinced otherwise as could be seen from the manner in
which they eliminate criminals instead of crime!) The existing prisons
are bursting at the seams and the need for new spacious ones with
modern facilities cannot be overemphasised. There should be separate
pens for young offenders. At present, a youth who serves a sentence for
a minor offence in a prison graduates to serious crime upon being
released thanks to his association with underworld figures behind bars.
Public
schools are as overcrowded as prisons and concentrated in urban areas.
Sadly, no government has cared to address this problem; the private
sector has moved in to make a killing as evident from the mushrooming of
the so-called international schools to cater to the increasing demand
for schools. Let President Sirisena be urged to build more schools and
develop the existing ones as a national priority so as to obviate the
need for more prisons.
No comments:
Post a Comment