Let not protesters jeopardize our freedom
Freedom is the most hallowed concept that democracy has bestowed on humanity. The love of and the yearning for freedom have been the driving force behind history’s greatest revolutions and wars. It is perhaps the strongest pillar on which modern civilization stands. Failure to understand the true meaning of freedom by those enjoying it can certainly be self-destructive.
Going by the unreasonable and futile strikes and protests from village level to the level of professionals and intellectuals it looks as if freedom has reached the endangered stage. With the gross abuse of freedom all too apparent today, regrettably people are beginning to see merit in repressive governance. Comments such as, “leaders of strikes and protests and even media personnel giving them publicity would be in hiding had the white van culture existed,” have begun to be heard loud and clear on the corridors and watering holes. Indeed freedom is too precious a commodity to be placed in the hands of political imbeciles that dominate our society. There is reason to believe that kind hearted Mother Lanka has gifted Gillettes and Wilkinsons to monkeys!
In post-Independence Sri Lanka, after the 1956 regime led by the great democrat S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike no government has been pounded and peppered by so many organised groups of idiots who cannot differentiate between democratic freedom and dictatorial repression, than the present regime.
It is tragic indeed that strikes and protests that had always been rights and privileges of the working class and indeed the modus operandi created by working class leaders to win concessions and legitimate rights have today been usurped by misguided, politicized professionals and so called intellectuals. Even the budding intellectual community of undergraduates coming mainly from the less affluent segments of society has been misled to join strikes and protests at the risk of irreparable damage to their own futures. The SAITM issue is symbolic of this catastrophic situation. Behind this chaos is the GMOA that comprises men and women who have taken a solemn oath to care for the sick.
The country is badly in need of more doctors. But the GMOA wants only the State Universities to teach medicine. State universities are unable to take all students who qualify for medical studies.
But the GMOA utilizing all resources at its command is preventing the private sector from filling this lacuna. The former clearly has lost its capacity to reason.
When democratic freedoms were curtailed under the last regime the loud mouthed GMOA leaders were blind to the KDU starting a medical faculty.
The GMOA’s tail was tucked tightly between its hind legs when the good, great and mighty Gotabhaya held the reigns and disappearances in white vans were the order of the day.
The sinister scam behind the strikes and protests using SAITM as the reason has yet to be properly understood by the country. It is now obvious that by crippling the system the GMOA has maliciously and effectively blocked the emergence of doctors from state Universities for several years to come, an outcome for the GMOA to celebrate with gusto!
Medical education free or otherwise cannot be denied to the qualified and deserving. To deprive this right in one’s own country and at the same time compel students and parents to spend millions in foreign exchange and obtain medical degrees from even unheard of Universities outside our shores is nothing short of downright treachery.
The government has every right to deal firmly with the opponents of SAITM who are causing so much inconvenience to the public.
To protect our freedom has today become the foremost responsibility of the State.
EDWARD GUNAWARDENA
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