A quagmire that could have been

avoided

The recent police-university students clash need not have happened.

Perhaps there were deeper unseen motives behind the violence

2015-11-06

The recent
student-police clash in Colombo raised many concerns and questions with
regard to the nuances of good governance. The main accused party was the
police that came under heavy criticism and condemnation from various
quarters of society. But in overall context the government handled the issue
well by swiftly responding in a professional manner.
A detailed analysis would reveal that this particular issue had erupted out of
nothing. According to Higher Education Minister Lakshman Kiriella all
demands of the students had been met a day before the controversial
protest, but his officials had failed to convey the message to the students.
The Sunday Times reported that the mayhem would have easily been
avoided if the officials were efficient enough to mitigate an upcoming crisis
by just relaying the information of the government to the students
concerned, according to the minister. Furthermore, while claiming that he
was not aware of the students protest, Kiriella extensively criticised the
action of the police.Many of his ministerial colleagues joined him in
defending the rights of the students a cause that they were committed to
as a prominent part of the Yahapalana concept.
In fact the communication gap between students and the Higher Education
Ministry was highlighted by Minister Tilak Marapana in his special statement
to Parliament on Tuesday.
Minister Kiriellas genuineness should be appreciated. Unlike his
predecessors who held the portfolio of higher education, he has blamed the
police for attacking the students, safeguarding the rights of the students to
protest. On the other hand, without defending his own officials for their
failure to avoid a crisis situation, his act was transparent enough in
highlighting the loopholes of the system of governance. In a nutshell, the
lethargic attitude or the inefficiency of an individual public official at the
Higher Education Ministry brought the entire regime into an uncomfortable
position and created chaos in the city for two consecutive days. There are
numerous actions being taken by various institutions against the action of
the police in this issue, but what about these officials at the Higher
Education Ministry who failed to communicate an important decision of the

government to the students in the wake of an upcoming protest?

One cannot claim that neither the government nor its officials were aware
of an upcoming student protest as there are established mechanisms to
learn about these upcoming civil unrest events well in advance. These
systems are well networked in all segments of government as well as in
social networks.
Consequently, a crisis situation could be mitigated if
communications are well managed. But in this instance,
something has drastically failed somewhere.
Later, the police said that the protest could have been
mitigated had there been an official at the UGC to meet the protestors as it
was held after-office hours. But the students were chanting slogans in front
of an empty building as by that time all had gone home.It was Saman
Ekanayaka, Secretary to Prime Minister Wickremesinghe who volunteered to
meet the students although it was late in the evening, but then it was too
late. But interestingly Deputy Minister Mohan Lal Grero was waiting to meet
the protestors next day at the same venue. Hopefully some lessons were
learnt.
Be that as it may, let us have a look at the conduct of the police in this
incident. In fact the particular conduct of the cops in handling such a crisis
situation was no different from police behaviour during the previous era. If
one could remember, a similar act of the police against a students protest
became a hot topic during the last presidential elections. Yahapalana
campaigners used a powerful image of a policeman attacking a protesting
university student mainly on the social media and vowed that such
incidents would not be repeated under a new regime.
It was clear that the police had not yet realised that there had been a
regime change from a de facto police state to a system committed to
good governance. This was their usual responses for student or any protest
for the past ten years remember Katunayaka and Rathupaswala? Use
maximum power but claim it was the minimum.
This wrong perception of the police was clearly visible during the press
briefing when the top brass defended their act just after the incident. They
talked about using minimum force and maximum force against protestors,
and then ended up with a controversial comment by the police spokesman
who used the phrase [using] necessary force. But none of the top brass
justified why police used any kind force at all against the students who
were exercising their democratic right to protest. In fact the body language
and demeanour of the police top brass at the press briefing did not not

convey a professional message. Some of the police participants appeared

to be in need of a serious capacity-building exercise on how to conduct a
press briefing.
The strategy would have been to allow the protestors to block the roads
and create havoc for office time traffic which would have been entirely
counter-productive to the protesting students. It happened on Tuesday
when Colombo came to a stand-still with protesting university students and
frustrated office crowds spending many immobile hours on the road. The
blame went to the protestors-not to the police.
To my mind, there should be a specific awareness programme by the
government or concerned stakeholders to public institutions like the Police
Department on the concept of good governance and democracy. Of course
they were governed by an autocratic, undemocratic system for a decade,
posing a challenge to change.Someone should make them realise that this
is no more a police state. Hopefully at least the Batagoda Committee would
do the needful. Its report is expected in Parliament in two weeks.
What about the students who had always been the cats paw of interested
political groups? This argument of students becoming political tools does
not undermine their rights to protests and fight for their own rights. But that
has to be done according to accepted norms and practices which they
never do. Sometimes I wonder whether we need a specific module in
university curricula to teach them how to conduct a peaceful protest. These
student protests are deliberately designed to disturb public order and
attract unnecessary attention through unusual means which ultimately
provoke the police-the reason for ugly incidents.
Do not forget that this government has two leading political figures who
have successfully led student struggles Patali Champika Ranawaka who
once was the head of the Inter University Students Federation and Karu
Paranawithana who was the President of the Colombo University Students
Union. Both have been leading firebrands in their respective university
lives. They could guide the present students on how to conduct effective,
successful struggles [and win].
Posted by Thavam