The last few weeks in SL have been quite a mess, we had our 6th presidential election and the above mentioned word " traitor" was constant in use. but i do not wish to discuss about that. instead i wish to tell you all about an experience that i myself had to undergo during last 3 weeks in exact.
It is no big seceret that most of sri lankan university student unions are moved by a single political party, and as you can guess even in the one that im also in.......to write about all that ill need a seperate other blog!!!!!!!!!!!
Right exactly two weeks before election, my group mates and i were having a chat leisurely seated in our not so cozy student room in ward22, ( normally we dont have this luxury, but those who have been to ward 22 knows why its different) in coming week, we had two days holiday,and a long weekend (which is also due to election). my friends and myself was making plans to do during that time.some guys from far away places dreamt of staying at home for a couple of days and i was hoping to go out!!!!!!!
Neither of us was aware what was ahead in the next week.....
on monday of the much awaited week,
Talks here and there about a protest, a general academic strike!!!!!!! all appointments postponed!!!!!!!!! havoc in every medical students mind!!!!!!
It all came just like that, out of the blue!!!!!!!
it was against the new private medical college!!!!! NO PMC
As much as i oppose to the New PMC, i disagreed on the strike, but as much as i disagree i accept the fact that everybody has the right to protest, but as much as i agree on that i also believe one has the right not to participate the protest.
I had a long thought, my mind couldnt understand the logic behind the strike, i thought hard, again and again,.........maybe im missing something here..........maybe my mind may not be as sound and sharp as the minds of our leaders!!!!!!!
So i went back to work!!!! so did another 10 students on that day
Havoc again!!!!!! General meetings here and there!!!!!!!! batch meetings!!!!!! suddenly we were at a heated argument.........Being from Galle me and my friends were always outcasts........ we were the bad guys......though we had done nothing to harm any of the others. Infact the local police reports might show who was under constant attack by whom.
The Union always held a personal grudge against us. two weeks before a major exam , couple of galle students were attacked.. we had a simple solution to all this, which we learnt from a great person who walked on this earth, Gandhi, the movement of non cooperation.
we decided not to get involved in anything. We came to learn and we will continue to learn. we will attend practicals , clinicals and ofcourse the lectures like we always did, as the university administration took a stern descision of not to postpone the academic work.
Then came the lies.........the union spread the message that if we were not attending anything uni admins must reschedule !!!!!!!! which the relevant authorities blatantly refused.
Then came aggression!!!!!!! because of you everything is sabotaged. All of a sudden students who are doing the thing which they are supposed to be doing,are SABBOTAGERS!!!!! whats the world coming in to............
Then came the labeling, we were traitors.......we were hands of multinational conspiracy(this one is my personal favourite)
while all of this was happening, the union allowed two appointments to be carried out, which benefited only 48 students.....but in the meantime the numbers grew who abandoned the strike......even some girlfriends of some leaders in the strike attended some lectures.some leaders themselves went to appointments.........NOW WHO ARE TRAITORS
Amidst all this calamity,we kept our cool, we did not engage in heated arguments with anyone !!!!!!! we did not went head hunting!!!!!!! we did not want to increase our numbers!!!!!!!1 it was just that motivation to do better and learn, the same motivation that brought us to this place!!!!!!
Then the union took a descision, that they no longer should keep education at bay, finally they understood that depriving education from their followers was unjust,that students should continue their work as it was the most important thing.so after a hetic three weeks period the strike abruptly ended.
for us!!!!!! we are still the TRAITORS!!!!!!!
but i have one question to my fellow medical students,
didnt we were branded as traitors because we saw something ahead of you?
werent we the traitors because we realized the same thing you realize today three weeks ago?
Is it a crime to see things in future beforehand with simple logic and reasoning?
