Conscience - මට හිතෙන හැටි

Once upon a time Politics, Bus Driving, Health Service and Teaching had been employments of respect.

When we were not in this world (before we were born but after we got so called freedom in 1948) there was a time wealthy people ruled us. They were expected to spend their wealth on public matters. Actually some of them have done so. Then the majority of rulers started deviating from generosity earning for their children and for their grand children and for their grand grand children. So public thought we should have some one from our own class ruling us. So came another era. Those rulers rose from nothing to everything. Since the fact that they had nothing they started stealing everything. So called leaders who never even had a stool at their homes died in mansions in Colombo 07. In the starting days of these gang bang robberies the so called leaders made sure they do it secretly keeping the public in darkness. Then came an era where both wealthy and poor become leaders and share the fortune, talk openly about their robberies as if they have done adventures, defend themselves and their mates, let their children what ever they want to do, treat their and their wives families with property of public without a hint of a shame. We are living that era. People are really sick of these worms and feeling helpless against these thieves as they are accompanied with a number of highly trained guards to prevent being penalized by voters. If it was not to be so I’m sure most of the politician are annihilated by angry helpless voters who pay various sorts of taxes for each and every penny they earn just to keep these dumbs and their families at comfort. As a consequence of all these shit politicians have lost all their dignity in this country. If people get a chance they will be beaten like dogs and bitches. You know it, I know it, and they know it.

After the politicians there comes the Bus Drivers and Bus Conductors. They have no respect for passengers, Highway Code or any human value which are considered good practices to keep the evolution of a better civilization. All they care is money to make sure they enjoy a lunch with biriyani and coke, they have a few cigarettes a day, they have a couple of drinks before they reach home and they pay the leasing at the end of the day with keeping some spare money in hand. They are not ready to wait until an old person gets into a bus. They are not ready to wait until people get down from the bus. They use no signal what so ever. They think they can drive on the right side track or on the left side track in any direction. They stop where they want. No speed limits, no ethics in listening to radio, no sense of comforts of the passenger, no limit in loading the bus, no limit in waiting period at a bus halt. They treat passengers with cheapest, most unethical, humiliating slangs. They find it so adventures. They start at 6 in the morning and they stop at 8.30 in the night. They say ‘Simon says this ’. So we do what Simon says. Most of all when they want something, say increment in bus fare, they find it a passion to strike at once with very short notice or no notice at all making poor passengers waste their valuable time on roads. They arrange media briefings to display their strength. To whom? To the poor helpless passengers. Bloody idiots don’t understand what they do make people drown in angry. That is the level of their imagination, their education and their social status. Unlike politicians these headless fellows don’t have security around them. So people just wait until something takes place to release their anger. That’s why buses are being burnt, drivers and conductors are being hit once in a while. No body defends them. The second set of people who have lost their dignity are Bus Drivers and Bus Conductors.

The poor people of this country pay all kinds of taxes. A considerable amount of tax money is spent on education. A large amount is given to the medical colleges annually. By practicing district based systems, providing teaching hospitals, providing several types of permits, scholarships, appointments after the completion of their degree; they are made enjoy a considerable set of luxuries which ordinary people don't get in this country. The public expects the doctors to be kind hearted. To be well behaved. To give poor patients a relief even though they may die the next day. There was a time patients arose from their seats when the doctor arrived. There was a time doctors were considered to be living gods. It’s true that they sacrifice so many things to become a doctor. It is one of the hardest things in Sri Lanka, to become a doctor. By doing all these things a doctor may think he or she can do what ever he or she wants. He may want a large amounts of income, a grand house, luxury vehicle, pretty wife, good schools for their children, spend vacations all over the world etc. It may be fair up to some extent. Everybody likes to be so. Besides they face a real hard time on the process of becoming a doctor. But why do they refuse to go outstation even by being selected on district basis to the medical college. The public hope they will get doctors by implementing such district basis selection in A/Ls. Everybody needs money. But you can’t just earn by killing dogs or doing what ever. You should be morally and ethically clean (at least up to some level). Otherwise you get dirt on your hands. Since of late doctors have started to strike. Clerks can strike, typists can strike, managers can strike, dogs can strike, bitches can strike. No one dies. But why doctors? Why government doctors? A large number of government doctors practice channeling neglecting their duty. Who’s taking action against them? Do the poor patients waiting in long queues in front of government hospitals who paid to make them doctors stab them for their misbehavior. No. Poor patients are helpless. It is said to be a right of doctors to take such narrow minded trade union action. What about patients’ rights. It’s a pure act of killing people. They know it and we know it. By being the top most educated beings in Sri Lanka we expect their minds to be broader than ours. Doctors are badly commercialized. They prescribe medicine on the brand name where there are alternatives cheaper and better in quality in the market. Why? Because they get commission. A doctor is expected to be better than a mudalali. Sales representatives of companies bark on doctors if they don’t meet up their market statistics. Poor low educated badly ill patients don’t know this. As in most of the places patients are not expected to ask questions from doctors. We have to listen to what they say. We can’t discuss. Who the hell they think they are? I have heard in Australia it is a must to explain the patient the sickness and about the medicine prescribed. If you ask something from a Sri Lankan doctor he would say ‘I’m the doctor. You are the patient. So shut up.’ What I’m saying is all the patients may not be up to that standard of discussing the illness. But for the ones who are of that type should get the opportunity. People here in this country still treat doctors with respect. So the patients should get respect in return. Anyhow due to most selfish and unethical action of doctors they have lose their dignity and will never earn the lost respect.

The newest category added to this third class (THIRD as in train third class) is Teachers. They are the people who are living examples to generations to come in a country. Students in Sri Lanka worship them. They are considered to be foster parents to a child in this country. They are remembered with grace by every figurehead in this country. Children get up in public transport to offer them seating. We never sit on a higher level above our teachers on their presence. We don’t call them Mr, Mrs like western kids do. We call them Sir, Madam. They can even hit us or scold us with good intentions to make us better citizens. They guide us, they show us the path to go. They say what’s good and what’s wrong. They smile with us and they cry with us. But all of a sudden they organize a strike in the middle of A/L paper marking. Of course their demands may be fair. But why in the middle of the most important moment of the students’ life? Why do they take innocent students for the bait? Shame on them. They can do it some other time. Why at this moment? We know they are badly paid. Saying teaching is not for money won’t solve any matter. They are humans too. They need money. But there should be a better way to win their demands. They are just playing with the feelings of students who waited a life time until this A/Ls. Teachers are starting to lose their dignity. I think they have already lost a great deal.

At present Politicians, Bus Drivers, Doctors and Teachers are of the same class. That is the third class. They all are alike no matter what they think of themselves. They are a little bit better than cunning foxes, pigs, donkeys, dogs and bitches (not everybody).

Among all these things which grow hatred in hearts of the public there are good politicians, Bus Drivers, Doctors and Teachers. But they are out numbered (That’s why they say ‘Agana menik kalugal atarehida wede’).

All these people can call media briefings, they can write articles and everything to convince us that they are correct. But they can’t heal the broken hearts of the public. It is useless to be a winner among a whole bunch of losers. If somebody is a real winner all the others surrounding him should feel they are winners too.

Let’s say a student is learning in an averagely facilitated college. Still he or she will get texts books and uniform material free of charge. There are serious problems in distribution of these stuff on time to the right people. But anyhow if a student has a burning need to learn I think they have a great opportunity.

I have gone to several tution classes during my school days as it is a common practice in modern Sri Lanka. But I have seen so many students who don’t need tution as they can do it by their own. Apart from the knowledge I got by following tution it gave me some sort of confidence. I think that’s why parents and students are looking into tution. But for some people it’s a fashion. That’s where most of them go astray.

When I finished my school days depending on my performance in Advanced Levels (GCE A/L) I entered University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC). It was a whole lot of opportunity. We had nearly 120 undergraduates. Computer labs which consist of nearly 40 machines were made available during the whole course. Of course there were shortages in facilities. But it was manageable. We had so many PhD lecturers. I think no institution or faculty in Sri Lanka has such a qualified staff. There were at least 12 – 15 PhD holders. There were very advanced digital labs for image processing stuff. Sony Ericsson provided a robotic lab, UCSC put up a very advanced large server room, they are handling the election results computerization. Most of all they developed a Sinhala kit which made Sinhala a default language in Microsoft Vista. We had libraries, hostels, a very good gym with carom, badminton, weights, chess and so many other stuff. We had around 4-5 cafes. Food was not yummy but very cheap. There were so many societies. Buddhist Society, Christian Fellowship, Unions, Science Society, Computer Society etc. There were all sorts of musical classes, dancing classes, drama workshops, carrier guidance units, counseling units, cheap photocopy and book binding places, gardens, study rooms, places for lovers. We had so many sports. Cricket, Elle, Basket Ball, Tennis, Martial Arts, Rowing, Swimming, Athletics, Foot Ball, Rugby, Net Ball, Hokey any sport you can imagine. There were sports meets inter faculty, inter university and inter national level. A grand Colors Night, Freshers’ Welcome (Freshmen’s Day), Going Down (The Last Day Calibration), cultural shows. We even had an arts theatre which screens films for just 20 rupees. That’s not all. The government pays something around 2000 rupees as Mahapola scholarship or as bursary every month.

Where on earth one can get all these for free? All I can say is ‘God Must Be Crazy’.

People who market private institutions can’t compete with any of the local government university in educational wise or any other wise. But they may have some good qualities which are lacked by local university graduates such as behavioral aspects. What I mean is if you go New York and eat rice by hand you may become the talk of the day. That social gap may be there since most of the guys in the local campus haven seen that alien world. But I’m sure they can grab that world if they are trained. I have seen it. The thing is general public doesn’t know all this. The private institutions take advantage of this and government body is not interested in marketing themselves. I believe there should be private institutions as government is limiting opportunities due to lack of capital. There are so many clever people who miss the opportunity due to some reason. I have so many friends who have come out of such places and making their names in the industry. So they play a great role but they can't just criticize everything (they can criticize what's wrong). If somebody is too simple then there is a big problem somewhere! (That's something I have experienced). Like so most of the people who have their kids in the private institutes or who are involved in those type of stuff just criticize as a habit without knowing inside just to defend what they do or what their children do (Not everybody does this. But most do).

We have a dark side too. There are strikes, fights, quarrels and everything. But eventually it all makes a very experienced grown man. Besides Science faculty of Colombo University does not involve in such acts. They have a very good non violent history in recent years. Because the government do all these some people in the university thinks it's a must to provide all these to them. That's where they go wrong and that's where they make the general public angry. Like they say you can't put leaches on the bed some of these rotten minded people who come from all over the country add black spots to the local universities. This happens due to the vast variation of different backgrounds of the undergraduates. If we take a private institution people are from a similar kind of a background as it requires some economical status to come to a place like that. So variations of the imagination or social status are somewhat narrower. So the problems are made lesser in those places. Like Hitler convinced a whole nation to follow a vision of unimaginably brutal some of these types of rotten heads become student leaders and activate their personal propagandas that make them big foots and eventually shattering futures of hundreds of their disciples. The Science Faculty of Colombo Campus was totally different in these affairs. Undergraduates were not easily fooled by these type of people. Most of the people who go astray due to this stupidity are people from remote areas who have not totally broaden up their minds to the world. They don't simply understand that they are being misused. Once they realize so most of them are too late. I have seen it so many times.

I saw step by step how guys from remote areas like Ampara, Monaragala, Nuwara Eliya etc. Coming out of the shell and making themselves respectable people in this society. Even people from war stricken areas like Jaffna, Batticaloa, Trincomalee got the opportunity to get rid of agony. Most of us got jobs even before we completed our degree. We have an industrial training (Placement) as a module in our degree. Most of the people are well paid.

According to the information I have shared here (They are my own experience. Not what I imagined or heard from somebody) free education in Sri Lanka is a golden opportunity. People who don’t take its advantage are crazy, stupid or blaming it just to cover up their incompetence. One doesn’t have to go to a university as it is restricted due to limited resources. But they better not blame the local body without knowing anything or knowing very little about what they are talking. Everything has pros and cons. At present some seem to find it a passion to condemn local education. I tell them it is a pure mean act of hiding their own incapability or it’s just an act of jealousy. They can do what ever they like but it is very unethical to provide general public incorrect statements and guide them to darkness. Thousands of hard working people in this country pay tax to keep this free education. We have a bankrupted government. All the big shots skip paying tax. The children of ordinary citizens in this country should take the golden opportunity of free education without spending their beloved parents money to make some big shots richer and richer. We are not pigs, cows or donkeys. Please do understand because the truth is out there.

It is FREE as in Freedom. Not FREE as in 'Buy one you get one free'. Somebody is paying for this. Who's paying? It's our hard working, tax paying parents. So get to know the truth and take the opportunity meant for you.

Please remember what they taught us when we were small and truthful. It's running all over this small poem. People who don't see values of free education, this small poem would leave them something to think over.