{"id":117991,"date":"2021-09-09T16:04:48","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T23:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=117991"},"modified":"2021-09-10T09:38:20","modified_gmt":"2021-09-10T16:38:20","slug":"youth-and-discipline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/09\/09\/youth-and-discipline\/","title":{"rendered":"YOUTH AND DISCIPLINE"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Ref. \u2018Compulsory training to instil discipline, not jeopardise freedom of choice<\/strong>\u2019 by Rear Admiral (Rtd) Dr Sarath Weerasekera\/The Island\/September 4, 2021. It is a response to an earlier opinion article of mine under the title \u2018Candour without caution dangerous naivety<\/strong>\u2019 (July 29, 2021). Thank you, Dr Weerasekera, for your lavish compliment \u2018erudite academic\u2019, which I don\u2019t think I deserve, but I sincerely appreciate your generous sentiments regarding me. I have similar thoughts about you. I am very sincere when I say this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is absolutely no disagreement between you and me about the\nsubject you are broaching.  The themes announced in the titles \u2018Compulsory\ntraining to instil discipline, not jeopardise freedom of choice\u2019 and \u2018Candour\nwithout caution dangerous naivety\u2019 are not contradictory, but\ncomplementary.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I decided to write this after reading Dr Weerasekera\u2019s piece only\nto  state two things: 1) that he seems to have misread my Candour without\ncaution\u2026.\u201d article, and 2) that he has inadvertently misquoted me at the\nbeginning of his piece, both not surprising, given the busy circumstances he\nmust cope up with as Minister of Public Security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To take the second point first, here is Dr Weerasekera\u2019s obviously\nunintended misquote: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has written: Wasala at the outset says not so arbitrarily,\nnot so hastily\u201d and continues to ask isn\u2019t it more urgent to look after the\ndiscipline of minority Police officers who act in ways unbecoming of their\nprofession<\/strong>?\u201d, whereas what I actually wrote was: \u2018But, anent this idea of\nhis, I\u2019d say in all humility: Not so arbitrarily! Not so hastily!\u201d However, as\neducation is not his responsibility, the Public Security Minister may be making\nan implicit suggestion to his cabinet colleague who is in charge of that\nsubject. Isn\u2019t it more urgent for the well meaning minister to look after\nthe discipline of  the minority of police officers who sometimes act in\nways unbecoming of their profession,<\/strong> by getting the police hierarchy to\nenforce discipline on those few of their subordinates?\u2019. I need not dwell too\nlong on the potentially harmful implications of this faux pas on the part of Dr\nWeerasekera. His …..minority Police officers who\u2026..\u201d and my the minority of\npolice officers who\u2026..\u201d imply two different things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To anyone comparing the two texts above (Dr Weerasekera\u2019s and\nmine) the following will be instantly clear: I didn\u2019t mean to reprimand Dr\nWeerasekera by cautioning him in a friendly spirit with the words Not so\narbitrarily! Not so hastily!\u201d. It appears to me that he sometimes acts\narbitrarily and hastily because he is direct and honest in asserting what he\nbelieves to be the truth in any situation. I always admire him as a patriotic\nwar hero, an honest politician, and an honourable upright human being.\nIronically, he has a combination of good qualities that is likely to make him vulnerable\nin the cut-throat world of politics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the famed English playwright and poet William Shakespeare said\nTo be direct and honest is not safe\u201d (Othello) in a world where There is no\ntrust, no faith, no honesty in men; all perjured, all forsworn, all naught, all\ndissemblers\u201d (Romeo and Juliet). These pieces of wisdom are easily applicable\nto the political theatre in any country including Sri Lanka where the struggle\nfor power is an immorally amoral, no-holds-barred contest. Honest men and women\nin politics, beware! be cautious! That\u2019s all I tried to say in my opinion piece\nof July 29, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the article that Dr Weerasekera is responding to, I explained\nmy reasons why I believe that young people everywhere are generally\nuncorrupted, creative and sensitive to ethical direction. I am talking about\nthe majority of young people, not the minority who display traits of\ndelinquency and criminality, for which the adult society is generally\nresponsible. It is more often than not the doings of the few young miscreants\nthat hog the limelight in the media. That is also something rotten with the\nadult world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If some of the young act in ways that reflect a negative standard\nof behaviour, then the adults must be held accountable for that. It is true\nthat daily we hear in the media about delinquency among the youth. But what is\nthe percentage of delinquents? Usually, delinquency among children and young\nadults is not without its causes, which often have no connection with any\ninborn moral depravity among them. It is often an acquired trait, something\nlearned from corrupt adults. There is a grave lack of adult leadership in our\ncountry. Often, those who should model good behaviour for the young people to\nlearn from, fail them. There are many youth betrayers in the country, many more\nof them than there ever were in the past. The point is clear enough, I think. I\nneed not suggest examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I can\u2019t help pointing at one example. Look at how some of our\nteachers (under the aegis of trade unionism) are behaving like zombies in\nobedience to the rash dictates of their equally mindless leaders who don\u2019t seem\nto have had the benefit of even a smattering of education or culture. How\nunfortunate it is that a nation has no option but to entrust their innocent\nyoung to their care!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incidentally, I watched a social media video of a group of\nstriking teachers trying to get an audience with the Most Venerable Mahanayake\nTheras in Kandy a couple of days ago.  The Nayake monks refused to see\nthem. They were only allowed to hand over a petition that they had with them to\nthe security officers at the gate in both places. For once the Most Venerable\nMahanayakes were asserting their power of unquestionable leadership. Then the\nteacher delegates called on the Venerable Gatembe Hamuduruvo: He was blunt as\nusual. This is roughly what he said: Your pay anomaly is a question that has\nbeen dragging on for over twenty-four years  passing on from government to\ngovernment. We got Gotabaya Mahattaya elected as President because there is no\none else for the job. We trust him. He will do whatever he can do to resolve\nyour problem. But these are trying times, especially with this ravaging Corona\npandemic. Not only our country, but the whole world is in dire straits. You are\ndoing something that you should not be doing; that is, instead of doing what\nyou can do to help control the pandemic, you are engaging in trade union\nactivity\u201d. (One could say that the plain-spoken prelate spoke for all the\nmonks.) The teachers showed agreement with the monk, paid him obeisance, and\nleft the place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nam not against the idea of providing some sort of mandatory personality and\nleadership development training to our youth comparable to what the Higher\nEducation Ministry conducted in May 2011 for new university students as a kind\nof initiation for them prior to the beginning of their academic lectures. (I\nmentioned this in my \u2018Candour without caution….\u2019article.). Some 20,000 fresh\nuniversity students participated in the training at 28 centres across the\nisland. I\u2019d wholeheartedly support such a programme for young people above 18\nas Dr Weerasekera proposes, be it \u2018military\u2019 or not. (\u2018Military\u2019 in this\ncontext may not be politically correct, though it is no harm in reality.\nShouldn\u2019t we be mindful of that?) But it must be introduced after wide\nconsultation and meticulous planning. Discipline is something that cannot be\nimposed on thinking people, be they young or old. What we can do is to design a\ncourse of meaningful physical and mental activities for them to engage in that\ninduce discipline in them on the lines of the 2011 leadership programme.\nHowever, it is good to remember that, in the information saturated world of\ntoday, packaging and marketing aspects cannot be neglected even when perfectly\ngood things are offered for popular consumption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala Ref. \u2018Compulsory training to instil discipline, not jeopardise freedom of choice\u2019 by Rear Admiral (Rtd) Dr Sarath Weerasekera\/The Island\/September 4, 2021. It is a response to an earlier opinion article of mine under the title \u2018Candour without caution dangerous naivety\u2019 (July 29, 2021). Thank you, Dr Weerasekera, for your lavish compliment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}