For a government that has shown signs of hypersensitivity to its carefully curated image, the forced quarantining of trade union leaders has proven to be an unmitigated public relations disaster. In what is increasingly proving to be a “mission” gone wrong, the Government is scrambling to save face not only locally but internationally too with the tide turning against it on multiple fronts, following the arbitrary police action to force the trade union leaders into quarantine.
It all began with a powerful Cabinet Minister making an off-the-cuff comment during a political event that all it would take to stop the wave of protests sweeping the nation was to “kill a bird and display its feathers”. The underlying message was, come down hard on one group and the rest will peter out. The Minister of course seemed to be referring to an old grandmother’s remedy widely used in rural areas even today to prevent the invasion of crows.
As improbable as it may seem, it now appears that the Minister’s comment was in fact a hint of what was to follow or at least what seemed to be on the Government’s mind. Even though the “feather” strategy may have worked in a metaphorical sense in the past, five years of freedom under the last Yahapalana regime is likely to have permanently altered perceptions on the people’s right to protest.
The Minister’s controversial assertion pointed to the likelihood of him and his colleagues being trapped in some sort of a time warp, oblivious to the transformation that had taken place in the last five years, aided and abetted by rapidly evolving communication technology in the form of social media. To give the devil its due, it was during the Yahapalana regime that the ordinary citizen had the space to enjoy the constitutionally guaranteed personal freedoms after years of various forms of repression, some more subtle than others.
To the younger generation, especially the millennials who used the ballot for the first time in 2019, the freedom of expression and association they enjoyed at the time was taken as the norm. As for the rest, it was a case of taking it for granted.
The irony is that it was this very same freedom that was exploited by the then Opposition to relentlessly organise protests and strikes which, taken as a whole, took a heavy toll on the fate of that government. With the tables now turned and wise to its own ways, it seems the current leadership is doing all it can to prevent a repeat of the cycle. In doing so, it has made a mess of things.
In a nation where most issues are forgotten in a matter of weeks, if not days, and tempers run short, it is to the credit of the former regime that it endured daily protests ironically by the very same trade union outfits that are agitating over a not-so-different set of issues today. To the education sector unionists, the cause for agitation is invariably the introduction of a new university bill or education sector reform; to the farmer it is usually a fertiliser-based issue; to the health sector it is salaries and allowances, and the list goes on.
One can recall the innumerable days that university students lay siege to the University Grants Commission, when health sector staff led by doctors themselves participated in strikes that lasted for days at a stretch, when farmers either took part in satyagrahas or decided to march to Colombo, blocking traffic for hours. Yet the Government at the time did not unleash its terriers on the protesters. In fact, it came to a point where peace-loving people became openly critical of protesters for being a nuisance. They found fault with the Government for giving a free hand to the protesters. Today, it is the exact opposite.
The very same trade union leaders find themselves thrown from the frying pan into the fire. However, if history is anything to go by, chances are that it is these very same trade unionists that will most certainly be having the last laugh. Protests in any form have a sobering effect on governments inclined to muscle their way through and thereby serve as an antidote to such excesses.
The clout that trade unionists command in this country is essentially a creation of our own opportunist politicians on both sides in order to buttress their requirements from time to time. Given the mess it finds itself in, the Government must surely be ruing the day it decided to storm the peaceful protests and send the union leaders in to hibernation. The move has resulted in drawing global attention to what should have been a domestic issue. In the process, the unions approached both the UN as well as the EU offices in Colombo seeking their intervention to secure the release of their leaders who were being held at quarantine centres in distant locations. It is the pressure from the international front coupled with the blitzkrieg of lawsuits filed in the Supreme Court that eventually forced the Government to release all those detained on Friday (16).
Even though the Police that has been at the centre of the controversy, valiantly attempted to pass the blame on to the Director General of Health Services, it later transpired that there is no legal basis for that particular official to issue such a directive. Making a mockery of the whole episode, when subsequent PCR tests were carried out on those being held at the military-run quarantine facilities in Mullaitivu and Pallekele, none of the trade unionists tested positive. As a result of having jumped the gun, the Government had no option but to eat humble pie last Friday. As to who will become the fall guy for the embarrassment caused, only time will tell.
This episode brought into sharp focus the fact that trade unionists agitating for various causes is part and parcel of a democratic setup and it is obligatory on the part of the government in power to provide the space for it. If nothing else, it is this tolerance that endeared the Yahapalana regime to the West and the subsequent granting of various benefits. At the end of the day, the government in power must recognise the fundamental fact that not only do trade unions of all hues have a legitimate right to protest but more importantly, the right to demand solutions to their grievances. They deserve to be given a patient hearing, something that seems anathema to the current dispensation.
Given the chaos that the pandemic has caused and the precarious state of the economy, the Government would be better off if it chose to climb down from its high horse and sit down with the trade unions to arrive at a compromise. The longer this is delayed, the closer the country will get to the brink. The authorities must keep in mind that no government has ever won a battle against an education sector trade union collective. Be it the North Colombo Medical College, South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM), or any other proposition to set up a fee-levying state sector medical degree-awarding institution, it is the unions that have had the last say. It is highly unlikely that this equation will change when it comes to the Kotelawala Defence University Bill which aims to lay the foundation for just such a proposition and is widely seen as altering the existing free education system.
If the issues dogging the education sector were bad enough, what should be causing greater consternation for the country is the calibre of politicians advocating reform of the sector. It is well known that many of them who regularly appear on television talk shows don’t possess even the most basic of educational qualifications; yet it is these individuals who have taken it upon themselves to lecture the nation on how the country’s education system should be run.
In the end, the joke is on the people of this country who send these misfits to Parliament and then grumble about what they do. As for the administration, given the intellectual resources at its disposal, saving the day is fast becoming the order of the day.
