Colombo North Medical College, SAITM and Kotelawala National Défence University are not same types of institutions, but different three types of institutions.
Colombo North Medical College is privately owned by the government. What made it different from other medical faculties was that they had to pay a fee to enter it and enrol students out of the merit sequence. The most serious problem was that it caused more problems for social justice than the quality of education provided by the medical faculty.
SAITM is a private company. That is, it is a business owned by a businessman with the expectation of making a profit. It is different from the private universities found in many other developed countries of the world. That is, universities such as Harvard, Princeton, and Yale are called private universities, but they are not for-profit, sole proprietorships. They are a kind of public institution owned by society. They have no profit sharing. Their basis is not fame but fame. They are similar to schools like St. Thomas Trinity Museums in Sri Lanka. Or to schools like Ananda Nalanda Dharmaraja that existed before the nationalization of schools. But SAITM is a purely for-profit, individual-owned business. Therefore, it cannot provide a quality education. The reason for this is that students come to such institutions not to get a quality higher education but instead to get a pass for a higher career. The student is happy to receive the ticket at an affordable price and the businessman is also happy with the profit that can be made from selling the ticket to the student. Accordingly, the price is determined not by the quality of the degree but by the degree certificate. Accordingly, quality has become the problem of Saitama University. At the same time, there was a problem with social justice as the order of merit was broken.
But the question of the Kotelawala National Defence University, which is about to begin, is far more serious than both. This is because it poses another, more serious problem than quality and social justice. That is, militarization. Militarization is not just a military repression. That is only one side. Such repression can be sustained for a longer period of time and a society cannot be freed from that military shackle by subjecting the whole of society to the activism of the military. It does this by handing over control and operation of other non-military areas to the military. That is what is happening today in Pakistan, Burma and some African countries. In those countries, almost every field of economy, business, administration, education, etc., is under the control of the military. It is clear that those countries have become stagnant or doomed societies because it has created an irreversible situation.
In almost every country, that militarization began with the blessing of society. But over time, it became an unavoidable shackle for society. A country’s army exists to ensure national security and to provide assistance in the event of a national disaster. Otherwise, the military should not be given a chance to get involved in the state structure or the country’s economy. World history has shown that every nation that has been given such an opportunity has gone to great lengths to wreak havoc. This is why the issue of the Kotelawala National Defense University is more serious than previous issues such as the Colombo North Medical College and SAITM.
Therefore, it is essential that all the people, regardless of their opinion on the good or bad of a private university, unite in this battle. This is an issue of education on the one hand and a problem of democracy on the other. It is a question of the future of Sri Lanka.
Having strong armies in a country is not a problem at all. For example, countries such as the United States, France and Britain have the most powerful armies in the world. But in those countries, the military is fulfilling the responsibilities of the military, not other public or private sectors. Therefore, while they are strong states, they have also become democratic states. But we have seen instances where in some countries where there are weak armies on a global scale, the military becomes the whole state instead. What will happen then is that the state will be destroyed, democracy will be lost and the whole society will be in a very dark fate. Sri Lanka is currently facing those two choices.
That is why the Kotelawala National Defense University Colleges Act must be defeated definitely.
– Anuruddha Pradeep Karnasuriya –