Basically the army training is meant to allow the recruited youth to develop the skills to kill and destroy the enemy as well as design systems to subjugate the opponent. Also, the youth are trained merely to carry out blindly the orders of their senior officers without any right to question them.
by Fr. Sarath Iddamalgoda
(June 05, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) A leadership training programme for the students who are selected to the universities is currently been conducted in several army camps on the initiative of the Minister for higher education.
The often heard phrase, ‘the tree is known by its fruits’, has a strong relevance to the topic discussed here. The underlying question is about the competence of the army to train the university students. We read every day in the media that some of those young people who have got army training, not just for three weeks but for longer periods, are now engaged in robberies, raping of women and various other acts of violence. This sad phenomenon makes one wonder how effective such training would be in disciplining the educated youth?
Basically the army training is meant to allow the recruited youth to develop the skills to kill and destroy the enemy as well as design systems to subjugate the opponent. Also, the youth are trained merely to carry out blindly the orders of their senior officers without any right to question them.
That is not the discipline we expect from university students. They are not expected to follow orders blindly. What we expect from a university student is to develop his/her capacity for free and critical thinking. The students need to live and work in a climate of freedom. Is the current training promoted by the authorities a move towards depriving the students of that freedom?
In my view, the development of a student’s personality can and should be achieved only in a climate of freedom and academic formation; and not through something imposed upon them from outside.
It is a recognized fact toady that our school system in Sri Lanka, fails to instill discipline in the students, who are under its care for about a period of 13 years. Doesn’t that indicate that there is something deficient in our system of education? Will a ‘three week of training’ in the army camps make much of a difference?
The youth by nature have a critical mind. They value justice and hate hypocrisy. Whenever they see injustices and hypocrisy around them they begin to react strongly. We know very well that within the university set up there are situations of injustices, hypocrisies, malpractices and political interferences, causing numerous deprivations to the students.
They would naturally question the authorities over those matters and look at them rationally and critically. In such a climate one has to expect strong reactions from the student population. The adults need to possess qualities of leadership such as patience and maturity to listen to what they have to say, when handling such situations.
The university teachers themselves are the best persons to conduct courses on personality development. They are more knowledgeable than the army officers. SL Army is not capable of offering leadership training such as required by the university students.
Discipline imposed from outside will not last long. What is needed is self-discipline which is the outcome of a sustained interior personal development. Can such training be provided by the military officers?
In the matter of disciplining the younger generation, one of the indispensable factors is the exemplary lives of the elders, especially of the leaders of the country. Today the younger generation is very much influenced by the negative examples of our national leaders. Our youth are well aware of the corrupt practices of our politicians; bribery, abuse of public resources, nepotism, thuggery, vote rigging, election violence and politicization of administration etc. The youth today are deeply affected by these negative influences. Unless they are fed with positive influences, the mere instilling of military discipline and military outlook into them will not bring about the expected results.
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