Fallout From The Freshers Welcome Fiasco In Jaffna: Is Our University System Equal To The Challenge Of Sectarianism?

By N. Sivapalan, S. Selvarajan, Rajan Hoole and Prince Jeyaratnam* –July 28, 2016

Fallout From The Freshers Welcome Fiasco In Jaffna: Is Our University System Equal To The Challenge Of Sectarianism?

The following record of the welcome event is compiled from the experiences of several members of the Science Faculty in Jaffna who were present. The event is a warning when taken alongside sectarian violence in other Lankan universities, recently in Sabaragamuva, Uva Wellassa and Eastern, where the response of the authorities has been constrained by factors, which include local prejudices and peer pressures, bias in the university security services and local readings of wishes of the authorities in Colombo. The change in attitude of the authorities after the regime change of 8th January 2015 is reflected in their wanting as far as possible for the problems to be tackled on local initiative. The universities should use this opportunity to address, in their locality, causes that threaten the integrity of university values and education. These causes, if left to follow their course, would make peaceful coexistence and pluralism even harder to achieve.

Last year and the year before, as part of the freshers welcome in Jaffna, the Dean and the academic staff of the Faculty were garlanded by students at the faculty entrance from the main road. They were then led by a troupe of traditional drums and musicians in festive procession to the top floor of the Mathematics Block where the welcome ceremony was held.  This time, for the welcome scheduled for Saturday 16th July 2016,the Sinhalese students put in a last minute request for Kandyan dancing, by students trained in it, to also be included in the procession. Kandyan dance has been performed as a stage event ever since Sinhalese students were admitted to the Faculty after the war ended. On Friday, the day before the incident, some science academic staff sensed that tension was brewing.

The tension persisted despite the conviviality at the morning’s session of the welcome, where the second years welcomed the freshers. Some active members of the science staff saw a group of non-science students numbering twenty to thirty, loitering near the Faculty. A faculty member questioned one of them wearing a BBA T-shirt on the reason for his presence. He moved away without responding. Sensing something unpleasant in the offing, some faculty members approached a Marshal and requested that he disperse the loitering students. The Marshal told them a little later that the students’ intentions were academic and would soon go away.

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