When will 'ragging' be wiped out?

When we question as to when the evil of ragging will be wiped out from this country's higher educational institutions, we are, no doubt, voicing the view of the law-abiding, silent majority of this country, with the same tone of weariness. While the authorities are, no doubt, doing their best to eliminate the obnoxious malaise, it only seems to be persisting in our universities in particular with considerable stubbornness.

At the time of writing, some severe cases of ragging have emerged in a few of our front-line universities. In the case of an undergraduate of Ruhuna University, the ragging had been so brutal that the victim required hospitalization. In fact she is said to be in a serious condition. Things took an unspeakably shocking turn at Peradeniya University, where a lecturer who attempted to prevent a ragging incident was beaten-up by undergraduates. The University of Peradeniya is not alone in witnessing revolting behaviour of this kind on the part of students towards teachers. There seems to be a developing trend in some of our universities, for students to ruthlessly set upon their teachers when prevented by the latter from ragging newcomers to their midst.

Accordingly, the behaviour of some of our undergraduates is deteriorating by the day. Increasingly bizarre and barbaric conduct is taking root among them and no solutions seem to be forthcoming to this manic sadism in the personality of these undergraduates, euphemistically termed, 'ragging'.

To be fair by the higher education authorities and others concerned, we need to admit that this recurrent scourge in our seats of higher learning is a highly complex phenomenon. There is no ducking the fact that ragging is a most abominable evil and should be wiped out sooner rather than later, but there is no underestimating the practical and other challenges that could confront the university and state authorities in the task of taking on the menace.

It would be patently unfair to indict all undergraduates as 'raggers' or potential 'raggers'. It is only a handful of students who resort to these bestial acts but they seem to be a highly intimidatory presence on campus. They seem to be 'programmed' into behaving the way they do, by some sinister and invisible hand. Going by the experiences of new recruits to campus, these 'rag masters' conduct themselves in the manner of trained cadres in unleashing monstrous behaviour. There is no doubt that they are highly adept at exercising the coldest cruelty on their in-coming colleagues. They are by no means innocents from the fabled rural hinterland of this country. They are supreme masters at exercising brutality on fellow humans and any victim of ragging will bear this out.

Accordingly, the inference is inescapable that these diseased minds on campus belong to those political forces which are intent on triggering social and political unrest in this country and their unmistakable hallmark is their hair-raising bestiality and brutality. The country witnessed savagery of this kind in 1989-1990, for instance.

Such forces need to be dealt with through the use of stringent law and order measures because it just would not pay to show them any quarter. Their supreme fixation is destruction and it is very unlikely that they would understand the language of considerateness and flexibility.

However, these dangerous deviants are few in number and isolating them and neutralizing them into behaving in a more civilized fashion is within the realms of the possible. It demands tremendous courage, but the 'moral majority' in our universities, or those advocating civilized norms, would need to form themselves into a formidable collectivity and staunchly oppose the abomination which is ragging. The brutality of the demented minds should not go unchallenged. However, it is up to the authorities to provide ample security for this 'moral majority' which takes on the brutish minority.