jokes are okay and verbal abuse is tolerable. I have seen some harmless students assaulted so badly they were in the ICU and girls who were sexually abused… is it still a joke or harmless?? no it has reached untolerable levels. There is no place for this in modern society we are living in the 21st century we are not cavemen. Anyone who physically and sexually abuses others just for fun because they are senior are mindless subhumans and dont deserve education in universities.

Seniors who rag deserve a good night or two in prison to teach them a lesson cowardly subhumans.

I do see 02 main motives in ragging namely,
01) Find followers to JVP backed student group
02) Find a lover

As far as I experienced, Uni authorities must take the blame for this act which continues to terrorise the society (for its inaction of maintaining law & order). As members of Circle of Freedom we were regularly target by JVP backed student movement & subjected to physical as well as verbal abusses & assaults. Infact there were many many occasions where our members were brutally attacked by JVPers.

I was attacked on 01st Oct’97 while reading for 03rd year examinations & was admitted to ICU of General Hospital for 3 days & was under strict observation of JMO for 72 hours with a head injury.

As authorities were on a long sleep, we as a group took law in to our hands & were so kind to return the complements when JVPers go out of the University. And I must say it worked.

Last but not least by any mean, I did see many occasions JVP ex parlimenterian Sunil Hadunnethige writting to news papers on protection of Human Rights & so forth I must say he used to be one such culprit who got himself busy abussing us at Uni in 1994…

First, Sach, that is me, is not a she but a he.

OK let’s say you (I’m suspecting either you are the Dean of the FOA, or at least a staff member but in case you are not, please do pardon me) ARE doing all that. Then, tell me, how come there is still the rag going on? You have not been successful, have you?

Second, please do not call me “unenlightened” (OK call me that if you want to, I don’t care) but the thing is, I WAS a student at Pera, and I have seen all that, dear sir/ma’am. I’ve seen countless times the staff turning a bling eye because they want to stay away from trouble. And if the students have come to a point where they abuse Dean and the staff, don’t you think that there’s something wrong with the administration anyhow?

OK so I see now that you are infact a staff member. First, please read what I have said; I said some (if not the most) staff members – so I did not say ALL. Second, how do you know htey all do not endorse rag? In my time, I know quite a few who were quite OK with the ragging, they indeed did not openly support rag as they were not in a position to do so but they did not mind it either.

And where did I say there are NO anti-raggers in FOA? Thre are, there were and also I have never said raggers does not outnumber the anti raggers. So hwat’s your point?

And, sir/ma’am, again I”m not an outsider. I’ve been there, seen that. I’ve had so many battles (luckily not physical), we stood for the right of freedom for four years. And I’ve said what I saw back then, and if you read me carefully you’ll see what I propose too. Thank you.

Sach says, ” As authorities of the university she [Dr Abheyratne- the Dean of the Faculty of Arts] and the staff has the autority to visit canteens, common rooms and hostels, and all they have to do is visit them during the hours they know that ragging is going on”. For your information and for the information of all those who are reading, ‘that’ is precisely what the Dean and the staff have been doing during the recent rag season.

A gathering of senior and junior Student Counselors (‘volunteers’ mind you) have been making rounds in canteens, hostels, and even washrooms everyday during the lunch hour just so that, the freshers may get a breath of fresh air in the midst of their horrendous experince of being ragged by the senior student monsters in sheepskin.

And Sach goes on: “Usually, every morning before lectures canteens will be common places of ragging. So are student hostels after lecture hours. But they do not do so”. How do ‘you’ know that ‘they’ do not do so??? I, thorugh my first-hand experince can gurantee you that ‘they’ have indeed ‘done so’! Not only have the Senior Student Counselors visited hostels at ungodly times as 5.30 a.m but some singlehandedly have gone on inspection rounds even in the evenings. That too when they have their own familis and children to deal with. Not to mention the risk to their very own lives! For instance, one such Senior has constantly been insulted by the Rag-leaders who have been pasting numerous posters against the counselor in filth!

“One reason, they [the Dean and the rest of the staff] don’t want to be bothered as it will take them out of their comfort zones – who wants to be bothered with all this when you could just do your teaching and stay away”, says the Unenlightened Sach. Who gives ‘you’ the authority to make such demeaning claims that you cannot even substantiate??? Just step over here and take a look for yourself and you will realize what a heap of dirt you have been dropping unnecessarily! The Dean and the rest of the staff have been going to courts against ragging, if you would care to know, at risks to their own lives! They have been to and from hospitals to secure the health of those who have been ragged. And yet, the rag monsters dare verbally abuse the Dean and the staff who are old enough to be their parents! Did you even know???

“Second, even some (if not most) of the lecturers themselves did get ragged and did rag the others while they were students, hence to not really oppose it”. What irresponsible, uninformed, generalized comments are these! Did not Sach feel that s/he should at least do a bit more background check before such censor fell off her/his mouth? I personally both ‘am’ and ‘know’ numerous staff members who have not got ragged, who absolutely oppose ragging. And others who have got ragged do not endorse ragging at all. They ‘feel’ the suffering of the suffering freshers and yet, the ragging organization is monstrously intimidating that some may not come out for the fear of their lives. Fear does not spell ‘endorsement’ Sach; learn your language for God’s sake!

” […] thouh I do not know personally about Dr. Abhayaratne, but she along with other staff members sure can do a lot more to eliminate ragging”. Tell me one thing and suggest what ‘more’ she and the staff ‘can’ do, given the horrendous circumstances? If they have even gone upto the extent of risking their lives, what ‘more’ do you want???

“Secondly, there is some resistance to ragging in the form of anti-raggers at Peradeniya. Specially in the Faculty of Science and Faculty of Engineering. I was an anti-ragger, and in my time there were more than 300 anti raggers in the FOS alone”. There ‘are’ anti-raggers in the Faculty of Arts too my dear Sach! And i too have not got ragged, nor have i ragged anyone else, nor do i endorse ragging. But, the problem is that the majority who thorugh fear and the intimidations of the seniors get ragged exceed the anti-raggers in numbers. and even when in inspection rounds, we inquire from the freshers of their grievances, they tell obvious lies and refuse to accept that they are being ragged. Now please, would you suggest a way that is ‘practical’ to get them to open their minds??

Remember, as long as the victims do not speak up, as far as ‘legalities’ are concerned, there’s nothing much the society can do. Whenever, one encourages the victims to come into the open, their families beg to let them off. Tell me, do you have any brilliant suggestions? Tell me, what ‘can’ we do?

And also of note is that there is also a species of beings who are ‘willinlg’ to become tortured. They can rightly be called a breed of ‘masochists’. Tell me and spin from your brilliant mind what solution do you propose? The predicament is far more complex than it seems to an outsider who can comfortably sit back and type a note generalizing to the maximum the reality to which s/he is blind!

My point was that the poorer you are the less options you have to leave a university due to a rag and either find a job or follow an alternate course in a private university either here or abroad. I was simply trying to point out how some people have the luxury of options which most do not have.

And seriously if you want to gripe about the exploitation of the poor you choose the rag???? If you think that this is us exploiting the poor I wonder if you would concur then with the assertion then that the armed forces also exploit the poor. As i understand it the majority of recruits to the armed forces are from the poor and under developed areas in the country. The reasons for the decision to join the forces i suspect is as due to lack of other job opportunities as much as the overwhelming nationalist discourse. So then isn’t that also an exploitation of the poor?

And i also wonder is it _only_ because of “the victim mentality” that the rag continues in such a pervasive fashion throughout SL? I doubt it very much. I feel the rag raises and brings to the fore all these class conflicts that are below the surface which we middle-upper classites are insulated from and continue to ignore and suppress. The longer we ignore it and the longer we continue with these simplistic approaches to larger class issues, ragging will continue to haunt your dreams. Time to start dealing with it instead of trying to raise awareness by blogging on GV about how anti-ragging you are.

* It is a sad indictment against our 2500 society. THIS RAGGING.
*University is a place where it is supposedly INTELLIGENT people gather, future leaders IF these people tolerate, encourage, participate in RAGGING then NO WONDER our country has NOT gone anywhere.

* No psychology….BUT simply ask the question: WOULD I LIKE TO BE TREATED LIKE THIS ????? IF the answer is NO. Then DO NOT DO IT.

SIMPLE.

DO NOT TOLERATE EMOTION PHYSICAL VIOLENCE

Universities should be institutions where questioning, dialogue, constructive criticism and rational arguments should exist between students; between students and teachers, and between teachers. Instead of that, current attitudes of seniors repressing juniors, and making them conform to a single group, kills the very single reason why universities were established. It no longer produces creativity, different and lateral thinking. Everyone is afraid of being different than the rest.

Even-though laws are there on books, only a very small number of victims will complain to the authorities fearing retribution. Some authorities do not take action and shrug these things off. Others are afraid of students. If someone takes action so called “student unions” start their protests, pelting stones, burning university property, damaging teacher’s vehicles….etc.

What exists within the universities is a reflection of our own society. Same greedy politicians, criminals and anti-social elements. They become the leaders of majority normal students, misguide them and wreak havoc.

Laws themselves cannot stop them. There should be a change in attitudes of university students and those who are awaiting admission. University is not a place for bullying and fighting others, but a place for acquiring knowledge and skills that would enable one to advance their abilities for the greater good of the society and themselves.

I agree with PeraStud90TIES that psychology should be taught in junior schools. This will help young men and women to understand themselves and others. The most difficult subject to learn is not engineering, medicine, law, physics etc.. etc.. BUT HOW TO THINK PROPERLY.

If people start thinking correctly the menace of ragging would disappear from universities.

If this doesn’t happen anytime soon, we have think twice before paying our taxes. Do we want our hard earned money pay for the free education of bunch of unruly gangsters ?