The thugs masquerading as student unionists are up to their old tricks once again it seems. Terrorising innocent students fresh out of school and deriving sadistic pleasure in the process has been the hallmark of these misguided youth who are well known for putting education on the back-burner in favour of establishing political control over their peers. The thuggery and sadism are only a means to an end which ultimately is to brainwash students into following their warped political ideology. The direct result of this is the alienation of thousands of the most intelligent youth in the prime of their lives who are either compelled to give up higher education altogether or forced to carry lifelong mental scars. These are the lucky ones; others have been traumatised beyond recovery while some have paid with their lives. Only a handful escape unscathed in a university in Sri Lanka and that depends on whether one plays ball with the thugs or not. In the two insurrections that took place post Independence – one under the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Government of Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1971 and the other under the United National Party(UNP) Government of President J.R. Jayewardene in 1988/89 – it was the universities that played a key role in mobilising the youth to engage in destructive anti-government activity. The price that both these governments had to pay politically and what the country had to pay in terms of lost lives, property, and opportunity could only be described as colossal, even if one were being economical with the truth. Therefore, going by past experiences, student unrest in universities is a sign of a much larger problem in the making where political opportunists keep stoking the fire until the pot boils over. The JVP, which has a virtual monopoly on university politics through its affiliated parties, has seen its political fortunes dwindle with each election and the time may be just about ripe to spice things up ahead of the April polls. This explains the almost daily protests taking place at Ward Place and Galle Face in Colombo at peak hours, inconveniencing thousands of people. Since the end of the last insurrection in 1990, with a full-blown war in the North distracting the governments that came and went, very little has been done to keep youth focused on quality higher education. Governments past and present have not considered investment in research and development as being of importance although the rest of the world thinks so, which has resulted in the stagnation of our youth and the inevitable brain drain seriously affecting our innovative capabilities, which in this information age is as good as waving goodbye to holistic, home-grown development. As a result, our concept of development is superficial at best. In the recent past, with the entry of foreign universities and pathways opening up for overseas higher education, the simmering frustration has been eased to some extent but the embers that stoked the problems in the past are still very much alive and there is no shortage of politically motivated miscreants just waiting to do so. Which is why what happened at Kelaniya University last week is somewhat of a watershed. Instead of turning the usual blind eye fearing reprisals and protests, the university authorities decided to give the student thugs a dose of their own medicine. No doubt they have been emboldened by the no-nonsense attitude of the President, who a little bird whispered has said enough is enough to the destructive nature of student politics. Although over 200,000 students sit for the local Advanced Level examination, only around 30,000 gain admission to universities. Another 20,000 with financial means opt to go overseas to foreign universities for higher education. Foreign education does not come cheap like the local university education which is given free of charge at the taxpayers' cost, and as a result, each student studying overseas has to fork out millions of rupees even in relatively cheaper places like Malaysia, Singapore, and India. All this adds up to a sizable amount of precious foreign exchange that is flowing out of Sri Lanka, and not to mention the larger problem of brain drain. If the Government is serious about its desire to reform Sri Lanka's education sector, which many successive governments in the recent past have failed with distinction, then it must fix the ragging problem in universities and double its investment in research and development which over time, will hopefully repair the battered image of our local universities. It is no secret that the majority of the union leaders in universities hardly engage in any academic pursuits and instead are fully immersed in destructive political activities that destroy many a budding academic star. They are the bane of society but yet the powers that be give them a wide berth. That was until now. The quick action of the Kelaniya University to make a police complaint and prosecute the offenders involved in dismantling the newly installed CCTV cameras and following it up with a two-year ban on 25 students involved in causing damage to public property has for the first time sent a strong signal that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Education is money. The question that needs to be asked is – is Sri Lanka getting adequate return on investment for the colossal sum of money it spends on free education? Professionals who are products of the free education system have no qualms about holding the very people who funded them to ransom at the drop of a hat. Many educate themselves here and seek greener pastures elsewhere making those countries the beneficiary of Sri Lanka's investment. Add to it the outflow of foreign exchange of students studying overseas and the brain drain and we have a problem of monstrous proportions, the root of which is the lack of discipline in universities. Therefore, the start given by the Kelaniya University to put an end to the ragging menace needs to be applauded and most importantly supported by other universities scattered throughout the country.