Kashmiris would rather die fighting

SHANNON Ebrahim’s article “Kashmir conflict catastrophic for civilians” (The Star, October 14) refers.

The illegal occupation of Kashmir by India has no justification. The Kashmiris have opposed it since 1947.

Jammu and Kashmir can never be an integral part of India through parliamentary resolutions. Indian-occupied Kashmir was, is and will always be an occupied territory until a peaceful resolution is established.

The right to self-determination is a matter of life and death for Kashmiris.

In 1947, under the auspices of the UN, the future of Kashmir was to be decided by plebiscite. Instead, the Kashmiris, have been denied human rights.

This has become a test case for people of conscience.

As long as the issue remains unresolved, the partition concept of 1947 remains incomplete.

The choice for the Kashmiris is either surrender to Indian imperialism or continue the struggle against oppression.

Oppression is worse than killing. While killing is short and brutal, oppression is an ongoing denial of ideals and civil liberties. Oppression tortures the soul.

For more than six decades, the Indian regime abused the Kashmiris through a programme of Indianisation.

In their search for dignity, the native population has realised it is better to die; in their willingness to meet death, life has become meaningful.

The Indian government must honour the promise made by Gandhi and Nehru in 1947. Media Review Network AS A TAX-PAYING South African, I’m concerned about this problem with the bunch of students who have disrupted the academic year, prejudicing thousands of fellow students who want to study, in the name of some misbegotten notion that college education must be free.

Everyone knows that anything free is taken for granted and is abused. Take for example the air we breath and the climates we for now enjoy.

A good tertiary education is a privilege in every country, not a right.

But there lies the conundrum: there is a glaringly obvious solution which has not come to the inert minds of the government or the student rioters.

As a taxpayer, I’d love to offer a free university education to any student who achieves an average of 80 percent for whatever courses he or she takes. This is a winwin situation.

I’m tempted here to say graduates in such fields as science and technology, engineering and medicine should be required to achieve a 75 percent average and that the students in the humanities be required to achieve an 85 percent average to encourage more students to study in areas of learning sorely lacking in our country.

Students who work hard and achieve results get free education. Anyone who ever received a bursary knows it was predicated on a certain level of performance.

A state bursary would require a commitment to get excellent grades and benefit the country by producing high-quality graduates. Parktown North, Joburg