Day Five. Tuesday, 19 January 2016

Small is beautiful.

Leopold Kohr, quoted by E.F. Schumacher, who uses it as the title of his book, ranked among The Times Literary Supplement’s 100 most influential books

This morning, we are taken for a walk to the primary school of Murten, after a brief introduction to the President of the town, Mr Christian Brechbuhl, by Mr Alexander Schroeter, President of the school commission.

There, we are received by two head teachers, one German and one French, both female, neither subordinate to the other. The school is bi-lingual, German and French.

It is really fascinating visiting the place. For one thing, Murten is a German majority town in a French majority canton of the German majority nation. So what do you do when you have a Shan majority town in a non-Shan majority self administered zone in a Shan majority state?

They have an answer here. The first classroom we visit is that of a German 6^th grade. The student, who’s learning English, explains to me: “We started school with our own mother tongue. When we got to 3^rd grade, we were given a choice among the other 3 languages. Naturally, we chose French. Last year (at 5^th grade), we were asked what foreign languages we wanted to learn, and we said English.” “So you have to learn three languages at schools?” I ask. He says, “Yes”.

After the classrooms, we are taken to a room which serves as a meeting hall for the schools committee, made up of parents. It is explained to us that education is divided among the three levels of government in the following way:

University                           Federal government

High schools                       Cantonal government

Primary/secondary         Communal government

(We will later find that with the university level, there is a mixture between the federal and cantonal responsibilities.)

It is the same with roads, we are told: the federal government is responsible for the highways, the cantonal for cantonal roads, and the municipality/communal for the local streets.

At 10:00, we are off to Neuchatel (German name for new castle) University, another bi-lingual learning center, 25.7 km away. Though having a German name, the majority population there is French, probably due to ancient wars between the two nationalities. Unlike Burma, however, no French name has been adopted in substitution.

There, we are received by the rector (female), a professor (also female) and a co-secretary of the university (male). We are then treated to a power point presentation, which I will not bother the readers with its details but only with a few salient points:

• According to Article 63 of the constitution, the federal government manages the federal institutes of technology and may “establish, take over or manage additional universities and other higher education facilities.” It also supports cantonal universities. In addition, both federal and cantonal governments are jointly responsible for “quality in Swiss higher education”. As such, both must respect “the autonomy of the universities.”
• At the federal level, the ministry (called department as in the United States) appoints a minister (called Councilor) for Economic Affairs, Education and Research

• 

  All in all, control in governance and finance is by the political authorities, but the strategy, management and academic freedom in teaching and research activities remain under control of the university

The University of Neuchatel, considered small, has 4,375 students, of which 960 of them come from abroad. It offers only 4 faculties: Arts and Humanities, Science, Law, and Economics.

We have lunch downtown and then we are on our way to Delemont, the capital of Jura, 76.4 km away in the northwest, through the snow-covered landscape. Nothing to see, so I sleep all the way.

Four police officers are waiting for us at the cantonal parliament building. The chief, Mr Damien Rerat, says he used to be a judge. His deputy, Ms Maria- Jane Intenza, is a lawyer by training and another who handles criminal cases is a forensic expert. The 4^th officer acts as interpreter, as the others are speaking to us in French.  There we learn how the police forces at each level are formed, operate and are supported.

As can be seen here, federal and cantonal law enforcement officers operate independently from each other. “But when it comes to inter-cantonal crimes, such as cyber crimes, cooperation is necessary”, says the chief, who tells me he’s been to Thailand as a young man.

Of course, we are particularly eager to learn more about the Jura police force, and they are ready for us. Here are the details given:

Population:                         70,000

# of communes:               83

Area:                                     838 square kilometers (327 square miles)

Strength:                             160, of which 145 are police officers (Bern, in contrast, has 3,000 officers being bigger)

# of vehicles:                     50 which includes motorcycles, patrol cars and riot control cars

“We don’t have helicopters, but we can always ask from the nearby military unit for use, when necessary,” says Chief

Annual Expenditure:      Euro 20 million, of which three quarters are spent for salaries (Enviable, isn’t it?)

Training:                               One year at the inter–cantonal police officer school, there are 6 such schools in Switzerland

If I remember well, he states that 25% of his workforce are women, but as my notes are unclear here, I cannot be sure. “We have plans to increase the number of female police officers, as they appear to be working better with the public,” he says.

Drug offenses, meanwhile, do not pose much of a problem there. “But in major cities like Bern, it is,” he says.

There are many questions which we still like to ask, like how cross border crimes are being dealt with. Jura has a long border with France. But by 18:00, our time is over. We have been there for a little over 3 hours.

As we head back to Murten, I ask myself: How about having an independent police force under state government with its own laws?