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When good turns to bad

Mahbub Kamal
IN Bangladesh, student activism dates back to the 1950s when some students died when police fired upon them. They were demanding the recognition of Bengali as one of the state languages of Pakistan. Subsequently, with the proautonomy Jukta Front (United Front) sweeping the polls in 1954, student activism subsided.
After the imposition of martial law by General Ayub Khan in 1958 and subsequent incarceration of political leaders, students once again emerged to fill the political vacuum. In 1964 they came out in huge numbers to protest the education commission report prepared by Justice Hamoodur
Rahman. Universities and colleges had to be closed down and the report withdrawn to quell the protests.
In 1966, when Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman announced his radical six-point program for full autonomy it was the industrial workers of Naryanganj andTejgaon who came out in support. Student activism was, initially, sparse.
In January 1969 the students in what was then East Pakistan erupted again. This was a sequel to anti-Ayub agitation in Pakistan. The movement ultimately forced the abdication of Ayub Khan. A couple of years later when the Pakistan army went for a military crackdown accompanied with genocide to curb political dissent,
students in large numbers fled across the border and swelled the ranks of the Mukti Bahini. When the Pakistan army was defeated, the students, as a community, felt vindicated.
One would have thought with the liberation of the country that there was little reason for student activism. However, that was not to be. Student politics continued, this time, in the garb of a radical socialist revolution and later in the 1980s when General Ershad took over, for democracy.
Even after Ershad was ousted, the campus remained turbulent. But there were changes. In the 18 years since Ershad was ousted not a single election to the student unions could be held, largely due to opposition from an unexpected quarter -- student organisations who were linked to the ruling parties. Evidently, the mood had changed. The activist student community had become proestablishment, for the most part.
In some of the mofussil universities, the situation was much more disturbing as Islamist cadres dominated -- killing and maiming many adversaries and innocents who refused to toe the line. There were voices of concern but nothing concrete emerged. In the early 1990s, then leader of the opposition, Sheikh Hasina proposed delinking student politics from the national political parties, but the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, turned it down. However, following the proposal, a series of meetings, albeit without Hasina and Khaleda, were held between the two big parties, BNP and Awami League, to bring some sanity to student politics -- but nothing could be agreed upon.
While there is widespread concern about student politics, the "chattering classes" are divided on the issue. Some want an end to the
violence on campus, while others feel that without a complete ban on student politics this cannot be achieved. Then, there are others, particularly of the left, who have some following among the students and teachers, who believe that politics is part of the educative process and any blanket ban will adversely affect the level of "consciousness" in society.
Student activists, quite regularly, point to the glorious role their predecessors played in the history of the country, specially for liberation and democracy and therefore by extension claim that the country's polity would be worse off without the redeeming role of the young men and women who have been its "conscience-keepers" forlong.
On the other hand, those who want a complete ban cite the huge numbers of boys and girls who have been killed because of the campus violence that has erupted because of the frequent internecine conflicts there between the student activists. They also cite the innumerable students whose careers have been destroyed or stunted because of student politics.
It has become a difficult situation now with a large number of teachers joining the fray. For a long time under political governments, student politics had thrived largely on patronage. Activists had engaged in extortions, in and around the campus, and they had been critical in distributing favours. Many students got admitted because of party affiliations and if they managed to skip this, which many still did, then getting a scat in one of the hall dormitories became a privilege of the predominant party.
It did not end there. Getting a first class, the ultimate in a student's life, also increasingly depended on which party the student was affiliated to. The recent scandal of 50 plus first classes in political science had raised many eyebrows and although there have been many promises of investigation, nothinghas actually followed.
Political science is not the only department that has this problem. Dozens of first classes in sociology
and anthropology and some other departments have also been there for some time. These raise questions of equivalence and probity. Are the students of other departments, like economics or public administration, any less meritorious? How come they get fewer first classes? They will have to compete with the first class students wherever they apply to. Evidently, the same standards are not followed in all departments. Then is anybody bothered about it? Possibly not, as they know nothing can be done about it - so powerful is the syndicate that rules the roost. It is a trend that has come to stay and will gradually consume other departments, too. The lowest common denominator will prevail.
By this time teacher recruitment has also fallen victim to the overpoliticised politics of the universities. This has resulted in full institutionalisation of politics in the universities. In the absence of union elections, the raison d'etre for student politics is no more there, but apparently the teachers' association has taken over where student activism ended. Any end to the unruly campus atmosphere would also need an end to teachers' politics, as well.
A number of proposed reforms such as evening classes or raising fees and charges had to be cancelled in the face of strong opposition from left-wing students and teachers. As for productivity, as a former vice-chancellor so typically once said: "We are not a government department We do not have to be keep track of every penny."
The academic community, however, is silent about irregularities at the universities including moonlighting in the private universities by their colleagues. This they can ill-afford for long. Eventually, they will have to be self-righteous to retain their current position. Besides, they will also have to prove their excellence in human resource develop-ment to prove their case. Otherwise, the voided for de-politicisation of academia will get stronger by the day.
Mahbub Kamal is a freelance contributor to The Da ly Star.