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Return the campus to general students
**It is in the interest of not only the students, but also of the whole nation that a congenial atmosphere of learning is restored on the DU campus. This is also true of all other universities of the country.
THE High
Court (HC) on Sunday issued a rule on the government and the Dhaka University (DU) authorities on
holding DU Central Students' Union (Duscsu) elections immediately.
The HC order has come after some 25 DU students took upon themselves the responsibility to awaken the student community, the DU authorities as well as the government to the long-forgotten issue of Ducsu and the need to hold its election.
Obviously, the students who filed the petition with the HC did it of their own volition to bring the matter afresh before the nation. They deserve plaudits for their bold action.
It is surprising though that no one so far had seriously thought of raising the issue of Ducsu election, far less taken any action about it. As a result, a void has been created for the outsiders to fill. In the absence of a representative body to look after the welfare of thousands of general students of DU, cadres of different parties are ruling the campus.
The general students have no say about anything that matters in their campus life. They are at the mercy of these cadres in the residential halls, most of which are under their control. Of course, there are teachers who run the administration of the halls as provosts, house tutors and their staff. But they are also in constant fear of the gun-toting cadres, who often engage in brawls and factional wars both inside and outside the residential halls.
This situation has been prevailing over decades during the successive governments. It is very unfortunate for general students who thank their luck just for the opportunity to have taken admission in this university. They consider it as an opportunity of a lifetime. Their parents and guardians hope that they have made the best investment for their children's future by sending them to this univer-
sity for study! But there is every possibility that their children may finally land up in a place that they were hardly prepared for.
It is in the interest of not only the students, but also of the whole nation that a congenial atmosphere of learning is restored on the DU campus. This is also true of all other universities of the country, as those are also beset with identical and in some cases even worse kind of cadre violence and unrest.
An important step towards reengaging the general students to take hold of their own institution of learn- ing is to start healthy curricular and extra-curricular activities. Elected student bodies of the different halls, departments and faculties can play a vital role in organising such activities. These are the pre-conditions for creating the atmosphere for learning. Wih Ducsu being the apex of all these student bodies, the holding of its election would go a long way in restoring peace on the campus and helping the general students to start their educational and cultural activities. But such a prospect will remain a mere pipedream so long as the campus is controlled by extraneous ele-
ments.
Filing of the petition with the HC followed by the court ruling has only set the ball rolling. What explanations the DU authorities and the government will finally come up with and what actions will follow from the authorities concerned are possibilities that we can only guess and wait for. But it should not be lost on all concerned that the path ahead will not at all be a smooth one.
The prevailing atmosphere of extreme antagonism among different student bodies loyal to the ruling and opposition parties as well as the vari- ous feuding factions of identical student organisations will certainly pose the strongest challenge before the authorities in charge of holding the Ducsu poll. It will be necessary to create an enabling environment before one can hold the poll. To make that happen, ending of anarchy and restoring of order has to be the first step. That will be an impossible task unless the ruling and the opposition political parties extend their cooperation to tell their goons and cadres to leave the campus. But again they will do nothing out of their goodwill.
The student community, the teachers, senior citizens as well as members of the civil society and the media will need to work together to create pressure on the ruling and the opposition parties and the government to prevail upon their loyalist student organisations and their cadres not to interfere in the normal activities of general students anymore.
It is not that these student groups allied with political parties have no general students whose mission is to carry out their curricular activities and build a career. But they often have to join these student groups under duress. These students will again join the mainstream once the campus is freed of outside forces.
That is a tall order, but today or tomorrow it is in their best interests that the masters who remote-control the campuses will see reason.
The writer Is Editor, Science & Life, The Dally Star. E-mail: sfalim.ds@gmail.com