A lot has been written about the performance of the AL-led Government on its first year anniversary in office. Most of these writings and also what has been spoken in public are partisan. The government has been praised for all round success by those who support the Awami League. Those who do not support the AL and lean towards the opposition have concluded that the government has failed on most counts miserably. The truth, of course, is somewhere in the middle.
The Government, however, has to answer to the people on one particular issue. In the days and weeks following the assumption of office by the Awami League, the public educational institutions became scenes of lawlessness that did not go with the promise of change for which the people voted the AL with a major mandate. In the face of such lawlessness, the Prime Minister resigned from her post as chief patron of the Chatra League, the students' wing of the Awami League. That did not have any positive impact upon the state of affairs in the public educational institutions. Instead, it has become a regular item in the newspapers these days to read that one or another of the many public educational institutions has been closed sine die due to acts of lawlessness by the students. What is significant is the fact that such conflicts almost always result from criminal acts that has nothing to do with seeking better education.
Most recently, the Rajshahi Polytechnic has joined the long list of public sector institutions to witness lawlessness and mayhem that resulted in the death of a student leader of another party at the hands of the Chatra League. Predictably, the institute has been closed sine die. This time, the incident brought strong reaction from the General Secretary of the Awami League who is also the Minister for LGRD and a spokesman of the Government. He said that stern action would be taken against criminal and unlawful activities in the name of students' politics. One would of course like to feel assured at the Minister's stern warning. But then, the Prime Minister was also equally angry and upset when she gave up her position as the patron of the Chatra League but nothing happened. Therefore, there are not many who would believe that after the warning, the lawlessness and criminalization of the public educational institutions would be in anyway halted.
The reasons why this will not happen are not very difficult to discern. In the socio-economic conditions prevailing in the country, jobs after a degree in any of the large number of public educational institutions are extremely hard to get. In fact the majority of those who attend these institutions study subjects that have no value in the restricted and extremely competitive job market. The students themselves are also aware of their predicament. They are thus easy target for the political parties who need them for their narrow political interests. This nexus has been established over many decades and known to everybody. This nexus also allows leaders of students' parties easy access to top political leaders who help them in a variety of ways, in extreme cases even to dare the law enforcing agencies that in turn encourages them to use the educational institutions for their criminal activities. When the political party that the students' party represents forms the government, then there is complete freedom for the supporters and leaders of that students' party to do pretty much what they like. The Chatra League has left no one in doubt with their current activities in the educational campuses about this truth.
The large amount of money that the public educational institutions receive from the government for development provides the soft underbelly for these students to prey upon. Then the dormitories provide the leaders of students who indulge in criminalization another soft underbelly for their illegal activities. These so-called leaders, by capturing the dormitories, literally control their administration in terms of distribution of seats for which they make easy money from the general students. Then in some cases, by establishing their control over the dormitories, these student leaders also literally control the administration of the educational institutions that provide them with another soft underbelly to exploit for their criminal activities that comes with their ability to interfere in admission of students in the educational institutions and in departments of choice for bribes. The attractions of students' politics also extend to the larger arena of politics as these students' leaders in due course find their way into mainstream politics where they carry out the same acts on the larger political canvas for which we have coined catchy but obnoxious phrases such as "tenderbazi" and "chandabazi".
Newspapers carry stories regularly of heads of pubic educational institutions falling prey to students who hold them hostage in their offices forcibly to make them submit to their demands. Although for some strange reasons, newspapers do not examine these incidents objectively, there is enough reason to believe that those who become victims of wrath of students are in most cases those who show the courage not to give in to the criminal demands of the students. Unfortunately, it is the government that does not in most such cases come to the rescue of those who are subjected to such humiliation by the students. In fact, they are often at the receiving end of a system of justice that makes nonsense of the cliché that politicians repeat again and again that students are our future; the backbone of our country. Like indulgent parents, the politicians pamper their wards like they can do no wrong when the wrong they do are palpably there for everyone to see.
The reasons for such indulgence are also not hard to understand. Bangladesh has a history where students have played a significant role in national politics. During the Pakistan times, the students sometimes showed the way to the politicians. They did it with the Language Movement and again with the movement that ousted General Ayub. Both these movements were the main platforms for the movement in 1971 for the liberation of Bangladesh.
In those days, students' politics was also about principles, ideologies and nationalism. Most important of all, when the students in those times involved themselves in politics; they did not manifest any of the wanton acts of lawlessness and destruction; nor did such political activities result in any disturbance to the normal activities in the educational institutions. The politicians ensured that students were not involved in politics at the cost of their education.
Today, there is no ideology that motivates students' politics because many of the compulsions and international realties are gone. Communism and its lures are a matter of history. Our objective for an independent, sovereign nation has also been achieved. Bangla as a language has just not been established in the country; it has won international recognition. The only principle that remains from history is the lure of Islam which we are now trying to banish from national politics. In the meantime, the face of national politics has deteriorated fundamentally. A nexus between students and national politics in its present context thus can only harm the interests of the overwhelming majority of the students; it can no longer do anything good for the general students. It is therefore the need of the moment that the umbilical chord between national politics and students' politics is severed.
In no educational institution in the contemporary world can students in their right mind even dare to imagine that they would have anytime to give for politics, political parties and politicians. They just do not have time sometimes for their regular meals. The fact that our students take this is as normal is something that reflects something utterly amiss in our educational institutions. There is of course another issue here that needs to be considered to encourage our political leaders to seriously think about maintaining their presence in the educational institutions. Majority, in fact the overwhelming majority, of students in the public educational institutions do not want students' politics. However, they are unable even to express an opinion against it, let alone stand up against it for fear of their lives. The political parties must consider the plight of this majority and do the right thing with students' politics.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's anger against Chatra League was the first instance of a political leader taking a public stand against students' politics. Unfortunately that was months ago and not very much really happened to set things right. In fact, going by the words that the AL's Secretary General, matters have worsened. Sadly, his warnings also would not bear the desired result because the link between the students' parties and the political parties, build over decades, that have today crystallized by criminality and money, will not even soften by words.
If the Prime Minister and her party are serious about this cancer in the educational institutions, they must make one simple but surgical operation; take a scissor and cut the umbilical link of their party with their students' party in the educational institutions and make a law in parliament, requiring all other political parties to do the same.
Published in the Daily Independent, January 12, 2010
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