|
|
|
|
Rise of student power
Nov 10, 2007: Presumably a great deal has already been written on
these pages since Saturday evening about the reality of Pakistan's descent into
yet another martial law (those of us who have been involved in protests have not
necessarily been able to keep up with the news, being more concerned with
mobilizing while avoiding arrest). State repression continues unabated almost a
week into this latest experiment with dictatorship. There are no immediate signs
of a major change.
Amidst all of the repression, and the brave pockets
of resistance that sprout up daily all over the country, there has been a major
development on some of Pakistan's long-dormant university campuses, a
development for which the government clearly does not have a contingency plan.
Starting with the elite Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS),
protests have been organized at Quaid-e-Azam University, Hamdard University and
International Islamic University in Islamabad, Foundation for Advancement of
Science and Technology (FAST) and Beaconhouse National University in Lahore.
Meanwhile groups of students from other universities such as the University of
Engineering and Technology (UET) and Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute (GIKI) have put
in their two pence as well.
While there is no sign yet that these
protests are a major threat to the government, the importance of even a
relatively limited number of students joining the resistance movement should not
be understated. Until the 1980s students had been at the forefront of every
major political movement in Pakistan, including most notably the mass
mobilization that toppled Ayub Khan's regime in 1969. Through the Bhutto period
and for the first few years of the Zia dictatorship the role of students
remained central to all mass mobilizations.
As a general rule student
movements constitute a huge threat to the status quo. First as young people with
relatively few responsibilities beyond taking care of themselves, students tend
to harbour a great deal of idealism about challenging injustice and indeed,
changing the social order. Second, student movements' have the ability to take
control of campuses and use the resources available to them to play a vanguard
role in organizing within and beyond their immediate environment. And finally,
if mobilized well, students movements are the most difficult to break down both
through the use of coercion and various forms of cooption.
Of course the
fledgling protests on university campuses at the present time are not a mass
student movement, and are unlikely to become one in the near future. But it is a
measure of the inherent fear that ruling establishments harbour vis-a-vis
student movements that major newspapers have reported the prime minister and
other members of the federal cabinet as having taken notice of the burgeoning
protests on numerous campuses. The PM and his friends are said to be very
concerned.
Over the past days, newspapers have also dedicated editorials
to the 'revival of student power', noting how after a gap of many decades
students have decided to join the political fray, even if their participation
does not yet compare to what it was during movements against dictatorship in
times past. What the student protests have done in the days after the
announcement of martial law is open up another front of resistance against the
regime at a time when the authorities have had their hands full simply dealing
with lawyers and political activists. Indeed, the emergence of students as an
autonomous force at this particular juncture is a huge moral defeat for the
government as it completely contradicts its claims to date about the isolation
of those who have been on the streets since March 9th. Conversely student
mobilization has lifted a great many spirits amongst lawyers and political
workers.
In dealing with this unexpected outburst the government clearly
has to take numerous factors into account. Most crucially, it does not want any
more publicity heaped on the students than there has been to date. And given the
fact that the protests till now have been largely limited to campus premises,
the only immediate option available to the authorities at the present time to
suppress students would be to actually go on to campus and use coercive force.
This will surely further raise the profile of the student protests, even if
students are not necessarily organized enough yet to withstand direct
confrontation with the state.
Importantly the print press has also
started to defy official bans on reporting and has actively raised the profile
of the student protests. At the top of the list in newspaper reporting has been
LUMS. This is not surprising given the fact that the university is well-known to
cater to the country's elite. The protest of LUMS students is a huge problem for
the government on more than one account. On the one hand it indicates that a
significant section of the elite -- or at the very least the children of the
elite -- have had their moral sensibilities offended by the regime's actions. As
important is the fact that the regime will find it almost impossible to use
coercive force against LUMS students precisely because they hail from elite
households, many of whom likely have social ties to individuals in the ruling
junta.
The regime's problems mount. And the role that students have
played in complicating what was clearly seen as a relatively straightforward --
if politically risky -- decision to silence dissent should not be understated.
If nothing else can be said with certainty about events in the week that has
passed since the imposition of martial law, what can be said is that those who
have resisted have proven that the flagrant use of force has not served its
purpose of eliminating the voices of opposition to the regime. Indeed, it seems
as if dissent is increasing and unless the regime resorts to even more
repression -- in the mould of Musharraf's predecessor Zia ul Haq -- the writing
would appear to be on the wall for yet another military ruler of this country we
call Pakistan.
Aasim Sajjad Akhtar
The writer is a political activist associated
with the People's Rights Movement. He also teaches colonial history and
political economy at LUMS. Email: amajid@comsats.net.pk (The News)
|
|
|
|
 |
| Post your Comments/ Views. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Education News | | Updated: 25 May, 2012 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
