Speech delivered at the inaugural function of South Asia Regional Student Leader Conference February 11, 2005 by Kedar Bhakta Mathema

I would first of all like to thank the organizer for this opportunity to address this conference of student leaders of South Asia. The phrase 'student leader' brings to my mind the happy and sometimes not so happy memories of the days I spent at Tribhuwan University in my previous incarnation as its Vice-chancellor. That was the period after the restoration of democracy in Nepal when there was much excitement and euphoria in the country about the possibility of change in all sectors of our national life.  

When I accepted the post of the Vice-chancellor, I had only one aim in mind—to take advantage of the newly found atmosphere of openness and freedom and to introduce much needed reform in the university. It is in this process of bringing about change in Nepal's premier national university that I ruffled the feathers of student bodies, incurred their wrath, and felt the strength of their power. 

Students in Nepal, as elsewhere in South Asia, are a powerful group. They played an important role in the popular movement of 1990, which overthrew the Panchayat polity and restored multiparty democracy in the country. Even during the 30 long years of the Panchayat system, Nepalese students continuously fought for their rights, including their right to have a student council (better known as unions) a demand which the government ultimately conceded in 1980.  

Elections to student councils or unions these days are big events in Nepal. They are fought fiercely between different student organizations with great zeal and enthusiasm. Because all Nepalese student organizations are affiliated with one political party or another, each university’s student election is an electoral fight in proxy among different political parties. Thus, it may not be perhaps inappropriate to call student elections in university campuses a national election in microcosm.

The close bond between student organizations and political parties is a source of both strength and weakness for student politics in Nepal as well as in many other South Asian countries. If affiliation with political parties gives students organizations resources and political support for their activities, it also creates unnecessary rivalry among student organizations and prevents them from forging a strong alliance to fight for a common cause. What is more troublesome is that extremely close associations with political parties have prevented many student organizations from developing their own agendas and independent identities. 

For a university administrator who genuinely works for the interests of both the institution and students, the presence of different student groups poses a problem, particularly when he or she plans to introduce reforms. My own experience at Tribhuwan University in the early 90s tells me that it is near impossible to bring all student groups to one table and get them to agree on any reform program which is necessary but likely to be unpopular with students. 

Competition and populism have driven many student groups to demand more and more concessions even on matters such as admission requirements and examinations. As a consequence of regular student agitations in campuses and the resulting deterioration in academic standards, many once famous state universities in our part of the world have now become only faint images of their illustrious past. The net loss of all this is to students particularly those belonging to lower economic strata.  

The tasks then for student leadership are to shake off their status quoist orientation and rethink activism from a different perspective. As in the sixties, students activism should not simply mean opposing everything the establishment or the university management would propose but rather forming a creative and constructive partnership with them for the benefit of students. This also means ending the race among different student organizations for cheap popularity and forging a minimum consensus among them on basic issues affecting the future of students. All this will manifestly require immense resolve and courage. Divisiveness and extreme partisanship among student organizations have disenchanted and alienated an increasingly great majority of students from student politics. If this trend continues, students organizations will cease to be a significant independent social force and student politics will be perceived both by majority of students and people at large as a mere interference in studies.  

I believe that student politics, despite the criticism it has received from some conservative elements in society for being “disturbing and distractive”, has great value to a nation.  Not only does student politics meet certain emotional and intellectual needs of the students, but it also often shapes their attitudes and heightens their social and political consciousness and sensibilities. This is particularly important in societies such as ours where the student community is surrounded by traditional value orientations. In such societies, student organizations are one of the few modernizing elements that can go a long way towards breaking down caste, religious, and linguistic barriers and building a democratic culture of freedom and equality. 

Student politics attunes students to the broader issues of their societies. It also provides the pressure and stimuli for new ideas and all encompassing answers to some of the important questions facing the nation. Scholars who have studied student activism across countries agree that where there is a tradition of political indifference and apathy among students, even severe social and political crises in the nation fail to move the students to action.  

 

Ladies, Gentlemen and Participants,

 

At the beginning of the 21^st century, this part of the world where we live stands at the crossroad between hope and despair: hope because of the progress we have made so far; despair because our achievement has been far from adequate and equitable. Our region is considered to be one of the most poorly governed and ill managed regions in the world. Not only are many unfortunate people who suffer from multiple deprivations often bypassed by the formal institutions of governance, but they are also excluded from the benefits of growth and have failed to gain political and social empowerment. Some of the worst consequences of this exclusion are seen in the violent conflicts that have plagued many countries in the region including my own. 

What is then expected of our young men and women in a situation like this? 

If national development is as much a social and political objective as an economic one, if it aims squarely at an end to grinding poverty and gross injustice, I believe it has a constituency waiting for it among the emerging generation of young adults. These young men and women are looking for goals beyond their own personal comfort and affluence. All they are waiting for are leaders – leaders like you who would take up their cause. 

The choice is yours. Whether to keep on clinging to conventional style of activism or activism of different sort – activism which will make student organizations a catalytic force for fighting widespread deprivation, inequality and injustice prevalent in our societies.
 

With these few words let me wish all the participants a very successful deliberation in the conference. To those of you who are from abroad, I wish you a very fruitful and pleasant stay in Kathmandu. 

My gratitude to the American Mission of Nepal for having enabled me to be here with student leaders from South Asia and to dream once more that I am young.