Editorial
A growing propensity toward violence
Student bodies must play a positive new role
We are concerned at the growing tendency on the part of a section of students to resort to violence on any pretext whatsoever. A few weeks ago, agitation by students in the university area as well as Dhaka College led to mindless violence which resulted in the death of an innocent trader. And now come reports of the vandalism let loose by students at Pangu Hospital because of what has been described as a non-fulfilment of their demands. It may well be that the students were provoked into violence. But the point is that students being the enlightened people they are ought not to succumb to such provocation.
Such behaviour is clearly unacceptable, especially when one recalls the immense contributions made by the students' community in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and in the anti-Ershad movement to the cause of freedom and democracy. It is a legacy we have held on to with pride all these years. And precisely because of that pride, we are today appalled at the level of decline that has crept into our academic arena. The ready propensity on the part of some students to get violent casts a dark shadow on our hope for the future. What has happened at Pangu Hospital and elsewhere in the recent past is, therefore, behaviour we condemn in the strongest terms. Such behaviour not only threatens to blight our efforts towards the creation of an educated, egalitarian society but also sends out a very negative message to the outside world about the state of education in Bangladesh. While it is understandable that students will have grievances that need addressing, what is not to be accepted is their directing their anger toward a destruction of public and private property that can only leave every citizen feeling embarrassed.
The time has come for the various student organisations, all directly or indirectly linked to different political parties, to take stock of the situation. All these years, we have observed these student bodies unquestioningly following the course set by the political parties. But so far we have not heard of any of them coming forward with a positive message for their followers, aimed at redirecting young energy toward the creation of a knowledge-based culture. Surely the time is here and now for the students' organisations to take a long, hard look at prevailing conditions and devise the means by which a sense of idealism and discipline can be inculcated in them. The demand of the times is for these organisations to play a positive public role by taking steps at all academic institutions -- colleges, universities, et al -- to inspire their followers in eschewing the path of violence even as they struggle for rights and privileges. The nation expects the students' community to take up the mantle of leadership in future. Unfortunately, with the kind of mayhem and horror we have just seen at Pangu Hospital and other places, such a future can only get badly blurred.
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