Editorial
Over-aged student leadership
Clean-up needed right now
Most of the leaders of the newly formed central committee of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) are reportedly either superannuated or irregular students. It is simply unbelievable to discover that one of them has even remained a student for as long as seventeen years! What a sad commentary on the prospective future leaders of our country!
In the past, non-students and outsiders dominated JCD leadership. In that context, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's repeated announcements along with the BNP Joint Secretary General Tarique Rahman's express intentions to reorganise JCD with 'regular and genuine students' brought some hope for a change. Instead, what we see now, is exactly the opposite of what they professedly intended. This has been also a frustration for young students aspiring for leadership. So all those eloquent speeches on ridding the party of aged and irregular students by infusing new blood have proved to be rhetorical. This has been a ruling party student wing syndrome by turn, especially of the JCD. Is there really any hope for a country where students are encouraged by their leaders to avail of dishonest means to serve their own political agenda? We believe, there is still time for the parties and their leaders to get their acts together and eliminate this leadership perpetuation disease among old students once and for all.
At the same time, the university authorities have a key-role to play. They should tighten their grips on and plug the loopholes in the rules and regulations so that the students can't take undue advantages. Students should not be allowed to avoid appearing in the final examinations repeatedly or change departments halfway through their course. If they fail to complete their courses in due time, they should receive punitive measures. And this the authorities would have to ensure at any cost without fear from any quarters, political or otherwise.
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