Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir president Nurul Islam Saddam has said he favors reforming campus politics rather than eliminating it entirely.
Responding to a student’s question at an event at Chittagong University, he said: “If party politics were eliminated, no one would have been able to organize this program for you. These things shouldn’t be eliminated.”
He made the remarks Saturday, August 29, afternoon, at a “Fresher Reception and Career Guideline” event organized by Chhatra Shibir at Chittagong University. Saddam said: “If you have a headache, you don’t cut off your head — then you wouldn’t exist at all. So the thinking should be about how to reform it while keeping the head intact.”
Anti-discrimination Student Movement leader Abdul Kader had previously claimed that Shibir leader S M Forhad had tried to include a demand to ban student politics in one of the nine demands during the July movement.
According to his account, Forhad, then secretary of Dhaka University Chhatra Shibir, had tried to add a demand to “ban student politics on campus” to the seventh point. This led to discussion and debate among them. The demand was later finalized in the language of banning “partisan lackey-ism in student politics.”
Chhatra Shibir’s current president, Nurul Islam Saddam, said he believes there should be a “code of conduct” under the university’s own policy for conducting political activities on campus.
Saddam said: “We said there should be a code of conduct at the university. Politics at the university should operate under the university’s own policy.”
He said Chhatra Shibir has made this proposal to the administrations of Jahangirnagar University, Jagannath University and Dhaka University.
The Shibir president said: “The university should be a common place of values. Here, every political student organization will represent its ideological purpose in front of students. Students can accept it or reject it.” He said no one should be forced into rallies or meetings to serve the interests of any political party or “mother party.”
Opposing “gonoroom” (mass dormitory rooms) and “guestroom” culture, Saddam said: “Gonoroom and guestroom can never be allowed to operate again. Whoever tries to bring them back, we must take collective action against them.”
‘Ideology will be implemented, but in the campus’s interest’
A student asked whether, if lackey-style politics persists on campus, an elected representative would end up doing politics to serve their own party’s agenda. In response, Shibir leader Nurul Islam Saddam said: “Yes, it’s natural that everyone will implement their own ideology. But that has to be in the interest of the campus.”
He said: “No political party leader’s poster can be put up on campus. If any political party leader visits, slogans in their name cannot be chanted here.”
The Shibir president also spoke about Chittagong University’s housing crisis. Asking students at the event to raise their hands if they lived in a dormitory, he then raised questions about why the housing crisis remained unresolved after so much time. The Chhatra Shibir president said: “A first-year student, after coming out of their mother’s womb and earning a place at this university on merit, why can’t the university administration guarantee their safety with a dormitory seat in 60 years? What’s the answer to that? It’s a shame for our education system.”
He also said the government has shown weakness in developing Chittagong University’s housing facilities and infrastructure.
Nurul Islam Saddam said: “At least 40 to 45 universities have been built in Bangladesh since your university was established. They can build that many universities and allocate thousands of teachers, yet the government’s weakness in fully developing Chittagong University — that weakness has been created intentionally.”