By Mohamad El Sahily | Staff Writer
Let’s face it, the student body in AUB has become deeply, and problematically, apolitical. Gone are the days when students on campus managed to affect any real change, be it inside campus or in the broader context of Lebanese politics. A variety of reasons have facilitated this transition, which has rendered a large number of students to be simply uninterested in the goings on outside Main Gate, or beyond Beirut in general. People tend to dismiss this without much thought, without the urgency that such a generational transformation necessitates, while this shift promises a dark future for the country.
The economic crisis, which has swept our country in the past four years, was facilitated by the spread of political illiteracy. Political parties, playing on sectarian and tribal divides which were augmented by the trauma of the civil war, have reinforced their chokehold on Lebanese politics, making any attempt at digressing from their rules near impossible. To propagate itself, this political elite used mass media and other forms of patronage or spin to influence the hearts and minds of the young and the old. They have extended their efforts to AUB, where several partisan clubs operate to entrench this control.
There is no denying that a significant number of students on campus are not partisans in any of the clubs representing elite political parties. The crisis has hit everyone, and even the most sheltered and privileged of students continue to feel the weight of the collapse all around us. Therefore, to accuse students of disavowing “independent” political work is unfair and unjust. People are tired: they have seen people on the streets protesting, they have cheered as banks were hit, and as governments resigned. They went on the streets to clean up Beirut after the port crime, and some have remained there.
But as colleges in Lebanon, notably private ones, became increasingly homogeneous in the social makeup of their students – namely upper middle class or upper-class students – the urgency which gripped the student population, the sense of duty to speak up and organize, has nearly disappeared. It is hard to inspire or galvanize a desensitized population, and harder when said population is sheltered from the daily happenings of the dollar rate, the political atrophy, or the militias which rule our country. This was bound to inspire apathy and disinterest, which has come to affect those who are politically active.
In AUB, students who by virtue of their academic training are supposed to be more aware and literate on the reasons of political stagnation, are instead completely and utterly unconcerned with the shocking and unprecedented status of the country. The response to actions taken by the administration, the government, the police, and government thugs against politically active AUB students is…. nothing. No condemnation, no solidarity, no support, nothing. Instead, we see how independent political clubs on campus are consistently mocked, heckled, and attacked, sometimes for no reason at all. The new generation of students seems to either associate independent clubs with “godless secularism”, “western embassies”, or “crazy leftists”. Not only do these labels indicate a deep level of political illiteracy, but also an unfortunate reflection of the success of the ruling class in neutralizing any political tendencies amongst the youth.
Nowadays, students who practice politics within and without the university are a minority. But this has encouraged partisan students to start, shyly but steadily, filling up the vacuum. Assume one of the two independent clubs on campus called for a protest, how many people would actually attend? How many partisan students observe these demonstrations from afar, secure in the knowledge that their “opponents” are rather unsuccessful in almost everything they do? Even within these clubs, how many students are politicized? Are they aware of the urgency which should galvanize all young people into action against all the crises we face daily? The students who are supposed to care, in certain clubs and societies, are instead either hosting ministers who have, to varying degrees, exacerbated the crisis, or are absorbed in advocacy for broad liberal principles, which look and sound nice on paper but in reality, are completely detached from the domestic and on-campus political scene. When was the last time a serious debate happened on campus? When was the last time ideas clashed without threat or fear of retaliation on campus? Has the cognitive dissonance of the student body reached unprecedented degrees that we can’t go back? Has anyone noticed that students amongst us, who sometimes disagree with our ideas, often resort to online harassment and sometimes explicit endorsement of medieval ideologies with many sinister implications?
AUB has historically produced alumni who went to fill leadership roles in public life. I wonder, what kind of generation will eventually assume key positions when it can barely mount a principled stance while being students in the country’s most prestigious university? Is our future prime minister going to concern themselves with the principle of proper governance? Is our future foreign minister going to be well prepared to handle sensitive responsibilities? Is the future generation of activists going to be dead on arrival? When students don’t care about politics in university, they open the door for partisan operatives to infiltrate the student body, while themselves either enabling a corrupt elite in the future or becoming said elite themselves. Worse, outside the university, when demoralized people see that privileged students don’t care, why would they?