15
Feliciano V Carino
I. INTRODUCTION
I must confess that what
I have prepared as a presentation has been based mostly on an educated guess with
regard to my assignment in this consultation. The sketchy letters I received
indicated my task as giving a talk on education and the university in the Asian
context. Both of these topics are obviously quite broad, and although I felt
hesitant to deal with them, in obedience to "the powers" of this
meeting I began to put down some notes on them. When less than two weeks ago I
received a copy of the programme of this consultation and saw my name in the
first slot for the presentations, I began to assume then that maybe beyond
talking about the education and the university in general, I should also link
whatever I had to say on these two broad subjects to the primary concern of
this meeting which is the ecumenical strategy in the student world in Asia today.
I reworked what I had began to prepare therefore and have come up with the
topic "The challenge of the University Situation to the Ecumenical
movement in
The topic remains broad.
In making the linkages to ecumenical work, however, I think that the issue has
been given a bit more focus; at the same time it affords me the occasion to
suggest some of the ingredients
that might go into the delineation of the parameters of our discussion in the coming few days.
To minimize presumption
on my part, it is important that I say something, at the very start, about the
background and practical experience from which the rest of what I have to say
has emerged.
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II. OF
I am part of the faculty
and staff of the Philippine Christian University (PCU) in
When I was a student,
the population of the college was all in all about 600. We were a "nice
Christian family", as our dean at the time used to say proudly. When I
graduated from the college and left for work with the National Student
Christian federation in the
My prediction about its
imminent demise, however, was not entirely based on analytical acumen. It also
issued out of an analytical bias. That bias was provided by the World Student
Christian Federation. You recall that around that time, the WSCF had just gone
through an emphasis on what was called the "university question". As
1 a result of this it affirmed that the primary locus of its work was the [
university world, and that one of the primary questions it had to deal
( with was that of the nature and function of the university. It was within
this understanding of the primary locus of its work that the nature and
function of the Student Christian Movements was also to be defined. The SCM, it
used to be said, should "be a university in a university that is not a
university." The university, in other words, is an institution that has a
providential vocation. Indeed, one WSCF document at that time referred to the
university as an institutional vehicle of divine grace, so that the task of the
Christian in relation to it was not to
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convert it to anything else or to put a
Christian icing over it but to call it to its true vocation as a university in
society.
The period of the
"university question" and the subsequent emphasis on the Life and
Mission of the Church did not give much place to so-called Christian
universities and colleges. If I remember right, WSCF people like Harry Daniel
used to make snide remarks about such institutions as being more reformatories
than universities. Embued with such thoughts, I left the college in 1963
predicting, perhaps really wishing, that before I returned it would have long
since become dead.
It was with a certain amount of surprise
therefore that when in 1977, after my work with WSCF in Geneva, I received an
invitation to join the faculty of the PCU. The college, in short, not only did
not die; it had attained university status. Of course, one can say that
institutions, especially Christian institutions, have a way of continuing to
exist long after they are dead. In this instance, however, I think that death
is not what happened. Consider the following: When I returned in 1977, not only
had the college turned into a university, the university had reached a population
of 3,500. The small faculty that numbered a dozen or so had become almost 300,
and the cozy atmosphere of a "nice Christian family" has been
converted into the rambunctious and disorderly ambience of the public market
place. By 1979,
the student population rose to 6,500. A year later it had gone up to 9000,
until this year it has reached 10,000 in a facility that roughly covers one
city block. Perhaps, as our statistician has told us, we have peaked, so that
we will now level off in terms of our enrollment scale.
This story, I am sure, is unfamiliar
to most of you. What similarities and relevance it might have to other parts of
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III. THE POLITICAL
CONTEXT OF EDUCATION:
The first was the
declaration of Martial Law (the institution of the New Society, if you may say)
and the imposition of a different political context of education, as you know,
under Martial Law, you are either ,' put out or put up, depending on what
connections you have at the top, or depending on whether you fall in line with
the dictates that come from the centre or not.
I do not think that I
should not comment on whether PUC was put up or not. Being an administrator of
the university, I am not at liberty, at least not in this context, to discuss
that matter. That however is not the important thing. What is more crucial is
the fact that under Martial Law, and that, by the way, includes the present,
greater stringent measures have been instigated and more direct controls have
been put up to see to it that educational institutions fall within the ambit of
the government programs and influence. The orchestration of all of social and
political life which is so characteristic of "New Society" politics
has meant very specific and very special attention has been paid the
educational system, and to the educational enterprise as a whole, not only
because there are a substantial number of people who live and work in them, but
because they are rightly considered one of the primary vehicles of ideological
formation in society. Various efforts have been exerted, and are being exerted,
therefore, some subtle, others not-so-subtle, to see that at the very least the
educational institutions and their students do not become centre of disruption
and resistance against government programs and projects, and the economic and
political system that undergirds them.
The not so subtle ones
are well known and well documented. There has been the dismantling of what was
known as the "parliament of
the streets"—that massive movement of students, workers, and other members
of society who gave vent to their anger and anguish over the situation of their
country by pouring out into the streets in such great numbers because they
found no other place in which just grievances could be heard and dealt with.
There has been the subsequent disorganization and prohibition against student
organizations and student councils, and while this prohibition has been
formally withdrawn, one still cannot see too many student councils
reorganizing, and the student voice in the university remains disorganized and
faint. There has been the militarization of the campus, the not so subtle
presence of the military personnel in various
19
universities, prying into what is going
on, into what is being taught, and who is teaching them.
The subtle ones are less
known but in the end even more pernicious and more lasting in their impact. The
almost nine years of Martial Law, as some of you already know, was in fact nine
years in which its policies and politics became more institutionalized in
Philippine life. One can now withdraw Martial Law, it has already become
normal. If that is true to the political life in general, that is certainly
true to the emotional life in particular. Greater supervision and coordination
of the educational program is now vested in the Ministry of Education and
Culture. More legislated courses have been imposed and built into the
curriculum. The appointment of key education and university officials, even in
private institutions, has been made in terms of their cooperation with and
silence in relation to government policies. Indeed, the ways of one-man rule
have so proliferated that they have become "standard operating
procedure" in the administration of university life. The re-feudalization
of political life in general, in short, has also meant the re-feudalization of
the educational institutions. As one professor of the University of the
IV. THE
TECHNOCRATIZATION OF EDUCATION
A second factor that
sustained the PCU and propelled its growth is the opening of a
20
The bonanza, which this brought to the university,
is obvious. Beyond its economic consequences, however, the shift towards a
university made up mostly of business students meant greater tranquility and
quiet in campus life. We still have our minor doses of campus rumbles, beer
drinking and even drug use. But student activism is reduced. As the former dean
of the
And this is the point.
From the time that the Presidential Commission to survey Philippine Education
(PCSPE) was put up during the first term of President Marcos. the direction of
Philippine education has been tilted strongly, and then funded heavily, towards
its technocratization. The Commission of which the President was a member, looked
at education from an obviously narrow investment W view, and strongly recommended,
among other things, the total reform of the education system in such a way that
it supplies more vigorously and directly the needs of the national and
international labor market. The theoretical euphemism for this is
"Manpower Approach to Educational Planning" or "Manpower
Training for Development." It is more crassly put by an official of the
ministry of Education and Culture in terms of putting up educational programs that
immediately lead to jobs when the student graduates.
These are not
un-laudable goals in themselves. When they become however the be-all and the
end-all of the educational enterprise, they reduce education to what an
educational commentator calls "votech" (vocational technology) that
is increasingly geared towards training people for an alien market. The
humanities and the social sciences do not add to a country's GNP, says one
funded educational researcher. They will therefore have to go out quietly, and
if they are not to disappear completely, will certainly be relegated to the
fringes of the educational program.
What results is what my
former Business College dean described as people who know how to make money,
but do not make trouble. Students, in short, who increase their skills at
making money, but lose their critical faculties; students who can maximize the
hypertrophy of the stomach but only with the accompanying atrophy of the will;
students who know how to fit and to cooperate, but who have lost the capacity
to question, much less to rebel and who have longer capacity to hope and to
dream; students who know manipulate the present system for personal gain and
profit, but who become immune to the
21
challenge of justice and service to their
neighbors, the university and the whole educational system.
What is even sadder, and
what makes this situation even more serious, is the fact that the emphasis on
"votech" has meant the domestication and captivity of our educational
institutions to transnational capital. Indeed, the shift to "votech"
education coincided with and was undergirded by major financial grants and
loans from the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and in
a secondary way, from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The WB-IMF-ADB
conception of Development, in short, requires "votech" manpower
training, so that grants and loans are dangled to those institutions which
provide and institute such programs.
Not so long ago, for
example, the WB loaned $6 million to the UP at Las Banos so that it might
improve its plant facilities, and develop the faculty as part of the Green
Revolution. At about the same time the loan was given, Philippine History and
Asian Civilizations were either dropped from the general educational curriculum
of the same institution or were converted into harmless electives. Earlier the
Ministry of Education and Culture announced that it would lend"$ 38
Million to 23 state-owned and two private vocational-technical schools to help
gear the educational system to the increasing demand for skilled workers."
The market is not only national. The announcement specified countries such as
At a time when many
universities face extinction because of financial problems, few university
presidents can resist the temptation to set up programs that are supportable by
such grants from transnational funding agencies. Many universities, in fact,
have set up
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Research Departments the primary
functions of which are the preparation of project and program proposals for
transnational funding. Technocratization and technical aid, in other words, go
hand in hand with each other, and, to use the classic words of Adam Smith, the
"invisible hand" of transnational capital is slowly transforming our
educational system and institutions not only into assembly lines of
technocratic establishment people, but also into mere intellectual adjuncts of
transnational business.
V. THE IMPOVERISHMENT
AND CAPTIVITY OF THE ACADEMIC PROFESSION
The result is not only
the impoverishment but a new captivity of the academic profession. The academic
profession has never really had a good standing in the
University professors
are thus paid in terms of their "market value" and the terms of their
appointments are considered in terms of the credit and debit balances of the
university corporations, which employ them as part of their productive assembly
line. The results are some of the more uncommon and even bizarre practices
among so-called academic practitioners. Academic "moonlighting" is
rampant: a university teacher peddling his or her instructional skills to two,
three, four or even five universities or colleges at a time. A university
teacher who applied at my college, for example, openly admitted, in fact even
boasted, that the reason he applied at PCU is that it is the transportation
line that he takes on the way to other universities where he teaches, so that
it would be relatively easy for him to drop by at PCU and handle his classes if
he were hired. Salaries for university teachers are quite low. At present, an
assistant professor in my college,
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with a Master degree receives only a
basic monthly pay of PI,200, or about $150. So why not "moonlight"
and earn another P1, 200 in another university? Or as one teacher in my own
faculty right now does, why not sell bras to your female students? These teachers
does it in class too.
The academic
practitioner, if he or she deserves this nomenclature, in the Philippines
today, does not belong to that academic elite working unperturbed and detached
in "ivory towers"; neither is he or she one of the "intellectual
snobs" of western universities. He or she is part of the very much
oppressed mass of people, scraping for every extra bit of additional income, at
times begging for more teaching load, and peddling what few skills she or he
has, in order to make both ends meet.
The standards that
result are naturally low, and the spiraling consequences affect not only the
academic institutions, but the whole of society. It also results in a new
captivity of the academic practitioner. History has shown that the academic practitioner
has become prey to outside manipulation and agendas when he or she does not
feel anymore part of a vibrant and living community of learning, when academic
life, in other words, is viewed merely as means of earning a living and no more
a vocation or a calling.
It is in this vein that
Francisco Nemenzo, Jr. past dean of CAS UP,
writes strongly about the state of academic freedom in the country:
"in the Philippines
today, the principal threat to academic freedom does not come from the modern
Toquemada as armed with the crude gadgets of inquisition; it comes from
government agencies, from foreign
foundations and international organizations who dangle
consultancies and grants before a materially deprived intelligentsia. With the
inception of Martial Law, very few Filipino academics actually experienced
torture and Imprisonment—and to my knowledge, no one has been driven to
penury—for following Immanuel Kant's dictum "Dare to Know". They are
simply endured to a life of relative affluence and given the illusion of
influence, and they end up as academic entrepreneurs engaged in
"intellectual profiteering which adds nothing except to their income and
academic ranks."
One might add to what Nemenzo has
written that academics who are intellectual profiteers, and whose brains are
available for picking at
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a price, do not deserve or need an
academic community: what they need are business opportunities. And yet, one
might ask also how many really among the impoverished academic practitioners of
Philippine society today can resist the lure of such huge profits and the
financial and professional security that they entail? It is not difficult for
many academic practitioners, in other words, to think, or to rationalize, that
they can receive their economic rewards from Mammon, while still making their
offerings to the God of Knowledge.
VI. THE SCHOOL AND THE
MANAGEMENT OF BELIEFS
The external
manipulation of the education system goes deeper than its technocratization and
domestication to commercial and industrial goals. Over a year, ago, I received
a letter from the Ministry of Education and Culture Formally asking me to be
part of a committee of experts (that the Ministry considers me to be an expert
was something else!) the task of which was to review and refine a proposed
"System of beliefs that All Filipinos Must Share". The letter was
accompanied by a thick document, which contained a series of propositions
covering the meaning of obligation, an understanding of the good of society, a
projection of the role of government and obedience to it, and a conception of
the future and of the manner by which the future might be managed. The
Committee of Experts was to go over these propositions, refine them and perhaps
make modifications so that after they are finalized they will be integrated
into and become part of the civics course the teaching of which will be
required in the schools.
Earlier, I was visited
by a high official of the ministry, who asked for my reactions to a proposal he
was making to the effect that the school system must be restructured in such a
way that it becomes more "belief oriented"; in other words, to
provide the credal and value foundations of the social order in such a way that
a new generation of citizens are produced who will be more co-operative and
obedient to their prescribed social and political roles. In the same manner
that religious groups and bodies are given power and strength and legitimation
by their credal foundations, so a nation must have its credal base if it is to
gain acceptance and lasting power, and the schools and educational system must
become the enacting units through which this credal system must be propagated
to all.
25
The fact that I refused
to go on this committee, and even wrote a very strong letter criticizing the
work it did, did not of course stop the restructuring of the elementary
education system that was already underway. Less than a year after that, a new
curriculum was announced, for which preparations are underway to retrain
teachers in accordance with these requirements. The new curriculum is a
modified one, removing what presumably were considered to be cluttering
elements. Basically, it reduces the requirements to two main areas: the
sciences and civics. I have not yet seen the course outline in civics. I will
not be surprised, however, if it is some version of that "System of
Beliefs that All Filipinos Must Share", the draft copy of which I received
a year back. Meanwhile, I have learned that before he finally retired from the
World Bank, Robert McNamara saw to it that a grant of over $100 million had
been made to the Philippine government for the restructuring of the elementary
education system. This new curriculum comes as a timely response to what many
government spokes people have been saying for some time about the educational
system, namely that it has been the least adjusted, of all the various sectors
of national life, to serve the development goals of government.
VII. RELIGION IN THE
UNIVERSITIES
This very conscious effort to make the
school system a vehicle for the management of beliefs and the management of the
future has considerably affected the shape of religious groups on school and
university campuses. "There are two revolutions", said a military
chaplain before a large gathering of church workers, "that must take place
at the same time. The first is external (i.e. political, economic and social)
The other is internal (i.e. spiritual, psychological). The former belongs to
government and is being done by government. The latter belongs to the church
and must be done by the church." The expressions of Christianity, in
short, must be privatized. Christianity is allocated a domain in the inner
sanctuaries of the individual soul, presumably to bring about those internal
changes in individual persons that would make them less obviously complaining
and concerned about the external and "material" conditions of their
lives and the structures that control them. A new dualism is prescribed,
buttressed less by metaphysical arguments and more by the enticements and
dictates of political power. The political powers, in this context are freed
from the disturbance of theological criticism without appearing
26
to be irreligious, and Christian
spirituality is made into civil religion.
The increased
proliferation and greater strength of evangelical groups and charismatic groups
on campuses and in other sectors of society, (e.g. the business sector) is due
in part to this political encouragement of the privatization and
internalization of religion. The number of evangelical programs of a wide
variety of origins, mostly American, but recently also Korean, that fill the
airwaves (TV and radio) have quantified to almost incredible proportions. There
is hardly any time slot left on Sunday mornings that is not taken over by such
programs. The only competing programs are Chinese movies and soap operas.
Popular TV and radio variety shows make constant plugs for charismatic
services, and TV, radio, movie and sports and other personalities give numerous
testimonies of the peace, quiet, stability that being "born again"
has given them.
The saturation of
university and college campuses by the same groups is equally incredible. At
PCU for example, despite the fact that Campus Crusade is not a recognized
organization and is prohibited from setting up its programs, it is nevertheless
able to come in by infiltrating and providing leadership training and resources
to already established student organizations. Within less than one year, they
have been able to set up 12 cell groups, converted various secular student
organizations into Bible study groups and even penetrated classroom activities.
One physical education teacher went so far as to use part of her physical
education courses as bibIe study sessions under the philosophic rationalization
that physical well-being must be accompanied by spiritual growth and nurture.
And the students went along with it. The practice stopped only when dean
ordered its cessation. The dean, since then, has been tabbed by the students as
"non-C" meaning non-Christian. The leadership of the spiritual life
committee of the University has also been taken over so that when the Week of
Retreat was held last week, the program was "a la Campus Crusade."
Other universities may
not be as infiltrated. The evangelical and charismatic presence in them is
nevertheless quite strong. At the University of the
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VIII. THE ECUMENICAL
RESPONSE
How do we in the
ecumenical movement even begin to deal with such a situation? Is the battle for
the university and the student world lost? Are there some things that we can
still try to do? I am, of course, one of those who still feel that the battle
is not finished, that it must still be waged, and that there are certain things
we can do, and must do. I would not be in academic work if I did not believe
that. I am hoping therefore that the next few days will result in some
suggestive discussion and thought as to how we might proceed in this direction.
For such a discussion, I would like to isolate three areas of general
consideration that we might put our minds together into.
A: The first is to point
out the fact that one of the reasons why the situation looks so dismal and
depressing is because over the past decade or so, we, for some reason or
another, seem to have began to think that the university is not worth fighting
in or fighting for. The situation, in short, is testimony to our failure and to
the neglect, purposeful or benign, we have shown in regard to the university
and the student world. The battle lines have been drawn elsewhere for us and
the deployment of resources and attention have been so withdrawn from the
university and student world so that world has become barren of any real and
meaningful ecumenical witness and presence.
The neglect cannot and
must not continue. The failures can be rectified and maybe corrected but the
neglect cannot be justified. If no other argument for this can attract our
attention the fact of the numbers of people who are in the institutions of
education and the strategic role that such people and institutions play in
society should have an impact on us. If I may refer once more to the Philippine
situation, there are now around ten million students enrolled in the school
system of the country (roughly twenty per cent of the whole population), and it
is anticipated that by 1985, that number will rise to around thirteen million,
about three million of which will be in tertiary education. Are all of these
people unimportant? Are they all and the institutions in which they live, work
and study, merely the "soft underbelly of a decadent social system"
(as one SCM document in the sixties referred to the university) so that they
are not able to see, as governments obviously see, as our evangelical brethren
obviously also see, and as our forefathers in the ecumenical movement obviously
saw,
28
the strategic importance of such people
and such institutions for the present and for the future of our world?
I am not here advocating
a return to the theology and ideology of "Christian Presence in the
Academic Community" or to that period in ecumenical history when its
leaders looked at the student world as a "strategic point in the World's
conquest". All I am saying is that there must be an organized, visible and
active ecumenical presence and witness in the university, in the campuses, and
must address itself to student needs and problems, to questions about student
aspirations and student oppression, to questions about curriculum and instruction
in schools and colleges, to questions about the status of faculties and their
freedoms, and to questions about the goals of education and the role of
educational institutions in society. Such a presence will. I think, always be a
minority presence (if I may use a current WSCF terminology) but it need not be
so small a minority. It can be bigger and it needs to be bigger and more
visible if it is going to be really relevant.
B: The second area is
implied in the first: any ecumenical presence in the university and student
world today must reconsider the .question of the meaning of the academic
profession, the goals of education and the university, and their role in
society. This question is so much in the air, so much a part of general
discussion in intellectual and political circles that we cannot afford not to
make an effort to give a contribution to it and try to give it some direction.
At the very least, it must be considered our responsibility to our respective
constituencies to keep them abreast of the state of the discussion, where it is
going, and what consequences it might have. Indeed much of our future, and
especially that of our children, depends on the manner in which this question
is dealt with.
The ecumenical presence
in the university in other words must not be exclusively a student ministry. It
must bring about a community of various members of the academic community that
is able in a sustained serious manner to reflect upon and act upon, not only
the individual problems and preoccupations of its members but also the purpose
and function of that larger community in which they presently belong and in
which they work and study.
The academic profession,
and the university as the primary and natural habitat of that profession, have
over the centuries considered
29
their tasks in terms of two inter-related
basic functions. The first is that of intellectual creation. Whether in the
Arts and the Sciences, agriculture and business, the humanities and the
technologies, philosophy and religion, the academic practitioner is constantly
expected to expand and broaden the present boundaries of knowledge and to lead
towards new discoveries and new areas of human consciousness and concern. The
second is that of intellectual transmission and initiation. In whatever field
he or she may be, the academic practitioner is expected to initiate other
people into this venture of knowledge and to be able to transmit and induct
others into discoveries that have been made and the learning that has been
acquired. As such, the university as the habitat of the academic profession is,
by the simple operation of these basic functions, a repository of a tremendous
amount of creative and critical energy. The use and domestication of this
creative and critical energy becomes at once therefore a contested issue in
social and political life.
A third function has
loomed large on the horizon in recent years. It has to do with the academic practitioner's and the university's
social responsibilities. Or as one university administrator puts it, the
university's public service. "In our present situation" writes a
colleague at the University of the
These are affirmations
that are presently in the air. They are not a matter of fact, and they are not
taken as part of the self-understanding of the university. They are part of the
counter assertion of some people within the academic community regarding their
tasks and that of the institution in which they work. They are one side of the
battle line that is presently being drawn regarding the function of the
academic profession and its service to society. Any ecumenical presence in the
university must address itself to this question, and it must be a vehicle by
which this discussion must be forwarded, at the same time that it becomes the
means by which the Christian community gives affirmation of the crucial role
that a lively, dedicated and competent academic community plays in any society,
whether of the present or of
30
the future. Indeed, no society can really
long endure when its academic profession becomes emaciated and too deprived,
and the Christian community's work in the university must give expression of
its support to and solidarity with this profession's faithful practitioners.
C:
Finally, all of what I have been saying is a long winded way of emphasizing
that what is happening in the university world today has to do with the
struggle for the "soul" of the university, and to the extent that the
"soul" of the university is a refraction of the "soul" of
society then that struggle has to do with the "soul" of society
itself. The integrity and discipline with which the university does its task
therefore becomes an important ingredient in any society's orientations towards
its future. An ecumenical presence in the university world must help to uphold
this task and to ensure the integrity and the excellence by which it is done.
Such an effort, obviously, is not only for the university's sake; it is also
for society's sake.
IX. CONCLUSION
I think I have said enough
although there is much more that needs to be said. I leave the rest, however,
to subsequent presentations and to our coming discussions. I need only say, in
conclusion, that as a person who has come from the ranks of the SCM and WSCF,
and who now works closely with the CCA, I find myself relatively alone within
the confines of the academy. Many of those who belong to my generation of SCM
membership have either joined the ecclesiastical bureaucracy or have gone to
the trenches. I am hoping that after this consultation, life in the academic
community will not be as devoid as it has been of ecumenical friends and
comrades.
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Emidio Campi
1. It is embarrassing to
be the only non-Asian speaker in connection with this consultation. Happily,
today I am speaking "in connection with" and not "at" the
consultation, because in that case I would be the unfortunate symbol of
European dominance. Incidentally, I want to make it abundantly clear, that I
was invited and accepted to speak here only because of my office as General
Secretary of the WSCF, and not because of my person. I can only apologize that
the person who holds the office is a European.
Nevertheless, I feel a
special solidarity with Asian Christians and a special interest in this
consultation. First, being myself a member of a small Protestant church in
However, it is not my task
to dwell on personal considerations. I am here on behalf of the WSCF to assure
you of the great importance that we attach to this consultation which takes
place just a few days after a similar one held in Latin America with that
Regional council of churches.
2. This is not the first
time that our two organization here met. In November 1966 the "
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such concentrated and
dedicated attention to what was happening in Asian universities. I have also
had an opportunity to consult not only the printed report, but also the minutes
of Federation committees, and notes and correspondence of Federation staff. It
is a heartening and also humbling experience to realize how open and
far-sighted our predecessors were.
a. Only a little more
than 15 years have passed since that meeting. And yet students today would look
with some amusement at the pictures of the gentlemen (there were unfortunately
only three women out of 66 participants) who convened at
Was the
33
their significance if
they could be looked at from the point of view of a community and not of
individuals: "only a community of Christians who live a life of worship
and service will be a relevant community within the academic world".
Thirdly, there was the conviction that the denominational divisions should be
opposed and that the Christian community in the academic world should seek
further unity in and for common witness. 15 Years later, that agenda in my view
still stands.
b. What is deeply
changed today is the understanding of the theological task. The report reads:
''The churches in
This statement reveals
two fundamental assumptions: first, that the proper subject-matter for
theological reflection is the preoccupation of the church—as if theology did
not, of necessity, have to take account of God's concern for the whole movement
of humanity in history; secondly, that the proper "reflectors" in
theology are academically trained specialists, as if God had not equipped a
body of people with gifts of the Spirit for discerning and expressing his will.
No one would deny the
pervasive contribution made to the life of the church by this type of theology.
It has been the source of sound scholarship without which the church would be
in a sorry way. Nevertheless, this "theology in church and specialist's
confinement" has disturbing features, which are now being more and more
recognized: the withdrawal from the mainstream of life the lack of lively
contacts with the daily experience of people with whom to test and check
insights. Moreover, no longer is a scholarly caste given the last word in
34
judging what is of worth in the field of theology. Disciplined reflection, which
theology requires, must have a richness of doing to work on. Contributions made
by specialists, which have their valid place, form particular ingredients, not the
dish. To make the dish, one needs the range of ingredients supplied by the
people of God, drawn from their gifts and developing awareness; and those
supplied from the perceptions of people who are not Christians but are serious
in their search for truth and life.
3. One implication is
this. Theology, we begin today to understand, is characteristically a lay
discipline. By this, of course, I do not mean amateur as opposed to
professional theology. Nor do I mean a theology for the laity in the narrow
sense of the word, i.e. those who are not clergy people. In its essence, it is
a theology which is impelled by the needs of the
There are other elements
of this lay theology worth mentioning. Just as no group within the church has
the right to absorb for itself theological responsibility on behalf of the whole
church, so no one part of the world church has the right to impose norms by
which lay theology must now be developed and evaluated: a world community is at
last taking responsibility of doing lay theology: black theology, liberation
theology, Asian action theology . . . The lay theology is breaking away not
only from the stronghold of professional schools and ecclesiastical constrains,
but from regional dominance. Moreover, the insights of farmers, industrial
workers, & women have produced challenges to the classical
theological reflection. They have shown how quite inadequate allowance has been
made for the influence of class interests, of unrecognized sexism, and racism.
35
We are fortunate, as we meet in
4. I have dwelt at some
length on this question of the qualitative changes, which occurred in the
understanding of the theological task since we last met in '66 in order to make
an important point. The point I want to make is that over the last 15 years or
so in the Federation we have faced head on the challenge of attempting to
recover this essential nature of theology as a potent resource for living in
and for the human community. They have been difficult years. There have been
mistakes and uncertainties. Critics of the Federation have not failed to point
them out. Clashing visions and actions have profoundly strained our fellowship.
But it has become clear to those of us who took the responsibility for this
enterprise that there has been a great gain. The SCMs and the WSCF can no
longer be described as ghettos or identified with the status quo. The stresses
and strains have been worthwhile, for what we have gained during these crowded
years represent an extraordinary rich endowment in the exercise to reinvent
theology as people's work. From within my own knowledge, I believe the
following theological insights gained during the last 15 years or so are worth
sharing—not in the spirit of transferring action-models, but rather in the
spirit of sharing hints and clues which may instruct, prevent mistakes, offer
encouragement.— :the Re-interpretation of Christian Social Thought", the
re-appropriation of the Bible, and the contextualization of theology.
a. The re-interpretation of Christian social thought
Midway through the
1960s, the changing political context in which the SCMs were operating began to
produce a significant change of emphasis in the theological reflection in the
Federation. African and Asian students involved in the struggles for national
independence, Latin American students following the Cuban revolution and North
American students participating in the marches for racial equality began to
move away from their safe Christian communities at the university in order to
engage in a dialogue with all those concerned to
36
promote justice and a
genuinely human life. And then a few years later, came the student explosion.
On campuses in
Did political
involvement mean that there was a lack of interest in theological reflection?
In a paper widely circulated in and ecumenical circles, 'Story of a Storm', the
attempt was
37
made to describe the
process of politicization in the WSCF as a confrontation between those who
wanted to dissolve theology into Utopia and those who wanted to preserve the
Christian identity of the Federation.
But the attempt to
interpret the internal contradictions of the Federation in these terms was a
little too simplistic and was not accepted by the General Assembly. In
The difficult but
crucial task of enunciating a 'theological self-understanding' of the
Federation was pushed ahead at the Executive Committee Meeting in
Much as we sympathized
with this paper, we soon realized its limitations. At
The 27th Assembly at
38
"the need for a
biblically based theology reflecting over the practice of faith". There
might have been some aestheticism and rhetoric in this emphasis on politics by
the 68/78 generation. Critics of the Federation have not failed to point it
out. But there was above all a great deal of serious concern to reflect on a
meaningful Christian social responsibility for our time.
b. Contextualization of Theology
The second aspect I
would like to discuss briefly, and which is in many ways related to the first,
is the search for relevant and authentic expressions of Christian faith
applicable to local situations. In this search we have been greatly helped by
the adoption in 1968 of regionalization as the basic structural framework
through which programming and decision-making are to be undertaken. In making
this structural adjustment, the Federation was not only setting up a practical
mechanism for more efficient programming, but was affirming that
regionalization was the first step towards a way of looking seriously at the
question of how an international Christian organization may be more
authentically rooted in the life of those areas of the world in which it is at
work. In this process we have been helped to break away from the idea that
theology is done only in Central Europe and then exported to the rest of the
world, sometimes straight from the Old Continent, but usually through the
filtering down and simplifying process of moving across the Channel to England
or Scotland. Now the winds are blowing from a slightly different direction and
we are hearing the sounds of creative thoughts, which are made in
c. Re-discovery of the Bible
There is a third aspect
of the theological reflection of these years, which can in no way be omitted:
i.e., the re-discovery of
39
the Bible. Meddling in
politics has not put an end to the well-established tradition of Bible studies
in the Federation. Indeed, it has created a situation in which the search for
the understanding of the biblical message has intensified rather than
diminished. But the nature of that search has been radically redefined. In the
last several years in various sectors of the Federation we have tried to discover
a 'political reading' of the Bible. To avoid misunderstandings: this is not
meant to serve as justification for political choices that have already been
made. It is a question of finding out which classes were involved in the
'production' and 'consumption' of the biblical texts; of finding out if they
were close to the historical reality within which they were produced, if they
formed part of the dominant ideology or if they shared in the cause of the poor
and the oppressed, offering them a hope that was not an illusion and providing
them with a practical alternative.
Inevitably, attempting
to read the Bible in this way has lead to some problems. However, within the
limitations of our work in this area, it should be noted that it has been in
relation to this activity that some of the more concrete and encouraging new
forms of theological reflection have arisen. The holding of various seminars,
the response of movements around the world, the publication of a few successful
books, and the generally increased attentiveness that theologians, churches,
ecumenical organizations are giving to the question have provided some of the
more satisfactory elements in our theological work.
5. It would be
interesting to expand these notes and survey other areas of theological
reflection in the Federation, but this would go far beyond the original
intention. It might however, be a fascinating enterprise for students in search
of a subject for a dissertation. If this is the balance sheet of the 1968/80
generation, one can say that basically, it is an active one. It is indeed this
active balance, which we would like to pass on to the new generation of
students, which is beginning to emerge and put its candidature to the
leadership of the Federation.
There is no doubt that
the students who turn to the Federation today are captured by a different
problematic than those of the late 60s and 70s. New forms of consciousness
emerge among the young students as they face the problems of human survival on
this planet.
40
In some cases, they feel
the necessity to search for other ways of relating Christian faith to social
and ethical problems. It
would be, I admit, much easier for us to go about repeating ourselves than to
choose to invest our energies in a process of experimentation with new and
precarious possibilities. The Abrahamic posture is not an easy one and the
context in which we live has not prepared us to be nomads. But we may have
reached the stage in which our commitment to a fresh and authentic theological
reflection leaves us with no other choice. This demands on the side of the
Federation the effort to develop a theological reflection which would take into
account the experiences of the past but also be flexible and open to new
demands, a theological reflection capable of incorporating past reference
points while responding to new events and realities.
41
Yap Kim Hao
The assignment given to
me is to reflect together with you on "The Church's Response to Student
Movements—Expectations and Responsibilities." Previous speakers have
spoken from the perspective of the university and WSCF and I presume that I
have to speak out of the Church setting. In this case, the Church is both the Christian
Conference of
EACC/CCA AND UNIVERSITY
WORLD
The EACC Committee on
Christian Responsibility in University Education gave a report to the 1964 EACC
Assembly. The report gave a strong affirmation of the work of WSCF in the
universities and colleges.
"The WSCF has, hitherto, been
the ecumenical organization which has shown an active concern for universities
and colleges and their faculties and students in
42
This committee requests
the Assembly of the EACC to aid in the development of this work by cooperating
with the WSCF in setting up a committee for dealing with Christian higher
education in
We welcome the fact that
the WSCF has plans to appoint a secretary for work with university teachers in
addition to the Regional Secretary for
This action indicated
that EACC recognized a wider ministry in which WSCF was not fully engaged in at
that time. Specifically, it is the area of ministry to university teachers, to
the development of Christian institutions of higher learning, and to the nature
of university education.
The Assembly organized
the committee on Christian Responsibility in the University with Cesar Espiritu
and Chandran Devanesan as Co-Chairman and Ken Shoizuki (WSCF) and S K Bunker
(EACC) as Co-Secretaries. In his report to the EACC Continuation Committee in
1966, S K Bunker shared the problem of EACC finances, which made no budgetary
provisions for the meeting of the Joint Committee. However, he stressed that
"the question of the Christian presence in the university world of
Not a moment was lost.
The Consultation on Ecumenical Strategy in the Universities of Asia was held
the day after the presentation of the report to the EACC Continuation Committee.
43
This 1966 Consultation
made changes in the earlier structure of co-operation between EACC and the WSCF
and specified the areas of concern. The WSCF Asia Committee was organized with
EACC representation in it. In the 1968, EACC Assembly the following paragraph
of a section report was adopted:
"The Assembly notes
with satisfaction that as a result of the Hong Kong Consultation the WSCF has
set up an Asia Committee which is centered in Asia and represents the life of
national SCM's. The Assembly endorses this action of the WSCF and, in pursuance
of the Hong Kong recommendation (1) recognizes the WSCF Asia Committee as the
ecumenical body responsible for planning a sustained program for the life and
witness of the Christian community in Asian academic world, and (2) authorizes
its Continuation/Working Committee to nominate as early as possible at least
three persons familiar with the university world as its representatives in the
Committee. These members would be responsible for ensuring proper liaison
between the EACC and the Committee."
The EACC Continuation
Committee, which met early in 1969, took the action to ratify the appointment
of EACC representatives to the
WSCF Asia Area Committee.
"The Committee
ratified the nominations made by the Officers in July 1968 for EACC
representation on WSCF Asia Committee. The persons named were: - Rector M
Hutauruk of
This working
relationship lasted four years until the time of regionalization of WSCF in
1972. Subsequently, CCA was represented by the Youth Secretary in its Asia
Committee and this is the situation at the present.
This historical trek reveals that
there has been close consultation and active cooperation between WSCF and EACC/CCA.
There was this mutual concern for Christian presence and participation in the
university world.
44
SINCE 1972
Both WSCF Asia and CCA
have made important changes since 1972. WSCF has embarked on regionalization
and assumed greater responsibility for its work in
Conservative forces in
the religious field began to extend their operation especially in the
university campuses. The work of the Varsity Christian Fellowship, Campus
Crusade, Navigators and other independent evangelical organizations flourish on
the campus in many Asian countries.
At the same time, Asian
churches and councils are not providing enough support for the work of the SCM
in a number of countries. It is partly due to the nature of the work of the SCM
in some countries, which was not fully understood and accepted by the churches.
It is also due to the limited resources of funds and personnel of the national
churches, which do not allow them to support ecumenical programs.
Recently in discussing
the issue of SCM and the Church David Gill saw in the mid-sixties regarding the
SCM a "distancing from the churches. There was a crisis of nerve regarding
the gospel and the church." He
also saw this as a loss to SCM because it separated it from its roots in the
tradition, in scripture, in worship and in the church.
Perhaps SCM needs to
recover this loss. The secular engagement in social and political issues and
the isolation and even alienation from the church have projected a difficult
image of the SCM for the Church. This does not imply that the Church must
control the student movements. The genius of the student movements is to
maintain their autonomy and take risks in new perceptions of the faith and new
involvements in life. It is to work for a new understanding of the life and
mission of the church, for the sake of the Christian movement, and for the
transformation of society.
The WSCF Staff Report,
which reviewed the work of the five years prior to 1979 had this extensive
observation of the Church in Asia.
45
"Among Christians,
especially among those who would go beyond the ordinary meaning of faith as a
private and spiritual undertaking to a motivating force for political praxis in
the struggles for liberation, there is the need to articulate the good news of
Christ as a liberating message expressed through justice and peace. SCMs in
In studying the role of
the Church in the region, one has to be extra careful in generalizing as to whether
the Church is aware of these political, social and even religious trends and
what the Church's stance is. This is primarily true when we consider the new
influx and increasing influence of the conservative and fundamentalist sectors
of the church in the region. This influx regrettably has a very strong impact
on young Christians, not to say of the strengthening of the conservatism of the
churches. The emphasis on personal salvation, which has long been imbedded in
the psyche of Asian Christians imposes greater difficulties on the efforts to
create a new awareness among church people regarding the social dimension of
the gospel. This is a particular experience of many of the leadership of our
SCMs.
WSCF Asia, acutely aware
of this one among a myriad of problems that confront our national movements,
has made it as one of its tasks to encourage national SCMs to keep the vision
which we have opted for in the struggles for liberation. This we have
encouraged to do through various activities and programs. We recognize the
richness of the cultural and religious heritages of the nations, thus, we are
open to various methodologies used in the struggle. But we are quite strong in
maintaining our understanding of what constitutes liberation and the goal of
bringing about a radical transformation of society through the process of
self-determination and self-reliance."
SCM in looking at itself
even at that time saw the need for
46
movement building. The membership of many
SCMs has dwindled and some groups have abandoned the campus altogether. How is
this movement building to be achieved and who is to do it? The problem is
reflected in the same staff report when it stated, "There have been times
when we have felt that church leaders in some countries want regional staff to
'directly' organize SCMs and to this we have clearly indicated that the most we
can do is to encourage." Apparently, encouragement alone is not enough,
and programs of Asian Secretaries Formation have not been able to really
re-activate some of the SCMs in the campus.
Churches in
EXPECTATIONS AND
RESPONSIBILITIES
Historically, WSCF has
produced ecumenical leaders and promoted ecumenism. Ruth Rouse in her study of
the history of the ecumenical movement observed that WSCF "was destined to
produce the great bulk of the leadership of the modern ecumenical movement".
Asians active in the ecumenical movement began their involvement under the
influence of the SCM. Most of us here have early connections with the SCM.
Nonetheless, we are
wondering now about the second or third generation of ecumenical leadership in
the Asian Churches. Do we still turn to the SCM or is there another
organization? With the kind of orientation of the ecumenical movement, we have
no choice but to look again at the SCM for the source of ecumenical leadership.
SCM ought to continue to be the factory for producing ecumenical leaders.
SCM is also viewed as
the laboratory for testing ecumenism. It was within the SCM that many of the
present ecumenical concerns were first expressed and tested. The life and
mission of the Church and the concept of liberation were some of the themes,
which were discussed early in the movement. They were the pioneering forces for
renewal and change. But it has to be said that some of these ideas did not
47
penetrate into the life of the churches and
societies. Both CCA and SCM share the same difficulty in communicating these
concerns and securing the support of the ordinary Church members and church
leaders. Greater effort should be advanced in this direction.
We seem to be at the
stage in the history of WSCF and CCA and the churches in which we must assume
more responsibility to sustain the ecumenical movement in
Our common task is to
build the movement and to re-vitalize it. We must intentionally build bases of
support for ecumenism. It is now the priority task for the WSCF and for CCA if
we hope to be effective forces of change and renewal. A more realistic
appraisal of our struggle today show that we cannot fight on the lonely
frontier. The forces are too strong and powerful for the frontier-men and
frontier-women of today. We have to mobilize wider bases of support if we are
to engage such forces in our time.
The SCM and the Churches
have to work together for the sake of one another and for the ecumenical
movement. The Churches must take the initiative again to promote and to build
the SCM in some countries and cannot leave it only to the regional staff or
Senior Friends of the SCM. They have a stake in the development of the SCM in
the campuses.
The SCM can no longer do
the work apart from the Church. They need the support of the Church especially
in some of the significant programs of change that they pursue. They will have
to look at the Church not as a controlling structure, which they can be, but as
the supportive institution, which they can become. They must convince the
churches.
The SCM and the Churches
therefore depend upon one another if we want to be faithful to our commitment.
I trust that as participants in this consultation we can explore further, and
labor together, and be more responsible in order to realize our expectations.
48
Jagath Senaratne
THE REGION
Before discussing the
aspirations of University students of Asia, it will be necessary to map out the
broad social trends, which are manifest within the region.
The Asian region is
still one of the few genuine hinterlands of the world. Although directly
exploited by western colonial powers, the regions immeasurable material
resources—petroleum, tin, copper, cobalt, bauxite, timber, rare minerals—remain
relatively untouched. Her huge human resources, as a source of cheap labor and
as a potential market are coveted by the forces of nee-colonialism.
Western metropolitan
capital, with the active cooperation of the local elite succeed in draining the
region of an ever-increasing quantum of Surplus—a Surplus absolutely essential
for the economic and social (and hence political) development and
democratization of the region. Entrenched modes of unequal exchange and
'development' models, which further strengthen the chronic Dependency Syndrome
are the mechanisms of neo-colonialism (for those who question the actuality of
neo-colonialism, the utterly convincing research and documentation on the
subject should prove enlightening—it is impossible for me to attempt to
elaborate upon this issue at this juncture).
It is within this
regional context that we locate the Asian Student Movement. The political
systems of a majority of the countries in the region pay only lip service to
popular participation in the governing process—the economic and social policies
of the ruling elites seem to need, as necessary corollaries, repressive
military-cum-civilian
49
dictatorships. The political histories of
the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and
Singapore bear mute witness to this fact. Even the barely functioning
western-type democracies of India and Sri Lanka are inexorably sliding down a
similar path.
STUDENT STRUGGLES OF THE
RECENT PAST
As the student movements
of the region have a common adversary, notwithstanding the religious, cultural
and linguistic diversity, we can observe common orientations and motivations.
Therefore, one can justifiably talk of an Asian Student Movement (with all its
implications) as against isolated movements of Asian students. Although there
is limited awareness of each other's specific concerns and modes of struggle,
the students are at the very forefront of the battle against the oppressive
structures, which strangle and cripple the development of Asia. The students of
Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, South Korea . . . are on the same battle line,
but just happen to be occupying different positions.
A small sampling of
recent events:
Thailand: In October
1973, the students almost single-handedly managed to bring about an albeit
limited, democratization of Thai society. The National Student Centre of
Thailand (NSCT) acted as one of the focal pressure groups, channeling and
articulating student energies into working with and learning from other
sections of the people. The students fought for the rights of the poor, the
peasants, the workers, and for intellectual and artistic freedoms. In October
1976, yet another military coup heralded the beginning for the "roll-back"
of all the progressive and constructive developments of the previous 3
years—during this period the nature of foreign economic invasion, 4& social
injustice, and the capability of the local elite had been frequently exposed
by the students—and Thailand's fragile, brief attempt at democracy ended amidst
the shambles of Thammassat University.
In the Philippines, the movement against
President Marcos' Martial Law is far too well, known for me to elaborate here.
The role of the
students, within urban and rural contexts, involved in educational (and
being educated in turn) and organizational work is recognized as a crucial part
of the Filipino people's struggle.
In South Korea, the fight against the brutal martial law regime
50
has been going on for nearly two decades.
Even after merciless suppression for so many years, the student movements are
capable of constantly renewing themselves and carrying on the struggle
precisely because they are so close to the people's aspirations. The flame of
Kwangju although smothered in its birthplace will burst into life again and
again, all over South Korea, till the struggle for democracy and social justice
is won.
In Sri Lanka, the student movement was an important part of the
general mobilization against the emergency rule of the Bandaranaike Government
in 1976. Today, although other organized sectors of the community have been
temporarily muzzled subsequent to the savage suppression of a justifiable
workers strike, the students are in the forefront of the opposition against the
present government's M intended "educational reforms". At the present
moment, the university students movement of Sri Lanka is showing that
remarkable capacity to renew itself—a characteristic which manifests itself, again
and again, all over Asia.
The Indonesian Student Movement, battered into oblivion in the
after-math of the 1965 military coup, has come back into life and is one of the
few voices raised in opposition to the corruption and the excesses of the
military/civilian dictatorship.
. . . the same holds
true of the rest of the region as well.
The workings of the
military establishments of these countries demand special mention, and should
be monitored closely. The national elites are well represented within their
respective military institutions, and do not, hesitate at taking harsh and
reactionary measures in the face of the people's movements. Imbued with
considerable corporate and managerial skills, they intercede on behalf of the
oppressive elite, whenever called upon to do so and even take on the task of
governing the country. Over and over again, it is the students who have brought
to public attention the abuses and the utter A corruption of the military.
Hence, the military have no compunction at ruthlessly crushing the most
peaceful of student protests whenever the "need" arises—a sobering
thought, when one takes into account the pervasive militarization of Asian
societies, e.g. Recently the Republic of Korea's President Chun, congratulated a
group of Seoul National University Professors for cooperating with the
government in preventing student dissent. He has threatened to sack academics
who do not "cooperate".
51
ASPIRATIONS
Individually centered
aspirations exist within the student body. Entering tertiary education after an
extended period of primary and secondary education, these students are highly
motivated as a group, and wish to make the maximum of the opportunities
available to them. Being in an especially vulnerable and expectant stage of their
lives, university students are highly sensitive to problems such as mass
unemployment and more specifically their future prospects. Although they would,
generally, find it less difficult to find satisfactory employment due to the
advantageous position which their qualifications elevate them to, they do not
remain wholly unaffected by the chronic stagnation which cripples their
homelands.
Entering into joint
collective actions through the student movements for the first time in their
lives, these students begin to realize the manner in which policy (both at the
National and International levels) affect the very substance of their lives—be
it educational policy at the national level or foreign investment, foreign "aid" and
"development" policies (with the attendant strictures and conditions
regarding student movements, worker/peasant movements, civil and democratic
rights, intellectual and academic freedoms etc.) on the international level.
Having lived relatively
"quiet" lives cocooned within the sheltered confines of their
families, schools and friends, these students are suddenly exposed to others
from different social milieus and social problems whose magnitude and nature
necessarily compels students towards collective forms or organization and
action. This is a pedagogical process, which is as important as that which
takes place within the lecture halls. Using the insights gained of the dynamics
of mass movements, and further developing the initial political awareness
acquired during their university days, these students begin a life-time of
critical social involvement within their chosen professions or areas of work.
Hence, a healthy symbiotic relationship is built up between their
individual-centered motivations and those, which are social-centered.
But this is only one
side of the coin. In most Asian countries, university students—especially those
in the faculties of science, technology and medicine, are a privileged group.
They are trained for the purpose of serving within the social structures in an
influential capacity. They are rewarded well in return for their services, and
are virtually co-opted to buttress the oppressive social institutions in return
52
for a relatively high
standard of living and social status.
The steady drain of academically
and professionally qualified personnel from the region to the developed
countries is a related issue. The
all pervasive penetrations of western life-styles and individualistic value
systems (promoted actively by the local elite) into our societies are instrumental in these elements
being supportive of the existing unjust structures. They will use their foreign
learned "expertise" and "education" to further the
interests of the ruling elites.
Hence, we can identify,
broadly, two groups of students—those who
show a social responsibility and commitment and are prepared to work creatively
and critically within their vocations, and others whose orientation derived
from their class backgrounds and personal ambitions etc., are individualistic
and selfish, inevitably leading them to work for the continued maintenance of
the existing exploitative structures. The elite military and
techno-bureaucratic castes vitally necessary for the continued existence of the
oppressive social and political system of Asia are being reproduced by the very
same universities, which give birth to popular student movements committed
totally- to the task of the peoples' liberation. This sad fact must be
acknowledged.
This is the reality, and
the underlying reason for the
internecine struggle, which erupt periodically within Asian
campuses.
UNIVERSITY BASED
FUNDAMENTALIST MOVEMENTS
The role of Christian
student movements in Asian universities have to be looked at within the context
of the broad issues that have been raised above. Whether the WSCF's broad
slogan "a Christian presence in the universities of Asia" was
actually programmatically realized or not, cannot be answered here. I do not
have the necessary data pertaining to the whole region to make an objective in-depth
evaluation as to their level of involvement with the larger student movements
and/or their specific contribution; neither does such a task fall within the
ambit of my topic.
But the ever-growing
university-based conservative Christian groups have to be mentioned as their
significance could grow to an extent where they affect the general trends of
the greater student movement.
The ideological and financial support for these fundamentalist
53
groups come primarily from the conservative churches and lay organizations
in the U.S. In the aftermath of the defeat suffered in Vietnam and the
Watergate scandal, these forces have begun to flourish in the U.S. They promise
a "re-vitalization", a "renewal" of US society by filling
the spiritual vacuum and the credibility gap, which has resulted due to the
above-mentioned crises suffered by the US polity. Whether these groups snowball
into nationally significant social movements within the US or not, their Asian
extremeties could play a profoundly reactionary role within the Christian
student community. Negating any link between Christian faith and social
justice, one of their functions is to depoliticize Christian students and make
them passive and apathetic to the social problems of the greater society.
Gaining strength and inspiration
from the living theologians which root Christian faith and Christian witness
deeply within the life and struggle of the people, developed through years of
arduous involvement, the SCMs will have to combat these fundamentalist groups
in all the campuses of Asia.
CONCLUSION
Therefore, at a certain
level of abstraction, it can be clearly seen that the struggles of the Asian
student movement have the following as their primary components: -
—
The search for genuine national independence and self-determination;
strongly anti-imperialist and against the indigenous elites who collaborate
with and sponsor foreign interests.
—
The search for alternative modes of economic and political
organization and development.
The conditions for structural
transformation within the countries of Asia are steadily ripening. The
international economic crisis is the larger canvas, against which these
regional developments will unfold. As has been shown in previous epochs of
decisive change, there is no guarantee that the changes will inexorably take a
progressive orientation. On many an occasion here the forces of reaction
wrested victory, literally at the last moment, from the hands of the people.
Christians, from a
distant perch, cannot unilaterally pass
54
judgement on the directions and
ideologies of the movements which will initiate these changes. To do so would
be unpardonably arrogant and naive—a blind refusal to recognize that these
orientations have evolved very painfully, and at great human cost, from the
very bowels of the people's movements. To petulantly and disdainfully remove
ourselves from the arena would be evidence of a terminal spiritual bankruptcy.
It is with this knowledge that we should proceed with the consultation.
APPENDIX
CONCERNS AND PRIORITIES
OF THE WSCF ASIA-PACIFIC REGION
The WSCF Asia/Pacific
Region comprises seventeen Affiliated, one Associate, and two Corresponding
member movements.
The Regional Committee,
which met in Tokyo in August 1981 reviewed the biennium 1979-81 and recommended
that all programs of the Region be classified under following four major
clusters reflecting the areas of concern:
1. Movement Building and Leadership
Development:
The Asian Secretaries
Formation will be made open to persons other than SCM personnel to promote
Human Resources Development Program with a view to build leadership among young
persons in the church and Society. The question of women's leadership in the
Federation will be specially addressed to, and the promotion of exchange visitations
between national movements are considered under this.
2. Faith and Justice in Asia/Pacific:
Human Rights, Education,
Theology, China, Minorities, Nuclearization and Militarism, Student-Grass-root
Forum are the concerns that constitute this cluster.
3. Publications:
Praxis (Newsletter),
Dossiers, Asia Book Series, and
a Biannual Journal (for which preparations are in progress).
4. Ecumenical Relations and Wider
Fellowships:
55
The forthcoming
consultation on "The Ecumenical Task of Asian Student Movements"
jointly organized by the WSCF and CCA will be the major program for this
biennium. At present, the Region has a wide network of contacts with both
ecumenical and secular organizations and it is hoped to be strengthened in the
current biennium.
In line with the quadrennial theme
of the Federation, the Region has expressed its concern for the struggles of
the people. The Tokyo meeting of the Region has called on member movements to
effectively participate in the aspirations of the oppressed sections of their
nations in building together the Kingdom of God. The challenge is to respond
meaningfully to our call and to actively participate in the Christ-centered
fellowships that strive to bring about a social transformation that allows
varied and diverse expressions of human-hood and that which helps the emergence
of communities that will support and complement each other rather than exploit
and oppress.