FEAR OF STUDENTS' REVOLT

AIM Zagreb, April 12, 1996

"Why are the authorities afraid of students?" - "The Emperor is nude" - "Milas, how much does brain cost?" - "Professors, why are you silent?" - "What about us who are not in YOUR party?" - "Old books and new Mercedez cars" - "Sunjic, go away" - "Where is the Students' Service's money?" - All that and a lot more was written on placards which some hundred odd student activists managed to bring in front of the building of the Assembly in the end of March, and with them warmed up the deputies for a discussion on the Law on Students' Association. The police was caught by surprise not knowing how to act, because it was not just an ordinary gathering, but a "funeral procession", so the legal obligation of compulsory announcement of a public protest did not refer to it.

A company of students gathered in the Community of Students' Associations of Zagreb, who certainly have a sense of humour, thought of a way to neutralize the unpopular provision: they put the Law on Public Gathering in a coffin and in a "funeral procession", carrying their placards, they passed through the centre of Zagreb and saw the Law to its "burial" ground in the Assembly. In this way they intended (and succeeded) to draw attention of the public to the attempt to squeeze the Law on Students' Association through the Assembly procedure, although majority of the students were not satisfied either with its contents or with the way the in which the text of the Law came to be.

This was a sign that the students would not be stopped in their attempt to show that, after long lethargy, they were politically alive, that sometimes the voice of 80 thousand of them in all four Croat universities, or 43 thousand only in Zagreb should be heard. They must have been encouraged by the quick reaction of the Government in February which immediately after the first signs of students discontent, withdrew its rashly reached decision to deprive students' services of the right to serve as agents in occasional employment of students. It hastily adopted Rules on mediation in employment of regular students which came into force on the day of their publication in the "National Gazette".

As the students, dissatified with a lot of things, used the opportunity when a new minister of science took office and immediately went to see him with their demands, they succeeded in elicitting certain promises. One of them, the most important one for the students, was that the Law on Students would promptly be adopted and that students' representatives would participate in formulation of the text. Indeed, the text of the law was formulated almost instantly (it proved that an old rejected version served the purpose), and the students were given 24 hours to say what they think about it before the text was sent to the Assembly for adoption. The changed title, however - the Law on Students' Association - showed clearly that a considerably more narrow concept was adopted than the one agreed by the students' representatives and the Minister of science who is at the same time Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. Ivica Kostovic: this draft resolves only one, though exceptionally important problem - election of students into faculty and university bodies, which is delayed for more than a year. Students, whose essential portion formed the Association of Students of Zagreb chaired by Mario Mandaric, succeeded in gathering others as well and created a Community which accepted several basic requirements.

Results of a survey of stances of the students' population in Zagreb students' dormitories, about the level of their discontent, which was recently carried out on a representative sample by the Department of Sociology of the Faculty of Philosophy, additionally encouraged the students. The survey showed that majority of students strongly supported those demands which the Community also stressed as the most important ones: along with a special law on students, urgent participation of students' representatives in the work of university bodies and work of the Students' Centre was demanded.

Apart from having registered a very high level of discontent (about 90 per cent of the pollees) with majority of aspects of students' life, the survey intended to investigate the possible reactions of students in case the situation at the Zagreb University remained the same or deteriorated. The students were also asked to assess efficiency of different forms of protest, and to indicate which of them they themselves were ready to participate in. General assessment was that two thirds of the students were already ready to participate in quite radical forms of protest (appearance of students' representatives in the media, organization of mass public gatherings, and even a general strike at the University), while minority believes that something can be accomplished by letters to competent persons (rector, dean, etc.), meetings with them or signing of petitions, and only 10 per cent of the students would not do anything. The survey also showed that the best students were more in favour of radical solutions, which probably explains the fact that a comparatively small number of students were in favour of a decision to interrupt attending lectures as a form of protest.

To what extent publication of the results (in a weekly with a high circulation) affected the Government and the Ministry to become obliging to students' demands, can only be guessed. But, there is no doubt that in some of their moves one can feel a significant dose of fear of possible students' revolt. The Government tried to defend its "narrowed" version of what the students wished to see in the Law by various pretexts - by saying that there were several students' associations which disagreed in many things, that students' organization was regulated by other laws, but about demands which referred to money for financing students' media which do not exist now, it simply said nothing at all.

Students linked to the Community remained firm in their demands and refused to be satisfied with the draft law which offered them crumbs, announcing that they would make their own draft law which would be made by model of those in other countries, referring to Slovenia among other. They especially insisted on the fact that thanks to such a law, University of Ljubljana with just 20 thousand students, or half less than Zagreb, had an annual income of 3.5 million German marks, which meant that they could, therefore, easily finance a students' journal and a radio-station.

Students in Zagreb can only dream of something of the kind, because they have not had a journal of their own for years, and at some of the faculties (for example, Dr. Stipe Botica at the Faculty of Philology) deans refuse to give them even essential information, by removing even notice-boards and forbidding them to hold meetings in faculty premises! Partly, the reason why the students feel disunited and confronted should be attribude to a specific information blockade they have been living in. There are, however, signs that the background of some of the associations conceal the political influence of the ruling HDZ which is obviously afraid of too much independence of the students' public. That is why it is no surprise that right after the protest in front of the building of the Assembly, a rival Croat Council of Students' Associations gave a public statement marking the protest as "premature", and that a highly attended discussion on "Students' Demonstrations: For and Against" held a few days ago was completely passed over in silence by the media. It is obvious that the topic was very interesting for the students' population, but that their system of information is imperfect, that is, that the leaflet of the Community of Stdents' Associations of Zagreb which consists of a series of short questions and answers did not reach many of them. Here they are:

Q: Why is students' organizing prevented?

A: Because organized students might loudly shout: "The emperor is naked!"

Q: Why must the students organize?

A: Because it is the only way for them to protect students' rights and interests.

Q: Do you know what are students' rights?

A: If you don't, it means that you are not exercising them.

Q: Why have there been no students' elections for years?

A: In order to prevent participation of students in the work of university institutions and bodies.

Q: Do you know why our European colleagues have the following: status of full-fledged members of students' community, constant income for financing students' initiatives and programs, a developed system of information, numerous contents in the field of culture, sports, entertainment and similar?

A: Because they have won their rights through organized activities, including public protests. Et cetera. Et cetera.

It seems that the Croat students are also on their way to win their rights, if too many obstacles do not block their way to trip them as they go along.

MERI STAJDUHAR