That time of the year has arrived again - campus election. This year, it will be held simultaneously in all universities in September, much earlier than previous years. Why? You may ask.

During a regional convention, a vice-chancellor made a reckless statement that this year's election should lead to the Umno-isation of all student representatives councils, as the best gift for the prime minister before he retires.

This, and many other shameful remarks by university authorities reflect the ugly trend in campus politics: that the battle is actually between the students and the university, and during campus elections, the clash is openly dictated by the powers-that-be.

It is rather frustrating to witness such power struggle, a reflection of national political affairs, being dragged into the campuses and transforming the campus elections into an arena of deceit and fanaticism, with the explicit use of threats and force by university authorities.

In view of the latter, there is a rumour that last week, the rooms of several female students were raided in Universiti Pertanian Malaysia by residential college authorities at around 1am. Students were apparently suspected of planning 'underground' strategies pursuant to the coming campus elections.

What about the issue of invasion of privacy? What right do college authorities have in conducting raids that violate the privacy and dignity of female students, interrupting their sleep at night and invading their personal belongings without due and fair notice?

Campus election is no longer a platform for democratic space where students have the inherent right to vote for the leaders of their choice. It is no longer an occasion which celebrates differing opinions and creativity of the candidates to develop leadership independently.

Nowadays, it is about adhering to a certain benchmark set by the national political parties. The terms 'grup aspirasi kerajaan' and 'pro-pembangkang' are used to differentiate the two contesting ideologies at campuses - as if students cannot come up with their own original version.

Even worse, for the past two years campus election have been marred by strict election rules, such as only students with excellent cumulative grade point averages (CGPAs) could contest in the election. Again, good leadership is equated to academic performance, not attitude, skills, commitment, empathy and sense of justice.

The fact that campus elections no longer reflect the real expectation of the majority students at campuses result in the growing frustration and 'could-not-be bothered' attitude among the students.

Statistics during last year's election turnout was less than 50 percent of total student population. No way in this case do the student representative bodies reflect the voice of the majority at universities.

The power struggle becomes even more unhealthy as victorious candidates not only have to fulfill their promises and duties as student representatives, but most of their time is wasted on struggling against the Student Affairs Department and searching for ways of how to sustain their existing power in the next election.

For the latter part, we have the same students winning the election six years in a row. Doesn't the saying 'power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely' ring a bell here?

Even if they deserve the seats because they received the highest votes, some voters have claimed that they could not be bothered to analyse who should sit in the council - they just vote like everyone else.

If the reputation of campus elections is tarnished by these incidents, what hope is there for campus politics? Plenty, I must say.

The problem now is because campus politics is represented by campus election, the students are unable to see the real idea and function of campus politics. Campus politics should actually be given significance in the daily lives of students. It should not be defined by the power struggle during campus election but by the involvement and contribution of the students in the social movement at the campus and national level.

Campus politics must become a process which promote understanding, sharing and valuing differences. It must be open to all types of discourses and does not exclusively bear a single image or doctrine. It must be fluid, creative and encompasses of all kinds of tendencies and fractions.

Let all sorts of ideas flourish at the universities and let the students, build their own decisions and judgment freely regardless of how the national politics perceive it. It is time for campus politics to serve as a momentum for students to participate and throw in ideas pertaining to their issues and interest without fear and favour.

If campus politics should benefit the students as a whole, thus, it stands unarguable that it should not be developed at the expense of the students' rights and needs.

Take the ISA 7 case as an example, it can become a landmark case to initiate a strong movement and long-term advocacy for freedom of speech and assembly at the university. We need to promote to the students that such abuse of rights may also happen to them, if not in protesting oppressive laws like ISA, it may be for other aspects of rights and issues such as in practicing arts, culture, choice of personality and sexuality or their beliefs in non-conformist ideas.

We may never know, that by redefining campus politics, it will indirectly improve the process and quality of election campuses in future.