There is a school of thought that students should just stick to their books and not meddle with things that could lead them astray from the road to success. Parents, for years, have serenaded their children with this verse: Dont get involved in a relationship while you are studying.

While the government sings: Dont get involved in politics while you are studying.

We know the advice from parents is one of good intention. After all, most parents want the best for their children. A good education is a passport to a better life.

And parents believe their children will perform better if they are spared the unnecessary distraction, namely falling in love  more often than not dismissed as puppy love.

The government, with apparently similar paternalistic inclinations, stresses that undergraduates concentrate on their studies first. After all, our country needs more engineers, scientists, doctors and accountants.

Thus the students, many of whom are legally adults, should also be spared the unnecessary distraction, namely getting involved in politics, puppy politics.

Excel in your studies. Politics can come later, our esteemed leaders say.

To be fair, ministers who dish out such advice are partially right. Getting a good education is indeed the topmost priority of all students.

Why later?

But what discerning students cannot comprehend is why politics should come later. Why cant both studies and political involvement coexist if students are capable of juggling both?

Echoing the governments sentiments but on love are parents. Love, too, can come later, they say.

I believe there are still a number of parents telling their sons that girls will practically beg to have them when they are rich.

However, love and politics are not dictated by financial considerations. One is driven by passion and the other idealism.

While there are parents who claim their children would not understand the meaning of true love, there are also those who suggest that students are too naive for politics, hence making them susceptible to those with ulterior motives.

Despite the rhetoric, most parents, however, do not teach their children to distinguish between what is true love and what is not.

Similarly, the authorities are unwilling to allow for an open political discourse in campus, where different ideas and doctrines can be contested.

To the powers that be anything which is vaguely anti-establishment is unacceptable.

Political scientists will argue that all human relations are political. We have the term office politics and of course  campus politics. In a nutshell, being political is as natural as falling in love.

Paranoid parents would not send their teenagers to schools where they would risk falling in love but nothing could be farther from the truth than to say that this would solve the problem.

Likewise, the government can crack down on student activism. It can arrest and harass the students but this does not guarantee that it will quell their idealism.

If the government is paranoid about having idealistic and politicised students then it may as well close down all institutions of higher learning.

Different ways

The authorities must understand that similar to love, different people have different ways of expressing their political inclinations.

Some would do it like gentlemen. They would take the effort to go through the proper channels by participating in forums and presenting their case to the government.

However, authorities must also be prepared to reconcile with the ungentlemanly ones who become frustrated and impatient, especially if the gentlemanly approach fails to court a response from the government.

Now like angry spurned lovers, they will plunge into politics in a fiery manner, joining demonstrations and whatnot.

Political expression, like the expression of love, can push people to the extreme.

The government must come to terms with the fact that students are inevitably political, the authorities must learn to tolerate their political ideals whatever it may be.

Be it socialism, capitalism, nationalism, materialism or even Islamic fundamentalism. It is their choice. Thats democracy.

Choosing to change their opinions forcefully is like breaking up two lovebirds. It would only reinforce the students disenchantment with the government.

If the government really wants to win the hearts of the students, it should stop punishing them for having different views and opinions. Instead, it should start by examining itself and its policies.

The first step would be to review controversial and restrictive laws such as the Universities and University Colleges Act and the Internal Security Act.

Discriminatory policies in campus must be stopped and lackadaisical university administrators must be checked.

Most of all, the authorities should treat university students as mature adults and give them a real voice in the formulation of national and campus policies.

Lest we forget, students, more often than not, become anti-establishment when policies are slapped in their faces.