University politics has always been regarded as part of the national political terrain of any country.
Due to the existing power differentials between the powerful North and the weaker South, however, the political life in some campuses in the Third World can be a matter of concern for the major superpowers that continue to have their way in the arena of global geo-politics as well.
Recent developments in both the United States and Malaysia have shown that this is clearly the case today.
The campus of the University of California at Berkeley was recently witness to a relatively important event in American student politics. In the last week of November, former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to speak at the Berkeley Community Theatre.
Netanyahu's visit to Berkeley was part of a series of public lectures that were meant to be given by a number of important, if not controversial, political figures. Another speaker who was meant to speak was the American career diplomat and friend of Israel, Henry Kissinger, but he was forced to cancel his talk at the last minute.
Trip soured
In any case, Netanyahu was given all the respect and honours that he felt was due to him. The American state department insisted that the campus should be cleared and that all lecturers had to leave campus after school.
Other student events were also canceled including two basketball matches, a football game and a school play - all so that Netanyahu's visit would not be disrupted by any potentially threatening elements.
But at the end of the day, Netanyahu's trip was soured by the students of Berkeley themselves. About 200 American students blocked the entrance to the Berkeley community theatre where he was meant to be speaking.
The students chanted slogans and carried banners and signs which condemned the heavy-handed conduct of Israeli forces against Palestinians, and some of them even managed to break through the barriers that were set up by the police. Just before 8pm, the event was canceled by the authorities and much to his frustration Netanyahu was prevented from speaking.
The American police officers who were present at the protest made sure that no harm came to Netanyahu or his supporters, but they also ensured that the students who came out to protest against his visit were given their right to speak out.
None of the protesting students were arrested, and there was no damage to property, private or public. What is more, the police did not resort to the use of arms or violence. No heads were cracked and no whips or tear gas were used to disperse the crowd.
Islamic menace
It is interesting to note that in the United States which is often seen as the closest ally of Israel (which it undoubtedly is), the former prime minister of Israel was forced to take his chances before a hostile audience which in the end managed to shut him up.
Whatever there is to say about the democratic system in the US, one can conclude that a semblance of democracy still exists in that country at least.
The same, however, could not be said for those Muslim countries that have, of late, been put in the embarrassing position of having to formally recognise the state and government of Israel so that they will be regarded as progressive Muslim states and not part of the so-called global Islamic menace instead.
Witness, for example, how the governments of so many Arab states have been bending over backwards to accommodate the demands of Washington and Tel Aviv to recognise the legitimacy of Israel regardless of the atrocities committed by Israeli security forces against the Palestinians who are their unfortunate neighbours.
The Malaysian government is no exception to this rule, despite the fact that Malaysia still has not formally opened its doors to Israel and has not shown any open support to the Tel Aviv government.
While Malaysia was one of the first countries to recognise the PLO and played host to its leader Yasser Arafat a few years ago, the Malaysian government, like that of many other Muslim states, is now forced to work within the diplomatic parameters set by the superpowers.
Fundamentalist extremists
Over the years, many Muslim states have tried to improve and normalise relations with Israel at the instigation of the US and other Western powers. But in many of these cases, these gestures of reconciliation were met with hostility by their own Muslim populations.
When Malaysia allowed the Israeli cricket team to come to the country and to take part in an international cricket tournament in April 1997, Malaysian students were among the first to protest against the decision.
But in Malaysia the reaction of the government and security forces were quite different compared to that of the American police at Berkeley University.
Malaysian students who protested outside the campus grounds of University Malaya were quickly dispersed by the Malaysian police.
Student leaders who led the protest were dubbed fundamentalist extremists who were causing trouble among the students and who were creating a problem for Malaysia's image abroad.
In the course of the conflict, a number of students and activists were arrested. Among them were Mahfuz Omar, member of parliament for Pokok Sena (Kedah) and also head of the PAS Youth.
Mahfuz, along with his deputy Salehhudin Azub and another PAS activist, Jalaluddin Abdul Manan (Pak Amjal), were later taken to court and on Nov 9 this year were fined RM1,500 each or one month's imprisonment for their part in the April 1997 disturbances. Mahfuz opted for a jail stay.
Vicious cycle
The arrest and trial of Mahfuz Omar, Salehhudin and Jalaluddin capture the contradictions and paradoxes that the Muslim world faces today.
Overnight, these PAS leaders have been turned into heroes while the nationalist Umno government of Dr Mahathir Mohamad is cast once again as the evil secular government working hand-in-glove with the West and America in particular.
Simplistic though the rhetoric might be, the fact remains that it works because there is some truth in it. As more and more Muslim states come under the sway of Western (read: American) hegemony, their respective governments will be forced to toe the Western (read: American) line.
The governments of Muslim states like Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and others will be forced to adopt positions that go contrary to the will and wishes of their own populations, simply for the sake of keeping the pro-Israeli power-brokers and lobbyists in Washington happy.
But the net result is that these Muslim governments themselves will become more and more alienated from their own populations and in the course of time lose not only their credibility and influence but also their much-needed Islamic credentials.
Consequently the Islamist opposition parties and movements in these respective countries will grow ever stronger and more influential as they move into the discursive space left vacant by the secular nationalist governments that seem to be moving closer to Washington all the time.
A vicious cycle emerges, where the retreat of the secular state from the space of public discourse is linked to the rise of the Islamists in these countries and the visible shift closer to the Islamist register.
Hegemonic dominance
What happens in the local campuses of majority-Muslim countries like Malaysia is therefore a direct consequence of short-sighted and ill-conceived policies hatched in Washington.
As Washington continues to employ the carrot-and-stick mode of diplomacy to persuade/coerce the leaders of Muslim states to accept the White House consensus, these Muslim leaders will find their own reputation and standing before their Muslim populations significantly diminished.
Hardly a surprise then that in the university campuses of the Muslim world today we are witnessing yet another wave of radical Islamic resurgence, fueled by the sense of frustration, anxiety and humiliation felt by ordinary Muslims who think that their leaders lack the courage to speak the truth and to resist the hegemonic dominance of a superpower that cannot even decide on who will be its future president.
To conclude, it is one of the bitter ironies of present-day international politics that the growing dominance of the American consensus has created servile Muslim governments the world over that may follow the American line but are in reality deeply discredited and weak before their own populations.
Should the trend continue, the net result will be the growing influence and strength of the Islamist opposition movements that come to the fore to occupy the discursive ground once held by the local nationalist elites themselves.
The resurgence of political Islam was therefore due to the most unlikely sponsor and benefactor of Pan-Islamism: Uncle Sam himself!
DR FARISH A NOOR is a Malaysian political scientist and human rights activist who is currently visiting professor at the Department of Islamic Studies, Freie University of Berlin. 'The Other Malaysia' tries to unearth aspects of Malaysia's history and culture that have been erased or relegated to the margins in order to remind us that there remains another Malaysia that is often forgotten.
