The electoral 'strategies' and actions taken by the 'Aspirasi' faction of the student community in most of the public universities, especially UPM (Universiti Putra Malaysia), are symptomatic of the political ailments that have beset our beloved nation in the last several years.

If it is true that certain student leaders, especially those of the 'Aspirasi' variety, were induced and easily attracted to the 'excitement' of a mere stay in a luxury hotel , then how different are they from those in the ruling party, particularly Umno, who have been afflicted by the apparently incurable disease of money politics?

If these students were indeed involved in, or at least party to, the making of those VCDs that lampooned leaders of the 'pro-students' faction - and their 'outside friends', then how different are they from those politicians who make use of all the available resources of dissemination to cast aspersions on opposition leaders?

They would do the student community much good had they got themselves immersed in debates pertaining to some pressing issues of the day. Instead, they, like some of the ruling politicians, resorted to character assassination, back-stabbing, and name calling, things that don't really improve standards in politics in this country. Neither do they advance intellectual growth.

If these students were involved in using a campus newspaper , which was at their immediate disposal, to condemn their electoral opponents in the final hour of the campus election campaigning, how similar were they to the ruling politicians who always make full use of the controlled and biased mass media to attack their political foes to the eleventh hour?

Is this the kind of leadership calibre that the local universities are nurturing among their 'favoured students'? People who would one day be ministers, members of parliament, and leaders of party youth wing?

What kind of values are the university authorities and the government trying to promote among the younger generation? Isn't there an iota of shame and remorse in the hearts of these people?

God save our country!