ACTIVISM is all about relevance. Student activism is spawned when there is a recognized issue that will spur students to action. But when activism becomes just a tradition, never mind if present situations do not demand rallies and protest actions, then the movement itself is making it irrelevant.
Student activism was relevant during the Martial Law of Marcos because there was suppression within campuses, even the education system itself was being attacked, and the ordinary students were feeling it, and so the movement grew and brought forth mass actions.
It is up to the leaders of the student activists to be able to access and analyze issues that affect students and bring better understanding and appreciation for these, such that they can mobilize students to shout with them.
Now, if you cannot even convince one classroom full of students from your own school to march with you, then maybe, your issues are not even worth the time of one classroom full of students, right? Then it's time to assess and criticize the slogans, the actions, and analyses, and yes, the solutions.
Activism does not come with templates. When all that carries the movement are slogans and outdated calls, like the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) and the Millennials Against Dictatorship releasing statements "warning the Duterte administration against possible veto of free tertiary education bill", then it's time to sit down, think back and understand where all the wrong moves are coming from.
The warning itself by the NUSP is eyebrow-raising enough, incoherent at the very least. Imagine, to warn against possible veto. It's hesitant, it's pussy-footing, it's trying to sound convincing while keeping an eye on where the escape hatch is.
Where does incoherence stem from? Usually this comes from unclear motives, unclear objectives, and yes, unclear directions. We then go back to relevance.
When the directions are unclear, this hints at a lack of vision, and most of all, a lack of connection with the very spirit of the students the movement serves.
Somewhere along the way, when the leaders who came after only saw the slogans and heard the shouts of long ago and forgot to remain relevant every step of the way, student activism lost its mass base.
In our activism days, there was this weekly activity we all went through: criticism and self-criticism. Is this even being practiced today in its true essence? We can only wonder.
Meanwhile, over at the University of the Philippines in Los Banos, students broke the glass door of the Main Library where the Office of the Chancellor is located to talk with University Registrar Myrna Carandang as they protested the new online enlistment system called Student Academic Information System that suffered glitches and caused them a lot of inconvenience.
Oh.