Page 4A-Friday, September 8, 1978-The Michigan Daily
Eighty-Nine Years of Editorial Freedom.
Vol. LIX, No. 2 News Phone: 764-0552
Ann Arbor, Michigan-Friday, September 8, 1978
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
The elusive goal of educatio
By Robert Hagelshaw
The issues: what's in store
for the 'U' this fall
A S THE NEW SCHOOL year begins
we find the University as a whole
faced with a variety of serious and
complex issues. Most of these issues
have been around for awhile -
University investments in South
Africa, CIA covert activities on cam-
pus, Graduate Employee Organization
(GEO), an ever tightening University
budget. We note with great dismay
that they are topics as perennial as
registration lines on campus.
Our stands on these issues are clear
and have been frequently reiterated.
The University must sell all invest-
ments in corporations which do
business in South Africa and must cut
all other ties to that country. A Univer-
sity that displays a motto which in-
cludes veritas should have no connec-
tion with the only country in the world
- with the possible exception of
Rhodesia - whose entire society is
based on racism.
After a series of revelations concer-
ning Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) activities on this campus and
others there should be no doubt the
University could not move fast enough
to restrict government intelligence
agency activities here.
The Graduate Employees
Organization (GEO) - involved in a.
court case over its right to represent
teaching fellows - must survive.
Should the GEO lost its right to bargain
collectively, University ad-
ministrators would only strengthen
their control over campus labor.
These are but a few of the problems
which must be considered and resolved
this school year. The task is not simple
and will take a concerted effort by the
Regents, administrators, faculty, and
students.
The Regents have a particularly dif-
ficult challenge. They must, for a
change, listen to the students and
faculty, face the truth and come to the
realization that the only moral choice
they have with respect to South Africa
is to sell all investments in cor-
porations operating there. The
decision to sell must be made regar-
dless of the loss in profits on the in-
vestment portfolio or in grants or gifts
from these corporations.
Money, of course, is a delicate sub-
ject to the Regents in light of the ever-
shrinking state appropriation for
higher education - another problem
the Regents must recognize and
struggle with. We expect ad-
ministrators and the eight Regents to
make an effective effort to both slow
down the rate of what is now a yearly
tuition increase and yet maintain the
high quality education students at this
University enjoy.
But the Regents cannot resolve any
of the issues alone. Although a
moderate set of guidelines to restrict
relationships between University
faculty, administrators, students and
intelligence agencies were presented
to the faculty last spring, the
professorsand researchers have con-
sistently postponed discussion of the
issue. And despite statements by
University President Robben Fleming
to the contrary, this is not strictly a
faculty matter. The administration
must actively seek and participate in
developing guidelines.
But in the end the most important
role must be played by the students.
Because the student is most directly
affected by these issues, students must
communicate their wishes to the
Senate Assembly, the administration
and especially to the Regents.
The students on this campus play lit-
tle or no role in the official decision-
making process. The Regents even
turned down a recent proposal to allow
a non-voting student member on the
Board. Therefore the students must
take every opportunity to make their
opinions known.
Whether it be through a rally, a
petition or student government,
students must participate in order to
effect change. In fact, student gover-
nment, despite its problems and
weaknesses, may yet be the most ef-
fective means for students to speak in
a clear and unified voice to the Regents
and administration.
Whatever the issue, whatever the
method, there must be more com-
munication between the Regents, ad-
ministration, faculty and students.
Without all members of the University
community actively working for
solutions to our problems in an at-
mosphere of free and open com-
munication we are doomed to face
these same problems yet another,
dismal year.
A return to campus this fall
means more hard work for the lot
of us. As if settling into yet
another cheerless hovel weren't
burden enough, we also face
several months of academic
tedium. Perhaps we can console
ourselves with the observation
that things are tough all over. Or
maybe we can go a step further
and look for a meaningful ex-
planation for why we subject our-
selves to this preverse ritual
known as University Life.
In other words: what are we
doing here?
FOR SOME, the answer is
easy. A University sheepskin and
accompanying skills are a
passport to thw world of work; a
letter of introduction to the
almighty Job. Certainly, advance
ment of individual career plans is
a legitimate goal. Indeed, we
might question the sanity of one
who would incur such expense
without anticipating some future
return on his investment.
But we are't completely
materialistic - we expect more
from our work here, don't we?
Aren't we looking for something
in the way of intellectual
development and stimulation,
exposure to a broad range of
ideas, the great search for Truth?
Of course we are. That is what a
university is all about, or so it
says in various course guides and
other literature distributed by the
'U'. Although they're less
tangible than the promise of a
future paycheck, these ideas are
also reasonable expectations we
might have as we pursue our
studies this fall.
The next question is obvious:
does the University enable us to
achieve our objectives? Do we
get our money's worth?
As to the first goal, that of
aiding us with our career plans,
the answer may be a surprising
yes. The 'U' stands willing and
able to move us toward the jobs
that await us in the working
world. Any young person with a
college degree in his or her hand
can get a job, providing the
graduate doesn't spend a lifetime
waiting fot just the "right job" to
come along. This orderly
progression from student to
worker (or to manager, or
professional) is a socialization
function of our higher
educational system. It is the
raison d'etre of this or any other
university.
UNFORTUNATELY, fulfill-
ment of this socialization function
may well hinder our attempts to
achieve the other noble goals
mentioned above. The range of
ideas presented on campus tends
to become restricted, and the fir-
st ideas to go are those that
present fundamental challenges
to our economic and educational
structures.
This restriction is not
necessarily due to ideological or
political opposition from
educators to these ideas. But it
may simply reflect the fact that a
genuinely objective educational
experience is a luxury. Such
narrowing of intellectual pursuits
can exist only when it doesn't
jeopardize the socialization fun-
ction. The pity is that upon
graduation we are expected to at-
tack the problems facing ous
society without the benefit of the
broadest possible range of alter-
native approaches to, these
problems. we are only cheating
ourselves by tolerating this
deficiency.
Many students and faculty here
at the University recognize the
need to present more alternative
ideas in the classroom and
elsewhere on campus. Thel
People's Action Coalition (P.A.C.
), a group of students interested
in educational reform, will be
working this fall with progressive
faculty members on a number of
projects intended to provide to
Michigan students a more com-
plete educational experience. A
teach-in scheduled for October
will focus on the role of education
in society andrwill analyze
specifically some of the shor-
tcomings of the University. If
you'd like to work on the teach-in
or talk to P.A.C. members about
other projects, we would cer-
tainly welcome your support.
Great power chauvanism?
PARIS - Support for human rights
violations in Latin America, aid to CIA
proteges in Africa,arrogant ultimatims to a
Southeast Asian neighbor - China today is
demonstrating an almost masochistic zeal for
isolating itself from its most loyal freinds and
for abandoning the ideals is once espoused in
international relations.
Only a few years after promising cheering.
U.N. delegates that it would never resort to
the coercive tactics used by Russia and
America, China is practicing the same super-
power tactics it once condemned in others.
WHENEVER PEKING has found allies, no
matter how brutal, unpopular and reac-
tionary, against the common enemy of the
Soviet Union, progressive forces have suf-
fered - in Chile, in Angola and now even in
Asia.
Following a strident propaganda campaign
against Vietnam, China dispatched ships to
Vietnamese ports to pick up what Peking
claimed were "persecuted Chinese citizens",
and in short order closed the border and ter-
minated all aid to Vietnam. The Vietnemese
say China's action violates longstanding
agreements between the two nations and
amounts to arrogant interference in the in-
ternal affairs of a smaller neighbor. They add
that the Chinese government refused all at-
tempts at amicable negotiation over
problems affecting "oversea Chinese" in
Vietnam.
As a result, China has alienated not just a
close Asian neighbor, but also one with an
ideologically kindred communist gover-
nment. By picking a quarrel with Vietnam,
refusing to negotiate and threatening to
emulate the "gunboat diplomacy" of the 19th
century, China risks losing its last support
within the progressive world - all for the
sake of its battle for influence against Russia.
The problem of the overseas Chinese - the
immediate cause of the current tension bet-
ween Hanoi and Peking - is an old and com-
plicated one in Southeast Asia. The term it-
self, which originated in China, reflects an
arrogance that has troubled many of China's
neighbors for centuries. The implication of
overseas Chinese is that whereven they settle,
the first loyalty of those with Chinese an-
cestry must be to their ancestral homeland,
not the country in which they live.
Successive imperial dynasties supported
this approach and insisted that such settlers
should cling to their Chinese citizenship and
avoid integration into the societies where they
settled. Later, the Kuomintang government
went further. Not only were those of Chinese
origin urged to avoid citizenship in the coun-
tries where they lived, but Chiang Kai-shek
attempted to organize them into a highly
disciplined organization loyal to his gover-
nment rather than to the governments of the
countries where they lived.
It seemed that a great step forward had
been taken in 1955 when Chou En-lai and the
Indonesian foreign minister, Dr. Sunarjo,
signed a four-point agreement to settle the
status of 2.5 million Indonesian residents of
Chinese origins. Under the agreement, those
holding both Indonesian and Chinese citizen-
ship were required to choose between them
within two years. The rights of their children
and spouses were protected. While China
recognized Indonesians over those who opted
for Indonesian citizenship, it retained the
right to protect thjose who chose to retain
their Chinese citizenship.
I was present when that agreement was
signed and clearly recall a brief statement
Chou En-lai made that day in Jakarta that
deeply impressed the Indonesians and many
By Wilfred Burchett'
others. The Chinese prime minister noted that
many other countries - newly independent
and trying to build national un-
ity - faced a similar problem of
assimilating a Chinese minority. Chou urged
his fellow Chinese in such countries to "in-
crease their sense of responsibility towards
the country whose nationality they have
chosen."
It was a statesmanlike act in keeping with
the foreign policy China pursued at that time,
and it won China great esteem among Third
World nations.
'Wherever Peking has
found allies, no mat-
ter how
brutal, un-
popular and reaction-
ary against the com-
mon enemy
Of
the
pro-
Soviet
Union,
gressive forces have
suffered-in Chile, in
Angola and now even
in Asia.'
i
- ... 0O .
{
The same year, China signed a similar
agreement with Vietnem that - as befitted
governments with similar ideologies - went
even further toward assuring the rights of
overseas Chinese while helping a Third World
country solve its social problems. Under the
agreement, China officially encouraged those
of Chinese origin to adopt full Vietnamese
citizenship. In turn Vietnam accorded its
residents of Chinese ancestry - called Hoa in
Vietnamese - full citizenship rights, in-
cluding the rights to be elected to pariliament
and hold government offices.
Meanwhile in South Vietnam, almost all
Chinese residents had to change their status
to that of Vietnamese "of Chinese origin" un-
der the overtly anti-Chinese policies of Ngo
Dinh Diem. Only a few rich Chinese in the
south were ably to pay the bribes needed to
retain both their Saigon residence cards and
their Taiwan-Chinese passports.
For both communists and anti-communists,
the Chinese in South Vietnam always have
constituted a special problem. First arriving
in the Saigon area as refugees from the Man-
chu Dynasty at the end of the 18th sentury,
South Vietnam's ethnic Chinese population
concentrated in Saigon's sister city of Cholon,_
where a high proportion of them became
merchants.
By the beginning of this century they com-
pletely dominated the market economy of
South Vietnam, including its vital wholesale
trade, transport and distribution sectors.
Following the American defeat on 1975, state
control of these vital ecomonic activities was
necessary not just as a matter of longstan-
ding Vietnamese communist policy
repeatedly supported by Peking: it was.also
crucial to avoid ecomonic breakdown and
starvation after the war.
I was in Saigon - by then renamedHo Chi
Minh City - on September 10, 1975, when ,a
law was decreed and immediately enforced to
crack down on hoarders, black marketeers,
currency speculators and other such crooks.
Even though most of those affected were
Chinese - not because of their race, but
because of the nature of the trade many
Chinese followed - tens of thousands of
Cholon-Chinese demonstrated in the streets in
favor of the reform measures. The situation
recalled the similar one in Shanghai 25 years
earlier, when the Chinese - after Chiang's
defeat - introduced similar measures to deal
with black marketeers, but there was one
major difference. There werd no executions
in Saigon under the Vietnamese communists
as there had been in Shanghai when Mao's
forces took charge.
Since then, Vietnam has encountered
similar resistance to its ecomonic reforms -
and from the same kind of merchant class -
as they Chinese themselves experienced after
the triumph of their revolution.
Having fought for national unity and for
fundamental social and economic change for
30 years against the Americans and French,
were the Vietnamese then expected to exempt
residents of Chinese origin from
nationalization, land reform and other
measures - all on the grounds of friendship
with China? Or did Peking, as the Vietnamese
suspect, expect such treatment simply
because China is a major power with 20 times
Vietnai's population?
Whatever China's intentions, its tactics
could not help but rekindle Vietnamese
memories of a thousand years of Chinese oc-
cupation in the past and 50 invasion attempts
in more recent centuries. Today Vietnamese
officials state that propaganda broadcasts
from Peking predict inevitable war between
China and Vietnam, that Peking is urging
Vietnamese of Chinese origin to "leave Viet-
nam as soon as possible."
There are other disquieting aspects of
China's current hostility toward Vietnam.
Tens of thousands of persons of Chinses origin
have fled Cambodia to Vietnam recently, and
many more are the victims of severe per-
secution by the Khmer Rouge. But no word of
reproach for the Khmer Rouge is heard from
Peking. Instead, applying a double standard,
Peking supports the Cambodians in their bor-
der dispute with Vietnam.
According to Vietnamese foreign ministry
officials, China elevated the overseas Chin-
ses problem from an internal Vietnamese af-
fair into an international incident. The Viet-
namese say they tried to treat the problem as
one "inherited from history," not as a matter
of national chauvinism, and urged Peking to
negotiate the matter "in conformity with the
interest of both peoples on the basis of the
principles of equality and mutual respect in
international relations."
The most pressing question now before the
two nations is whether the cold war of words
will escalate through increasingly severe
border clashes into a hot war of weapons. As
one senior Vietnamese diplomat recently told
me, "We greatly value our friendship with
China, but we value our independence even
more."
Wilfred Burchett, an authority on In-
dochina, covered both the Korean and
Indochina wars from the communist sides
for numerous newspapers. Now based in
Paris, Burchett frequently visits the cot-
munist countries of Asia, and often con-
tributes to the Pacific News Service.
"You GU'S Zu?, ... (U5r JoGEi&N&?G?
EDITORIAL STAFF
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STAFF WRITERS: Michael Arkush, Rene Becker, Richard
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SPORTS STAFF
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LETTERS TO THE DAILY
Where did Pursell stand, when?
NIGIIT EDITORS: .Jef Frank, Gary K icinski. Geoff Larcom.
Brian Martin. Brian Miller. Billy Neff. Dan Perrin. Dave
Renharger. Iilly Sathn. Krrol Shifman. Jamie Turner. Bob
"'arrow.i
ASSISTANT NIGHT EDITORS: .Jeff Mlake. Elrsa I Fy. Pete
Leiinger. Liz Mac. Eric Olson. Kevin tosetorough. Diane
Silover. l'om Stephens .
DESK ASSISTANTS: Ken Choliner, Cliff Douglas. Bobh Emory.
To The Daily:
Recently, a Diane Jacobs
responded to my indictment of
Republican Congressman Carl
Pursell for his lack of consistency
should "read the news-
papers before (I) write
them" smacks of the defen-
sive posture which Purcell sup-
porters are often forced to
My letter indicting Purcell for
his lack of strong support for the
ERA was written and sent to the
Daily after Ms. Mayer's article
was published, but before news of
sion on July 31.
In summation, it is unfortunate
that the timing of published
reports in the Ann Arbor media
lead to the publishing of my let-