Haniff Omar's recollection of campus politics in the post-war period highlights the contestation between socialists and their opponents at the University of Malaya. While the Socialist Club was able to leave its mark on national politics, its relationship with other student leaders was frequently fraught with ambivalence, rivalry and conflict. While there was convergence and cooperation between the Club and other student groups in the University, and between individual Club members and other student leaders and activists on campus on some issues and matters (as covered in Chapters 5 and 10), there were collisions and contestation over others. Notwithstanding the personality clashes and individual rivalry that naturally ensued between individual student activists and leaders, the intellectual and ideological contestations between University Socialists and others arose over two main issues: the meaning of socialism and the limits of student activism. The Club received much criticism for its left-wing socialist stance and participation in national politics beyond the campus. Not only did it struggle to bring its brand of student activism to the mainstream student organisations, it also faced the challenge of rival political clubs expressly formed to undermine it. On one level, the conflicts were plainly ideological, split along the lines of the bipolar Cold War. The opposing intellectual worlds of the Club and its opponents led to conflicting views of international, national and student events. At a deeper level, however, both sides were disagreeing over the ideological tools for the making of a new type of student, a new university and a new nation. The conflict was deeply discursive.

The Discursive Battle over “Student Apathy”

The campus battles were fought over the identity of students and their relationship to the state. Although the Socialist Club aimed to promote political consciousness among the students of the University of Malaya, the majority remained indifferent to its overtures.