Communist organizations have been formed in 39 junior-high and high schools nationwide — all belonging to the Intercollegiate Communists Federation founded by members of Taipei Municipal Chien Kuo High School. The federation says its aim is to facilitate reform at schools and spread “correct communism,” and that it is not linked to the Chinese Communist Party.
It is good for young people to have ideals and aspirations, but they might not truly understand communism or are simply trying to be unconventional or appear avant-garde. Schools should be more proactive in guiding them.
Socialism, communism and communist parties are fundamentally different. Socialism is a theoretical proposition — a romantic expectation of an ideal society, communism is a more radical form of socialism that employs more extreme methods and communist parties emphasize atheism and class struggle.
Hopefully, the school groups are based on ideals and aspirations for social reform.
The Indonesian government prohibits citizens from advocating communism. It would never tolerate communist groups. History shows that communist parties exploited the passions and ideals of young people to sow division and conflict. The young people were used as scapegoats to help the parties seize power.
Moreover, the atheism and class struggle promoted by communist parties — although rooted in sociological conflict theory — overlooks the perspective of structural functionalism, which emphasizes how society’s interdependent parts operate together to maintain stability and equilibrium.
Academic discussions aim to analyze social phenomena and realities from multiple perspectives. However, communist parties move well beyond simple sociological analysis, pursuing explicit agendas of class struggle and the seizure of political power.
Communist parties are especially skilled at exploiting the kindness and innocence of those in democratic societies, manufacturing conflict and sowing division to successfully achieve their political goals. They can not be tolerated in schools.
Chen Chi-nung is a political commentator.
Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
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