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Salient

Official Newspaper of Victoria University of Wellington Students Assn.

Nosac Sack Osac!

Out of NZUSA came the priority of fighting the cutbacks which have been introduced by the National Government on Overseas Students. A new standing committee has been set up to take on this task and will be starting immediately. A campaign to show both N.Z. and overseas students the extent of the cutbacks and the effects that these will have.

The cutback of Overseas Students (45% of the previous years intake) is an indictment of the commitment that New Zealand has in South East Asia. On the one hand, New Zealand spends money on training Malaysian and Thai troops to put down the liberation struggles in those countries, plus spends millions on building strategic military motorways in Indonesia (little use to a nation of the worlds poorest people); and on the other, they cutback the aid which is the most useful ie. training Asian students in our Universities.

There are two reasons why educational aid should be increased and why the amount of military aid given should be decreased.

By accepting overseas students into New Zealand, the Government is making a positive stand in helping the Third World nations develop. New Zealand's role in this area has been particularly smutty in this respective and this is one of the ways in which we can improve our commitment.

Perhaps more importantly; New Zealand should get out of SE Asia and stop doing America's dirty work by propping up the repressive puppet regimes of Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Already the New Zealand people are being buttered up for a new conflict in SE Asia similar to Vietnam. News reports depicting the inhumane activities of "terrorists and insurgents" are being used to whip up public feeling in preparation for a full scale intervention.

This is the message that NOSAC (National Overseas Students Action Committee) is trying to get across. It will be building a campaign to tell O.S.A.C. (Overseas Student Admissions Committee - a committee of the University Grants Committee) to reinstate the cuts.

Hopefully, through the campaign, New Zealand students will come to realise that our overseas friends make a positive contribution to New Zealand and campus life.