Five candidates to contest UGM rector election race<\/p>\n
Asip A. Hasani, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta<\/p>\n
The first rectorial election of Yogyakarta's state Gadjah Mada
\nUniversity (UGM) is nearing the selection date with only five of
\nthe 13 candidates eligible to contest in the election scheduled
\nfor March 7.<\/p>\n
The five candidates will each present their leadership vision
\nand mission before a number of former UGM rectors on Monday, two
\ndays before the university's academic senate convenes again to
\nselect three of them.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Saturday, the senate picked five of the 13 selected
\ncandidates to take part in the election.<\/p>\n
The three candidates to be selected on Wednesday will be
\nelected by 25 members of the university's board of trustees,
\ncomprising lecturers, the national education minister and
\ncommunity leaders including Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan
\nHamengku Buwono.<\/p>\n
Boma Wikan Tyasa, head of the 188-member Senate, and incumbent
\nrector Ichlasul Amal, whose four-year term will end in March,
\nwere the strongest of the five candidates.<\/p>\n
Boma challenged Amal with 57 votes he secured during
\nSaturday's voting. The incumbent rector only grabbed 41 votes.<\/p>\n
The three other contenders were former head of the Civil
\nServants Administration Body Sofian Effendi, who is director of
\npost-graduate studies in public administration; dean of the
\nfaculty of social and political sciences Sunjoto Usman; and dean
\nof the technology faculty Sudjarwadi.<\/p>\n
At least 43 senate members were not present in the closed-door
\nselection process. However, secretary of the rector electoral
\ncommittee Afan Gaffar claimed: \"The voting has run very smoothly
\nand was completed within a short time\".<\/p>\n
All five candidates are graduates of UGM.<\/p>\n
The committee claimed graduates from other universities were
\nwelcome to contest the rectorship race.<\/p>\n
In reality though, it excluded at least two \"outsiders\" from
\ndifferent colleges in Bandung and Semarang during previous
\nadministrative selections.<\/p>\n
A recent poll organized by a UGM student body shows that more
\nthan 71 percent of the 969 respondents, mostly the university's
\nstudents, preferred to have a new rector from their own
\nuniversity.<\/p>\n
\"The poll result makes sense because an outsider could
\nendanger the 'harmony' within the university where people of
\nvarious ethnic and religious backgrounds study. UGM is unique,\"
\nrector election committee chief Koento Wibisono told The Jakarta
\nPost.<\/p>\n
At least 17 academics had registered with the committee to
\njoin the race, but three of them failed to pass the
\nadministrative selection process. Former finance minister Bambang
\nSudibyo withdrew his candidacy for reasons which were unclear.<\/p>\n
UGM will be the second state university to hold a rectorial
\nelection for the 2002 to 2007 period after the Bandung Institute
\nof Technology (ITB) voted for Kusmayanto Kardiman as its new
\nrector on Aug. 29 last year.<\/p>\n
Rectors had previously been appointed by the education
\nminister with the approval of the president. Under government
\nDecree No. 153\/2001, state universities must elect their new
\nleaders democratically as part of the implementation of campus
\nautonomy.<\/p>\n
Jakarta's University of Indonesia (UI), Bogor's Institute of
\nAgriculture (IPB), and Surabaya's Airlangga University are
\nexpected to follow suit in the near future.<\/p>\n
UGM, established in 1949 is the oldest state-run university in
\nthe country.<\/p>\n
The university currently has around 46,000 students and 2,500
\nlecturers, including several foreigners.<\/p>",
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