Soeharto tells students to study<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto called on Indonesian students
\nyesterday to return to class and develop their competitiveness in
\norder to face the future.<\/p>\n
Soeharto also said that university campuses should return to
\ntheir original function as learning institutions.<\/p>\n
\"The President asked that students continue their studies so
\nthey could become competitive people,\" Minister of Education and
\nCulture Wiranto Arismunandar said after meeting with the
\nPresident at the latter's residence on Jl. Cendana, Central
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
\"This (competitiveness) is important because otherwise we
\nwouldn't be able to have national resistance, economic,
\npolitical, and cultural resistance,\" he quoted Soeharto as
\nsaying.<\/p>\n
\"The President asked me to give special attention to this
\nmatter, to enable the students to learn better,\" the minister
\nsaid. \"When education collapses, the nation is also finished. As
\neducators, we must understand this.\"<\/p>\n
Wiranto reiterated his earlier warning that rectors should not
\nallow student politics on campus, but said students or lecturers
\nwere free to engage in political activities outside campuses and
\nin their private capacity.<\/p>\n
\"I hope the ban on conducting practical politics on campuses
\nis positively responded to in this development era... I have
\nasked rectors to make their own judgment (whether certain student
\nactivities constitute practical politics and therefore should be
\nbanned).\"<\/p>\n
He defined \"practical politics\" as the activities of a person
\nor a group to carry out or to influence directly or indirectly
\npolitical decision making\".<\/p>\n
When asked whether the current wave of student protests could
\nbe classified as practical politics, he said: \"I never said that
\ncurrent student activities were deemed practical politics\".<\/p>\n
Wiranto pointed out he had vast experience in dealing with
\nstudent demonstrations as a professor in 1978 and then rector of
\nthe Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in 1988. Demonstrations
\nat ITB not only disturbed the teaching-learning process but also
\ndamaged the institute's buildings and other materials, he said.<\/p>\n
During his term, six ITB students were dismissed from the
\nschool and jailed for three years in 1990 after the local court
\nfound them guilty of insulting then home affairs minister Gen.
\n(ret.) Rudini during a student demonstration in 1989.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Wiranto said students might face expulsion
\nif they continued to engage in practical politics.<\/p>\n
Despite the ban, Asman Boedisantoso Ranakoesoema and Ichlasul
\nAmal -- the rectors of the Jakarta-based University of Indonesia
\nand the Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University respectively --
\nsaid they planned to let students continue their on-campus
\ndemonstrations.<\/p>\n
The minister also complained yesterday about the undue media
\ncoverage of student demonstrations, and the scant attention given
\nto his policy.<\/p>\n
\"They (the media) just carried out students' demands that the
\nminister resign,\" Wiranto said with a smile.<\/p>\n
When asked about the students' demand for a dialog with the
\nPresident, Wiranto replied: \"Actually it is not me who must
\narrange that because it (the demanded dialog) has a link with
\npolitics and political supervision. This comes under the
\nauthority of the minister of home affairs\".<\/p>\n
Minister of Home Affairs Hartono said after meeting with the
\nPresident on Monday that Wiranto would play a central role in the
\ndialog. (prb)<\/p>",
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