University students break political chains<\/p>\n
By A. Wisnuhardana<\/p>\n
YOGYAKARTA (JP): \"Welcome to the Campus of the Struggle for
\nNew Order\" was recently sprayed in black paint by protesting
\nstudents of the University of Indonesia (UI) in their Salemba
\ncampus. The act seems to have become a symbolic milestone.<\/p>\n
Around the same time, over one thousand students of Gadjah
\nMada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta held a similar demonstration
\ndemanding lower prices and political reform.<\/p>\n
The Yogyakarta demonstrators used phrases similar to those of
\ntheir Jakarta colleagues and rejected the authority of the New
\nOrder.<\/p>\n
These acts by UI and UGM students have a deep significance in
\nthe present situation and illustrated a new mode of protest. They
\ndeligitimized the power of the New Order government.<\/p>\n
The acts raise the utopian possibility of the New Order, which
\nwas built by the military and university students, also coming to
\nan end at the hands of university students.<\/p>\n
However, with the crisis affecting all strata of society, is
\nit possible to establish a new social order as a reaction to the
\nfailure of the New Order government to solve the economic crisis?<\/p>\n
When the students delegitimized the political power of the New
\nOrder, it provided empirical proof that they have become more
\npolitically focused throughout the course of the last decade.<\/p>\n
Students are now asserting a conviction that their political
\nideology runs counter to the philosophy of developmentalism
\npracticed by the New Order political system. By demonstrating,
\nthey are expressing dissatisfaction with the New Order's policies
\non development, particularly those which are not oriented toward
\npeople and which are undemocratic.<\/p>\n
Under the New Order, the word student is a relatively new
\npolitical term. During the days of the Old Order government,
\nstudent groups were closely identified with political parties. An
\nactive political role continued in the early days of the New
\nOrder, but students, a prominent political force, were denied
\naccess to formal political structures.<\/p>\n
This handicap has bestowed a symbolic importance on university
\npolitical activity and has made it a barometer for popular
\npolitical sentiment in the dialectical relationship between the
\nstate and civil society.<\/p>\n
Student politics have had a checkered history during the New
\nOrder era. In the early days of the New Order, students viewed
\nthe regime as one which promised improvement and reform. The
\nrhetoric of the New Order regime at that time was firmly opposed
\nto political and economic misdemeanors practiced by the Old Order
\nadministration.<\/p>\n
However, this harmony was short lived. In the 1970s, students
\nbegan to show their true colors. They became critical of
\nexpensive development projects which yielded little or no benefit
\nto the people.<\/p>\n
The New Order at this stage did not yet have as full a grip on
\nthe community as it does now. University students escaped full
\ncensure for demonstrating because they could not yet be shown to
\nbe a political grouping opposed to the government.<\/p>\n
Once the public was fully in the grip of its power, the
\ngovernment made efforts to control student criticism of the
\ngovernment. Independent student organizations were banned in
\n1978, a move which lead to their demise.<\/p>\n
Students after 1978 were depoliticized by the New Order
\npolicies on education and only in the mid-1980s did some
\nuniversity student groups once again begin to construct a culture
\nof resistance to New Order policies.<\/p>\n
There is a relationship between radical student sentiment and
\nrepressive, domineering and careless political actions taken by
\nthe establishment. Students have once again become more radical
\nas a reaction to corruption, collusion and nepotism.<\/p>\n
In the history of a number of developing countries, students
\nhave not been the telling factors in forcing political reform.
\nHowever, in Indonesia it is in student groups that the government
\nhas first found resistance to inappropriate and detrimental
\nactions.<\/p>\n
Student political awareness, born out of theoretical
\ndiscourse, has given rise to a new wave of resistance to New
\nOrder policies which are not to the benefit and welfare of
\nsociety. University students will continue to act as a buffer to
\nstate domination of the public.<\/p>\n
The writer, an alumnae of Gadjah Mada University, is now
\nworking as a researcher in Yogyakarta.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/university-students-break-political-chains-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}