A polling organized by "Republika On-Line" had an interesting

A polling organized by "Republika On-Line" had an interesting result. Some 62.9 percent of 3,333 respondents supported the immediate endorsement of the bill on education. Some 38.6 percent rejected it, and the rest, 0.5 percent, entrusted the issue to the House of Representatives.

The growing support for the bill indicates that most people continue to hope for an educational system that would accommodate religious teaching based on human rights principles.

Amid the debate on the bill, the House and the government must demonstrate their wisdom, especially on the crucial Article 12 on religious teaching.

We call on the House to endorse the bill immediately into a law, and maintain Article 12, because deleting the article means we are allowing human rights violations to occur to our Muslim students.

If the education law does not contain any article on religion, ours will be a secular constitution. If this happens, the school will only produce smart graduates who do not have a strong religious background.

This will pose a great threat to the country's religious life. If Article 12 is deleted, it would be our turn to refuse the bill. -- Republika, Jakarta