Academic violence and culture

The deplorable tragedy that befell the Public Administration College (STPDN), Sumedang, West Java -- involving the death of Wahyu Hidayat (20), a first-year student, who was allegedly beaten to death by a group of senior students, followed by the mobbing of journalist-photographer, Bivansyah Dunda (26) of Koran Tempo by students of the same school -- has had repercussions both for the delinquent students and the reputation of the school (The Jakarta Post, Sept. 6 and Sept. 9; Media Indonesia, Sept. 9).

A piercing caricature on the Post's Opinion page (Sept. 10) reflected the mentality of the school, (as illustrated by the big question mark drawn in place of a head). But the caricature also tarnished the image of the quality education that generally prevails in this country.

An article written by a senior scholar appeared in Kompas, Sept. 8, entitled A distinction between academic culture and the culture of academic violence. In essence, the article discusses the academic cultural practice purporting to acquaint newly enrolled students with campus life -- which is acclaimed as having academic virtue.

However, in practice, deviations from the ideal postulate frequently occur in the application of extreme violence. This inevitably culminates to fall within the purview of criminology.

However, it must be noted that it has become commonplace for the public to despise and condemn the so-called culture of corruption in this country, that has become a rampant practice.

To speak of a "culture of academic violence" constitutes a contradiction in terms, as it is incongruent with the definition and concept of culture itself. So the term must be dismissed.

Accordingly, any positioning of the two concepts (culture and violence) essentially constitutes a misplacement.

S. SUHAEDI
Jakarta