Alienation of Teachers and University Lecturers

Almost two centuries ago, precisely in August 1835, a young man named Karl Marx wrote a reflective essay titled Reflections of a Young Man on the Choice of a Profession. In that piece, he formulated a fundamental moral thesis: that the choice of profession should be based on two main pillars: the welfare of humanity and self-perfection. Marx warned sharply that a profession which makes people nothing more than ‘servile tools’—where one acts without autonomy and merely becomes a cog in a large machine—will strip the subject of dignity and human value. That warning now finds its most bitter relevance in Indonesia’s education landscape. What is hailed as a noble profession to humanise people now becomes entangled in a cycle of alienation that is systematic and structured. Teachers and lecturers, poetically often dubbed as ‘unsung heroes’ or ‘keepers of the flame of civilisation’, are in fact experiencing a dehumanisation process in which they are alienated from the product of their work, the processes of their work, and even their own humanity. The alienation experienced by Indonesia’s educators is not a historical accident or a spillover from slow economic growth. The root problem of teachers’ alienation can be traced to a crucial moment in Indonesia’s legislative history: the drafting of Law Number 14 of 2005 concerning Teachers and Lecturers. In the Minutes of the Working Committee (Panja) dated 23 November 2005, the meeting chair explicitly rejected the proposal to grant teachers protection under the Regional Minimum Wage (UMR). The logic used was ideologically charged and fatal: ‘because we are not workers’. This is not merely about terminology but a tool for legal exclusion. By asserting that teachers and lecturers are not workers, the state and educational providers have justification for not applying minimum wage standards. The resulting effect is the emergence of a ‘vacuum of standard’. For example, the phrase ‘income above the living minimum’ within the Law on Teachers and Lecturers becomes a vague norm lacking coercive legal force.