Are student politics making a come back?

Are student politics making a come back?

Despite its chaotic congress, the Moslem Students Association (HMI) managed to produce a far-reaching statement recently. Noted intellectual Aswab Mahasin takes a look at this incident.

JAKARTA (JP): Preceding its birthday celebrations in Yogyakarta later this month, the local coordinator of the Indonesian Nationalist Student Movement (GMNI) has come up with a statement on the need to ratify the existing conventions on human rights while calling for a review of the colonial legacy in Indonesian law.

This statement is moderate compared to an earlier statement issued by the Moslem Student Association (HMI) at the conclusion of their congress in Surabaya last week.

This is understandable, as the GMNI has to keep a low profile as the stigma of Soekarnoism puts it in a disadvantaged position politically. But the fact that they have touched the sensitive issue of human rights may indicate that the time has come for a higher profile to be taken.

The HMI statement was a real surprise. The congress, which as reported was chaotic and which was heavily criticized as being intellectually inferior, nevertheless produced courageous political recommendations. It recommended, among other things, that there should be a limit to presidential terms in office, and that public officials declare their wealth as they assume office.

Admittedly, nothing is new about those ideas. Indeed, some political scientists had proposed a similar limit on presidential terms at various seminars, and Dr. Amien Rais had reportedly come up with the same idea during a congress of the Muhammadiyah organization. However, previously such an idea was always formally turned down as it was considered politically inappropriate. Only HMI came up with such a courageous formal statement. Politically it may not have any real impact, however, since HMI is a non-political organization. But symbolically it may be significant.

After the long silence, such statements from those extra- campus organizations seem to indicate that something is brewing. As is widely known, the "campus normalization" policy has had its desired effect for about a decade now. It has canalized student activism along campus boundaries, and within the campuses activism is geared towards intra-faculty or intra-department programs. The well known phraseology has been that the campus is for academic pursuits only; students who want to flirt with politics should play their games elsewhere.

This legacy of Daoed Joesoef (former minister of education) has brought about dramatic results. Extra-campus organizations have experienced a sharp decline; they have lost popularity and have become incapable of enticing the best students to join them.

Intra-faculty organizations have become the center of attraction where the best and the brightest students go to compete for leadership and excellence. But it has been excellence existing in isolation; what is brewing on campus finds no resonance in the political public and what is brewing among the public has failed to stir campus activists into motion. Gone are the days when extra-campus student organizations produced such public figures as Mar'ie Mohamad (HMI), Cosmas Batubara (PMKRI or the Indonesian Catholic Students Association) or Siswono Yudohusodo (GMNI).

It turned out that the short-run agenda to pacify the campuses has taken its toll in the long run: the declining role of universities in providing public leaders of the future.

Things may change, however. There has been talk of reviving the Dewan Mahasiswa, the university student council consisting of faculty student representatives. This used to be the center of gravity around which both extra- and intra-university organizations competed for leadership and excellence. As such, it used to be the strategic point linking campuses to the pulse and tune of public aspirations. And when there was a call for action, it was the central axis where decisions were made and actions were generated.

In retrospect, minister Daoed Joesoef hit the right target when he dissolved the student councils. But while it has served the short-run objectives, it certainly denied us our need for a healthy, competent, responsible and competitive generation of leaders in the long run.

Now that the political system is fully under control, order and security well-guaranteed and the economy certainly well- managed, are we again going to undermine the blossoming of leadership among future generations? Is it not our duty as a nation to see that these promising flowers of the future will have all the opportunities to grow and to flourish?

The writer is deputy program director for leadership training in environment and development (LEAD-Program) with the Foundation for Sustainable Development, based in Jakarta.