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.