Ban on political forums muzzles campuses

By Israr Ardiansyah

YOGYAKARTA (JP): With open political discussions declared off- limits at university campuses, the question remains whether students need to be involved in politics.

Although the government believes in political education for the public in general, it prohibits university campuses from serving as campaigning arenas.

This policy has not prevented the government-endorsed Golkar from recruiting rectors and professors as its campaigners. Golkar has also been accused of trying to persuade high school students to cast their vote for them. Indonesia's voting age is 17 years.

Many students say the result of the ban is university campuses locked in the doldrums of stifled political expression.

In 1978, the government banned university student councils, often seen as the prime mover in the founding of critical and democratically inspired youth movements, in what it argued was an effort to "normalize" life on campuses.

The government also forbade student organizations from setting up office on campus grounds. These organizations include Pergerakan Mahasiswa Katolik Republik Indonesia (PMKRI, Movement of Indonesian Catholic Students), Himpunan Mahasiswa Islam (HMI, Association of Moslem Students) and Gerakan Mahasiswa Nasional Indonesia (GMNI, Indonesian National Students Movement), which in the mid-1960s had spawned the student activists who helped usher in the New Order administration of President Soeharto.

Daoed Joesoef, education minister in the late 1970s, earned the wrath of many students. Despite their protests of lengthy strikes and boycotts of classes, the policies remain in effect.

With the loss of vibrant political activities on campus came the perception that students now prefer to study and party.

The view is debatable, of course, as there is plenty of proof that students still wish to express their political beliefs. Witness the hundreds of youths carrying university flags who established non-governmental organizations to help poor farmers and small-scale landowners.

Many students remain a "moral force". It follows that they do not take kindly to political aspirations of professors and seniors university administrators.

Several rectors of notable universities, including Gadjah Mada University here (UGM) and University of Indonesia in Depok, West Java, are legislative candidates for the ruling Golkar.

UGM Rector Soekanto Reksohadiprodjo faced stiff opposition from most students, who alleged the campus grounds had been transformed into a Golkar promotional stage.

"It is the students' right if they choose to disagree with my candidacy," Soekanto told The Jakarta Post recently. "Students also have the right to practise politics outside of the campus grounds and choose their candidates from the parties."

Non-voting

The forced separation between campuses and politics, in addition to the widespread discontent over the current political situation, has led some analysts to warn of a possible rise in students boycotting the polls.

A survey last month here found that 36.6 percent of UGM students and 39.3 percent of those at Yogyakarta State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN) have decided not to vote because they professed little confidence in the election process.

They fall under the category of Golput (literally "white group"), people who abstain from voting. Only 24.4 percent of UGM and 32.5 percent of IAIN students planned to vote on May 29. The remaining surveyed students said they were undecided while only 6 percent of IAIN students were of the opinion that the Indonesian elections will be held in an honest and fair manner.

"How can I have confidence in the coming elections if the total number of appointed members at the House of Representatives is larger than those who were elected?" said Titok Haryanto of the UGM Students Council.

Many students apparently agree with him as several campus protests in April and May called for an election boycott.

The popularity of abstaining from the vote is common among students, says M.T. Arifin, a political observer from Surakarta.

"Golput will be found among student groups. Generally speaking, they are indifferent to the situation. They believe that nothing is going to be changed anyway and that they are right in their protest against the elections," said Arifin.

Not significant

Arifin believes many youths, student groups and urban groups will become nonvoters, but their number is not significant on the national scale.

"Students are likely to change their minds once they graduate and join the workforce, or even become officials," Arifin said. "They would no longer be golput."

Alfian Dharmawan of the Yogyakarta chapter of the United Development Party (PPP), said students become nonvoters because they do not have confidence in the local political parties.

"Those nonvoters won't be able to share our pride when we, as the members of political parties, finally prove to have changed conditions for the better," Alfian said.

"I am a student, but I am into politics, too," he added. "Substantial public changes cannot be separated from campus life, it happens in all countries."

He stressed that the absence of politics on campuses have robbed students of the testing ground to become national leaders.

"The present government wants to make students into technocrats and bureaucrats," he said.

Arifin defended Golkar's recruitment of high school students. "That's politics," he said. "Rectors wishing to become Golkar candidates? Go ahead as long as they are not active on the campus grounds.

"Many of the intellectuals joining political parties are not really serious," he added. "They're doing it only for appearance sake."