Bung Karno university

Bung Karno university

Sooner or later injustice will come to an end, as proven by
the granting of a permit by the authorities for the founding of a
university named after Sukarno, the country's first president:
Bung Karno University.

For about 20 years, the university's application had been
rejected. In contrast, a number of other private universities,
including Borobudur University, were allowed to operate under the
Soeharto era. It was feared that a university named after the
great nationalist leader would, as successive Soeharto
administrations believed, allow a spread of anti-Indonesian and
extreme ideologies, including Sukarno's own teaching of
Marhaenism, seen by some as "Marxism" adapted to local conditions
but which had more tendencies of socialism the traditional way;
or, perhaps, more exactly described as spreading more welfare
among the landless farmers through an independence movement
during the Dutch colonial period.

It was feared that Bung Karno University would -- at least
according to the official version -- spread the communist
ideology and endanger state security and the state philosophy
Pancasila. Soeharto had crushed a concept of government in 1966
conceived by Sukarno uniting the nationalists, communists and
religious groups, known as Nasakom.

While welcoming today's permit, sanctioned by President
Habibie himself (a sign that the tide has indeed turned toward
the reform clock), I would like to stress the need for the new
Bung Karno University students in particular, and the younger
generation in general, to reappraise his merits and human
shortcomings in historic perspective.

Today, there is an urgent need to breed a generation to follow
in the footsteps of Bung Karno when he sacrificed self-interests
in the service of independence struggle and national unity: to
work and live by defending his principles and personal integrity.

His fall, as I believe also the beginning of Soeharto's
downfall, might be blamed on the men and women around him,
including advisors and ministers, as well as his own
conceitedness. Whoever will be the country's next president,
greedy and power hungry opportunists must be kept far away if
history is not to repeat itself.

The long and ardent struggle is no longer against a colonial
power or communists but against poverty, backwardness and corrupt
mentality. Hopefully, the university will be able to contribute
to turning out Indonesian leaders with integrity and a strong
character, eager to serve the people's interests instead of a
family's, party's or friends' interests.

GANDHI SUKARDI

Jakarta