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