Court orders UI rector to postpone student suspensions
Court orders UI rector to postpone student suspensions
JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Administrative Court in a
preliminary ruling on Thursday issued an interim injunction
ordering the rector of the University of Indonesia to postpone
the imposition of suspensions on six protesting students.
The court, in a ruling signed by its President, Sudarto
Radyosumarno, ordered the rector to allow the students to
continue their studies.
"(The rector) must not take any action which could impede the
plaintiffs' studies while their action is still being considered
by the court," the ruling stated.
The students, who were suspended for between six months and
one year for conducting a rally last year, filed their lawsuit
last week. They demanded that the suspensions, signed by rector
Asman Budi Santoso, be revoked and that Rp 5 million (US$526) in
damages be awarded.
They claimed that the basis of the suspension, namely the
university's 1996 statutes, was no longer relevant and violated
the spirit of the reform movement.
The students had also refused to apologize as required by the
university if they wanted their suspensions to be lifted. The
students maintained that their participation in the rally was
part of their democratic rights as students.
In February last year, the students organized a protest
against the university's decision to levy additional education
fees as part of what was called the Quality of Education
Improvement Fund.
Beginning in 1999, students enrolled at the university had to
fork out an additional Rp 1 million for their studies in the
School of Engineering, and the School of Mathematics and Exact
Sciences, and Rp 750,000 in the case of the School of Social
Sciences, on top of Rp 500,000 in tuition fees payable per
semester.
The students' lawyer Christina Rini said the students, four
from UI's law school, one from the school of industrial
engineering and one from the school of Letters, would go to the
university on Friday.
"We'll go to the university tomorrow (Friday) since it's the
last day to register," Rini, who heads the social and political
division of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH), told The
Jakarta Post on Thursday.
She hoped that the university would accept the court's
decision and allow the students to resume their studies.
The LBH had earlier deplored the suspensions as being an
uneducative way of punishing the students. (jun)