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)