Del a jewel in Toba Samosir
Kornelius Purba, The Jakarta Post, Laguboti, North Sumatra
The readiness of President Gen. (ret.) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to address an international symposium organized by Del Polytechnic of Informatics in a remote area sparked the curiosity of people in the newly established Toba Samosir regency, especially as the information and communication technology (IT) center is relatively little known in North Sumatra province.
"Perhaps, because the owner is a general and the President is also a general," said a farmer, who just called himself Sitorus, to other onlookers outside the campus when the President arrived there early this month.
Sitorus was not wrong in his conclusion. Gen. (ret) Luhut Pandjaitan, the founder and financier of the polytechnic, also described the President's visit as a visit of "a junior to his senior." Pandjaitan graduated from the Military Academy in 1970, while Susilo graduated in 1973.
The use of Del as the name of the institution may also raise eyebrows because according to its official website (www.del.ac.id) it is taken from Hebrew and means a "leader who moves a step ahead". However, according to family sources, the name is the acronym of his wife Devi and Luhut himself.
Some of the attendees at the two-day symposium praised the courage of the former Indonesian ambassador to Singapore and former minister of industry and trade, but they also raised doubt over his decision to open such a heavily subsidized institution.
What was his motivation? And how long can the general bear the financial burden, even if he has provided a large revolving fund for instance? In a conversation with The Jakarta Post, the general said that helping poor but smart students from impoverished parts of the province were his main motivations.
"We should not allow poverty to prevent them from getting higher education," he said.
The campus, established in 2001 and located on the Lake Toba waterfront, is about 280 kilometers south of the provincial capital Medan, or about a six-hour drive. There are Merpati flights from Medan to Silangit Airport, about 10 kilometers from Laguboti, but these flights are often canceled due to bad weather.
Meanwhile job providers are mostly in big cities hundreds if not thousands of kilometers from the campus. Isn't it a tough job for its graduates to convince their potential employers that they are as qualified as other graduates of other top universities across the archipelago?
The students are only obliged to pay a tuition fee of Rp 1 million (US$100) per semester, while the operational costs for each student are about Rp 15 million per year.
Many of its lecturers are alumni of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), while its director, Prof. Dr. Saswinadi Sasmojo, is also from ITB.
Students live in a dormitory inside the campus. Since 2001, it has only offered three-year diploma programs. However, with the assistance it has received from various famous institutions like ITB, the Netherlands' University of Groningen, Microsoft, Singapore Polytechnic, National Gobel, and India's National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT), Pandjaitan believes his institution will be able to offer undergraduate degree programs starting from 2007.
"Hopefully, it will then be named the Del Institute of Technology," said Pandjaitan.
The general has reasons to be optimistic despite all the problems he will face in the years ahead. His ambition to create brilliant IT experts is supported by the world's most famous name in IT: Bill Gates.
Gates could not come to enjoy the beauty of Lake Toba and to meet with the students there, but he did provide a pre-recorded speech via video.
He offered his help as part of his global charity programs for young IT students. It seemed amazing that Bill Gates would gamble his reputation to address such a small symposium. Gates should have learned about the general's reputation from Tony Chen, Microsoft's representative in Indonesia.
If a person like Gates has strong confidence in Del Polytechnic, it means the institution has very strong working and moral capital.
In 2001, the year-program polytechnic enrolled 56 students, in 2002 98 students, and in 2003 62 students. In 2004, it accepted 34 students while this year 75 students will enter the polytechnic. Most of the students are from poor families in North Sumatra, but bright students from other provinces are, in principle, also accepted.
According to Doris Panjaitan, an executive of the Del Foundation which runs the polytechnic, the graduates are expected to work in the province's regencies to develop their e-government system.
"Many of them have worked there. But many others also worked outside the province," said the younger sibling of the general.
She also expects that one day her elder brother will no longer need to provide subsidies, when eventually the institution will be able to finance itself.
After a four-day stay at the campus, the Post got the impression that the polytechnic was well equipped and the lecturers highly qualified and love their jobs.
For the young lecturers the biggest problem was likely to be loneliness, as the campus is located in a small village, Sitoluama. The nearest town is Balige, which is also small, and the resort city of Parapat.
During their studies, students not only study to become IT experts or programmers, but they also learn discipline and ethics.
Pandjaitan's background as an army general also influences the atmosphere at the campus. The students always look serious, different from other campuses in Java for instance. In the canteen, we can easily see the military atmosphere before, during and after students eat their meals.