Draft education bill and civilization in the state

Draft education bill and civilization in the state

Aleksius Jemadu, Director, Centre for International Studies,
Parahyangan University, Bandung

One of the most controversial issues in the education bill
concerns state intervention in religious instruction at schools.
Article 13 (1), for instance, states that each student has the
right to receive religious instruction in accordance with his
respective faith. The fact that such a particular right is
specifically endorsed by law shows that the state will have
arbitrary power to set the modalities of how religious
instruction is conducted in schools.

While there is no doubt about the importance of religious
instruction for the development of good character in society,
people wonder whether there is indeed a positive correlation
between an accumulation of religious knowledge at school and good
conduct of students as members of society. Moreover, the
bureaucratization of what otherwise would be the legitimate realm
of the private sector could be misused by state officials for
securing their secular political and economic interests. Has the
education bill anticipated that possibility?

There is a growing tendency today for the state to resume its
control over the public sphere at the expense of universal
democratic principles and human rights. Politicians both in the
executive and legislative bodies have continued to act on behalf
of the state to restrict public participation in finding
solutions to the nation's grave problems. For instance, the
government's decision to use military force in Aceh may not only
increase human casualties but also kill people's initiative to
solve their own problems. Endless political bargaining among
politicians has rendered the war against corruption ineffective
and laughable.

With the collapse of Soeharto's authoritarian regime,
Indonesia liberated itself from a political leader who possessed
a great skill in abusing religion to strengthen his grip on
power. Without effective public control, the bureaucratization of
religious instruction will also lead to the same phenomenon of
the politicization of religion. If this means that the state has
found its way back to the distinctive realm of the private
sphere, then something has to be done to rescue the
democratization project. We have to avoid pouring new wine back
into old wineskin.

In his book titled Civil Islam Robert W. Hefner argues that in
addition to the role of culture and civic organizations the
growth of a democracy also depends on "the creation of a
civilized and self-limiting state". Hefner also points out that
"civil society is not opposed to the state but deeply dependent
on its civilization". From a democratic point of view it would be
a tremendous setback if the legislators in charge of deliberating
the education bill fail to stop state intervention, strongly
endorsed in the bill.

We leave it up to the legislators to judge honestly whether
the education bill will be able to promote a strong civil
society or not. Their failure in giving their judgment will
trigger disunity in society.