Education, another mean to eradicate corruption: Experts
Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Schools could help disseminate anti-corruption messages among students from an early age, an expert said on Thursday.
Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University rector Azyumardi Azra said the nationwide campaign against corruption could be shared with students in school during political and moral classes.
"Subjects focusing on moral values like religion and the Pancasila state ideology should explicitly address corruption, its implications and its consequences."
Azyumardi suggested teachers promote good governance and clean government, the basic principles to fight corruption.
He said school textbooks needed revising to include corruption as an additional subject. Such reference books would be obligatory as it would help students understand better the threats and dangers of corruption.
"It will be less expensive than to have the teachers trained," said Azyumardi, adding it would need subsidies from the Ministry of National Education and other related institutions.
Rampant corruption in Indonesia has motivated a number of institutions to sign a pact on corruption eradication. Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, the country's largest Muslim organizations, have joined the movement, which has also seen the Indonesian Chambers of Commerce declaring war against bribery.
The government has come under fire for its lackluster move against corruption, collusion and nepotism -- the raisons d'etre of the reform movement that forced the corrupt and authoritarian New Order regime to fall in May 1998.
Learning that corruptors often launder the stolen money abroad, Indonesia plans to sign a United Nations Convention against Corruption in Mexico in December.
House of Representatives legislator Mochtar Buchori said that to promote the anticorruption campaign, schools needed to underscore the values of education that provides not only knowledge but the wisdom behind it.
"Nowadays, schools are focusing more on the knowledge of education instead of its values," said Mochtar, who is also a member of the House of Representatives' Commission VI on education and religious affairs.
He discovered that religion subjects taught in schools highlighted more on the rituals and the dos and don'ts rather than the moral values.
"It's not a matter of subject, but substance. People now think that knowledge is power, therefore they seek as much knowledge as possible without realizing that it will have no meaning without wisdom," said Mochtar.
He said the whole philosophy of education needed revision, which should start with the teachers.
"Teachers have to deepen their vision. They have to understand that their duty is not just teaching, but to educate students and lead them to wisdom," he said.