Education bill gives rise to local rivalries
Education bill gives rise to local rivalries
The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta/Manado
Regionalism is the latest, unintended consequence of the much-
debated national education bill, which has already divided the
nation along religious lines.
Thousands of Muslims from the Islamic Solidarity Forum (FUI)
held a rally in Yogyakarta on Tuesday to demand the House of
Representatives endorse the bill as it is.
The rally was titled, "Yogyakarta people are concerned about
education." Unfurling posters and banners expressing their
support for the bill, the participants, comprising students,
teachers and politicians, marched from four directions: Krapyak
Islamic boarding school in the south, Wirobrajan intersection in
the west, Tugu intersection in the north and the Muhammadiyah
provincial office in the east, to the Gedung Agung presidential
palace on Jl. Ahmad Yani.
Rally coordinator Ahmad Adaby Darban said the move was
responding to the continuing debate on Article 13 (1a) of the
bill, which stipulates that students have the right to obtain
religious instruction according to their beliefs, from teachers
of the same faith.
"We see that the substance of the article has fulfilled all
the requirements to protect students' rights. Prolonging
discussion on the article will simply cause national
disintegration," said Adaby, who is also a lecturer at the Gadjah
Mada University school of cultural studies.
FUI also demanded a clear stance from Governor Sultan
Hamengkubuwono X.
"Yogyakarta has long been recognized as a center of education.
The sultan, as well as the provincial legislature, should not
remain silent on the education bill," the statement said,
The group incorporates at least 25 different Muslim
organizations, including Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah.
The controversial education bill will be debated at the House
of Representatives plenary session on June 10, after being
delayed several times from its scheduled session on May 2. The
House may be forced to a vote after it failed to settle
objections raised by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
on the religion article and the objectives of national education,
at the last deliberation on May 19.
Previously, all factions in North Sulawesi provincial
legislature rejected the bill on the grounds that it tended to
create "religious" human beings rather than educated individuals.
"The spirit of the education bill goes against the spirit of
the Preamble of the 1945 Constitution, which says that the state
aims to educate people," deputy speaker of the legislature Col.
Rheinhard Mandagi told The Jakarta Post.
Rheinhard said the education bill gave too much power to the
government, allowing it to intervene in school affairs.
He added that bill had been rejected after the provincial
legislature received calls from local people.
A delegation of councillors met House leaders in Jakarta to
convey the rejection from the people of the predominantly
Christian province.
Meanwhile, in Medan, North Sumatra, six university rectors
have sent a letter to President Megawati Soekarnoputri, House
Speaker Akbar Tandjung and People's Consultative Assembly Speaker
Amien Rais, to express their opposition to the bill.
The letter was signed by Nomensen University rector Patar M
Pasaribu, Catholic St. Thomas University rector Leo L Sipahutar,
Methodist Indonesia University rector AP Tambunan, Darma Agung
University rector Robert Sibarani, Sisingamangaraja XII
University rector MPL Tobing, Pardede Science and Technology
Institute rector Agus Salim and Darma Agung Tourism Academy
rector S. Is Sihotang.
Sihotang said the bill gave the government too much authority
to intervene in religious affairs, which rightly were family
matters.
"We suggest the House of Representatives accommodate calls to
review the bill," he said.