Electioneering politicians told to avoid campuses

Electioneering politicians told to avoid campuses

JAKARTA (JP): A group of university staff and students
reminded all three political groupings contesting next year's
general election that they must not use campuses to woo voters.

"All universities around the country have agreed to prohibit
political groups from campaigning, in any form, on campuses,"
Isprayim Troto Wibowo from the Ministry of Education and Culture
said yesterday.

"Political groups only smack their lips. They don't give
lectures," Isprayim said at a tripartite meeting of university
students, lecturers, police officers and other officials at the
Jakarta Police Headquarters.

Campaign activities on campus do not benefit students, he
said.

Isprayim was representing the director general of higher
education, who was in East Kalimantan.

"Students need knowledge, not meaningless words," Isprayim
told The Jakarta Post.

More than 50 lecturers from Jakarta universities and about 200
students from state and private universities attended the
meeting, which was initiated by City Police Chief Maj. Gen.
Hamami Nata.

"We want a guarantee that the ban will apply to all
contestants," said Waspada, a student from an Islamic university
in Tebet, South Jakarta.

Another student, who refused to be named, added: "We do not
want to see any items, such as banners, posters, or T-shirts
representing the colors or symbols of any contestant on our
campus."

The three political groups contesting seats in the legislature
are the ruling group Golongan Karya (Golkar), the United
Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party
(PDI).

Although rules bar them from campaigning on campus, some of
the contestants have started trying to run campaign activities on
universities.

"One case took place recently at Lambung Mangkurat University
in South Kalimantan, but their presence reflected badly on them,"
Isprayim said.

Rallies

Next year, political rallies will be held nationwide by the
three contestants during the 25-day campaigning period from April
29 to May 23.

"We also hope that all routine university activities could be
run as usual during the six-week rally period, and that the
universities will adhere to the rules of the two-week cool down
period," said Isprayim.

When asked to comment, City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Hamami Nata
replied: "Let's see later because I've not yet been informed
about the campaign system to be used by the three contestants,
whether they will be dialog or rally based."

According to Isprayim, whatever the system is, the contestants
should remind all their executives not to do any form of direct
campaigning on campuses.

"It's not wrong for PDI, for instance, to send economist Kwik
Kian Gie, who is an executive of the party to the campus to speak
about business matters, but he should not say anything relating
to politics," he said.

According to the recent data, there are currently about 2.5
million university students all over the country, who are
potential voters.

"By keeping the contestants away from the campus, we hope all
the students could use their rights to choose among the
contestants freely," said Isprayim. (bsr)