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)