Gaspol Goes to Campus: Students Were Kidnapped in the Past, Now They're Being Beaten Up? Why So Soft?

JAKARTA — Deputy Chairman of Commission II of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI), Aria Bima, spoke about the current condition of student movements, which he says differ from his university days during the New Order regime. According to Aria, students nowadays tend to be more sensitive to repressive actions by authorities during demonstrations, unlike his experiences in the past. ‘This (today’s students) are very soft; now after they protest they get suppressed, whereas back then they were kidnapped,’ Bima said during Gaspol Goes to Campus at FISIP UNS, which aired on Kompas.com’s YouTube channel on Saturday 7 March. ‘Because many students do not understand what they want to become, they are not critical of themselves either.’ In the Live Podcast event attended by hundreds of FISIP UNS students, Bima also argued that campuses should remain spaces for critique not dependent on the political conditions of the time. He said campuses should stand as intellectual forces capable of balancing political life. ‘If the government wants democracy or wants repression, I see campuses not connected — they are in the same position,’ he added. He stressed that under any circumstance, whether the government is deemed right or wrong, university life should remain the birthplace of critical ideas. Then how was the interaction with Aria Bima and UNS colleagues? Watch the full Gaspol Goes to Campus programme airing tonight at 20:00 WIB, only on Kompas.com’s YouTube channel.