Golkar proposes 12-year compulsory education

Golkar proposes 12-year compulsory education

JAKARTA (JP): Golkar is designing a policy to extend
children's compulsory education from nine to 12 years, party
secretary Ary Mardjono said yesterday.

He said Golkar would encourage the government to incorporate
it in the 1998 Guidelines of State Policies.

Golkar would propose more emphasis on moral education and
improvements to the education system so that Indonesia could
compete internationally, he said.

Golkar's rivals, the United Development Party (PPP) and the
Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) have proposed increasing the
education component of the state budget from 12 percent to 25
percent.

Ary said that wealthier Asian countries had set aside 25
percent of their national budgets for education.

"It all sounds good but the thing is Golkar doesn't want to
make promises that it knows will be impossible to keep," he said.

In Lampung, Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman
Djojonegoro told Golkar supporters that demands to make school
tuition free were totally unrealistic.

"We must know our own capacity. Under the current economic
conditions it's impossible to free every secondary and high
school student from school fees," Wardiman told students a rally.

In the Lampung town of Kotabumi, Golkar chief Harmoko said he
was optimistic the party would win the election because of its
realistic programs.

Harmoko defended the government's floating mass policy by
saying people were free to join any of the three parties.

But under the policy, the parties are not allowed to have
subdistrict of lower-level representative offices.

The PPP and PDI say the policy benefits Golkar because all
civil servants in the villages through to provincial
administrations were Golkar functionaries. Therefore Golkar did
not need local offices.

"It is untrue to say that Golkar wins every election because
of the floating mass policy," Harmoko said. "It wins because
people enjoy the fruits of development."

Harmoko, also the minister of information, said Golkar now has
32 million registered members nationwide.

Golkar aims to win 70.02 percent of the vote on May 29. In the
1992 election, it won a majority of 68 percent.

Harmoko promised Golkar would seek to help Lampung build more
electricity systems, roads, and bridges.

Golkar's campaign in the North Sumatra capital of Medan
featured Akbar Tanjung, the state minister of people's housing.

Meanwhile, in Yogyakarta, hundreds of students of the
Indonesian Islamic University demonstrated to condemn Golkar,
whose supporters allegedly vandalized their Law Faculty during a
rally Thursday.

The students unfurled dozens of banners, saying "Don't vote
for a brutal contestant," and "Halt! Golkar is barred from
campus". (aan/23/21/38)