Government to revise STPDN curriculum
Tiarma Siboro and Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government has vowed to wipe out military-style training at the government-run Public Administration Institute (STPDN) after a student was allegedly beaten to death last Tuesday.
Wahyu Hidayat, 20, a first-year student, died after he was allegedly beaten by his seniors at the institute, which has a reputation for imposing military-style discipline. It is run by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Following the mob attack, the institute dismissed three students identified as YS, DH, and HS, while 23 others face administrative sanctions. Sumedang Police have also declared the three suspects for murder.
His seniors had accused Wahyu of being undisciplined for skipping Independence Day celebrations at the campus on Aug. 17 and visiting his parents in Bogor, West Java instead.
Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno admitted on Monday that the assault violated the institute's internal regulations banning any physical punishment.
"The institute has developed a senior-junior relationship, instead of a brotherhood, among the students and it allows excesses in their behavior," Hari told a press conference.
"I plan to evaluate its curriculum and ban any military-style exercises from its education programs."
The minister said Wahyu was taken by his seniors at midnight to the campus's halls where he was beaten.
"Such punishment cannot be accepted," said Hari, a retired three-star Army general.
He said he had sent a team from the ministry's inspectorate general to investigate the incident, including questioning institute heads.
On Monday, police reconstructed the crime at the scene, while witnesses -- all of them STPDN students -- described how their seniors repeatedly beat and kicked Wahyu, causing the injuries that led to his death.
Separately, the House of Representatives' Commission VI on education urged the Ministry of National Education on Monday to draft a government regulation on freshmen admissions.
"The ministry should pay more attention to violence during the initiation period at schools," commission deputy chairman Heri Akhmadi said after the hearing between the commission and ministry.
The director general for higher education, Satrio Soemantri Brodjonegoro, said the minister already had a ministerial decree on freshmen admissions, but implementation should be returned to the schools respectively.
"Anyone who violates the decree could be charged under the criminal code," he said on the sidelines of the hearing.