Govt must boost political education

Govt must boost political education

JAKARTA (JP): The government's current drive to promote human
resource development should go beyond simply improving people's
skills and cover also their political awareness, intellectuals
say.

Speakers at a seminar on human resource development spoke on
Saturday of the urgent need for Indonesia to further encourage
political participation in national development.

Sabam Sirait, a member of the House of Representatives for the
Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), said the political parties
should provide systematic political education to their cadres and
supporters.

The seminar was the first joint effort by four religious-based
intellectual associations -- ICMI (Moslems), PIKI (Christians),
FCHI (Hindus) and KCBI (Buddhists).

The associations pooled their resources to counter allegations
that their increasingly high profile activities are fostering the
revival of sectarian politics.

Attended by some 200 people, the seminar was opened by
President Soeharto on Thursday and closed on Saturday night by
Vice President Try Sutrisno -- signaling that the government has
no qualms about taking an active role in the process.

Human resource development is one of the chief objectives of
the government's Sixth Five-Year Plan which began in April. Talks
on the subject however have focused on the need to create a more
industrious society through reforming the education and manpower
sectors.

Sabam said that political education should be conducted in a
more transparent manner and accessible to all people. "Such
education has been the privilege of a few senior government
officials, and middle- and upper-class people."

Amir Santoso, a staff lecturer at the School of Social and
Political Science of the University of Indonesia, said political
education is important in creating a more democratic political
system in Indonesia. "Democracy cannot be created in a non-
democratic society. Political education is important in
introducing the people to democratic thinking methods and
attitudes," he said.

Amir said the educational system itself needs to be made more
democratic.

"Many parents are still bound by the authoritarian approach in
raising their children," he said. "The majority of teachers and
lecturers are educating their students in a non-democratic way,"
he said, stressing that this in turn is creating a new
authoritarian generation.

Former minister of home affairs Rudini, also hammered home the
need to encourage greater public participation in politics and
development as part of the program to promote human resource
development.

Rudini said the political system and the laws supporting it
can be reviewed if needed to ensure this greater public
participation. (rms)