Govt to replace STPDN personnel

The Jakarta Post, Bandung/Yogyakarta/Cirebon

The Ministry of Home Affairs is to deploy 120 civil servants to the government-run Public Administration Institute (STPDN) to replace its personnel following the controversial death of its student Wahyu Hidayat.

"We have decided to deploy 120 officials from all provinces to run the institute until the problems here are resolved," the ministry's secretary-general and acting head of STPDN, Siti Nurbaya, told reporters on Thursday after her inauguration at the institute in Sumedang, West Java.

Siti replaced STPDN head Sutrisno, who has been dismissed from his post and transferred to the ministry in Jakarta. Home minister Hari Sabarno has also appointed the ministry spokesman, I Nyoman Sumaryadi, as the coordinator in charge of day-to-day activities at the institute.

The civil servants are to temporarily fill the positions while the ministry recruits new personnel to serve as guardians of the students at STPDN dormitories. In addition, some 60 STPDN officials are undergoing a special examination for possible reemployment at the school.

Siti said 60 employees were insufficient to oversee the 4,230 students residing in 30 on-campus dormitories. Ideally, a guardian oversees 25 students at the most, she said.

She vowed that the institute would see no more violence in the future, saying that STPDN would implement a "more democratic education system and avoid the one-way method" than the one in place at the institute.

The ministry has also required that all students undergo a psychological evaluation.

On Thursday afternoon, all STPDN students attended a sermon by popular preacher Abdullah Gymnastiar, better known as A'a Gym.

The death of second-year student Wahyu Hidayat on Sept. 2 and other cases of physical abuse reported afterwards have shocked the public, which became even more outraged after a video footage on violence at the institute was aired by private television station SCTV.

STPDN, which is funded by taxpayers, was built in 1992 on a 280-hectare plot in Jatinangor, Sumedang. The tuition-free school requires its students to stay in on-campus dormitories for the duration of their studies.

Sumedang Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Yoyok Subagyono said the police would continue to investigate Sutrisno's possible involvement in many of the abuse cases at the institute under his leadership, despite his dismissal.

Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Amien Rais and Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid urged the police to bring all STPDN personnel to justice for their ignorance of the torture cases and violence at the institute.

"They cannot simply excuse themselves after the abuse and violence made public," Nurcholish told reporters after a seminar in Yogyakarta, while in Jakarta, Amien called on the government to close down the institute.

"If the school can only produce violent cadres, it must be closed down," he said in response to public calls for the school's closure.

Amien argued that "it would be dangerous if graduates of the school became civil servants".

Siti dismissed the calls, saying that "the dormitory-based educational system implemented by STPDN is the best concept".

"If there is something wrong, do not raze the barn. We must find the rat and catch it. We will fix STPDN's problems while we keep it running," she said.

The ministry also plans to merge STPDN with the Jakarta-based Public Administration Institute (IIP), which it also runs. IIP, however, does not require its students to stay in dormitories.

Siti said the ministry had yet to find the right formula on the merging of the two schools, as they had different systems.

She confirmed, however, that "the decision is final. The minister has set a target to resolve the merger within six months".

In Cirebon, West Java, dozens of STPDN alumni condemned the educational system at the institute, as it fomented human rights violations.

"We condemn the violence at the campus. We urge STPDN to no longer condone such violent practices," said M. Taufan Bharata, one of the first graduates of the school, who is a village head in Cirebon.