Govt urged to drop bill on education

Govt urged to drop bill on education

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid has called on the
government to drop the controversial education bill, warning
democracy and the country would suffer unless the state and
religion were separated.

"The government should not go ahead with the controversial
bill because it will certainly spark strong opposition from both
Muslim and non-Muslim groups.

"The state should avoid interfering in religious matters.
Religious education must be handled by families and religious
institutions. In accordance with the amended Constitution, there
must be a clear-cut separation between state and religion," he
told The Jakarta Post after a meeting with religious figures in
Jakarta on Wednesday.

The bill, scheduled to replace legislation enacted in 1989,
has sparked strong opposition from numerous quarters,
particularly those opposed to Article 13 of the bill.

It stipulates that all students must take religious classes,
requiring Muslim and non-Muslim schools to recruit special
teachers and provide places of worship.

Gus Dur, the former chairman of Indonesia's largest Muslim
organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, said the House should focus on
education and remove the article.

"Those who want to study religion should go to special
institutes or academies where they can study, research and
practice their faith freely."

He said he suspected the article was included in the draft
bill after pressure from religious groups seeking to impose their
religion on others.

Gus Dur conceded that current education laws were inadequate,
saying thee government still interfered in religious matters and
had failed to formulate a standard education system.

He said many people were still unaware the constitution
guaranteed religious freedom.

"We will regress unless the bill is dropped. We should stick
to the agreement reached by our founding fathers on this
issue ... The founding fathers agreed to ... declare that
Indonesia is not a theocratical state."

On Tuesday, about 2000 teachers from Concerned People for
National Education rallied outside the House of Representatives
to urge legislators debating the bill to focus on improving
education, not religion.

The house used it initiative right to draft the bill, set to
be discussed by a House working committee today (Thursday).

Separately, Rev. I. Ismartono, spokesman for The Indonesian
Bishops Conference (KWI), concurred and said schools should be
seen as education institutions which focus on teaching normal
education subjects.

"We have religious institutions where religious matters and
issues are studied further. If schools are used to develop faith
and religious devotion, there will be no more institutions
earmarked to develop intelligence," he said in a statement made
available to The Jakarta Post.

He said the fact that students had a right to religious
education did not mean that schools were obliged to provide
facilities to implement it.

Mochtar Buchori, an education expert who is also a member of
House Commission VI for education, has said the national
education system should focus more on education rather than
strengthening beliefs.

He said the passage of the bill, scheduled to be passed on May
2, was flexible.