House leaves controversial article intact
House leaves controversial article intact
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The House of Representatives' working committee and the government have finished its deliberation on the education bill, and left the controversial "religious" article intact.
Both the House and the government agreed over the weekend to retain Article 13 (1) that obliges schools to provide religious instruction according to the faith of each student.
However, in a sort of compromise, all the factions on the working committee and from the government agreed not to impose any legal punishment for schools that failed to comply with the article.
"We have received enormous pressure from two separate groups -- one demands the article be maintained with punishment for schools that violate it, while the other demands the article be dropped," the working committee's chairman Anwar Arifin said on Sunday.
"All factions finally agreed to maintain the article, as it is in line with the amended 1945 Constitution, but we leave the monitoring of the article to the public as part of social control and punishment."
The last deliberation of the bill was held outside the House's compound in Bogor, West Java.
The controversial article has become a very hot issue between Muslim groups and Christian/Catholic groups.
Muslim groups are concerned about the faith of the many students who attend private Catholic and Christian schools, and therefore, with Article 13, they can demand the schools to provide Muslim teachers to teach them Islam.
A number of religious leaders, particularly from Christian and Catholic groups, and noted scholars have repeatedly demanded that religious education should only be conducted at the family level and the government should not intervene in the matter.
They have demanded that the House drop the bill, saying that the current education law was still relevant. At present, religion-based schools can carry out their mission without any intervention from the government to oblige them to provide religious education to students from different faiths.
With the compromise on Article 13, Anwar claimed that the article could prevent certain religious organizations (Muslim organizations) from prohibiting their followers to study in religion-based schools that did not provide religious Islamic teachers.
The committee and the government also dropped an article on the appointment of investigators to probe any education violations such as falsifying and misusing certificates.
"Education institutions have to think positively about people, while investigators must be suspicious of people. Both roles are contradictory. So, we decided to keep the investigation role with the police," he said.
Anwar said that with all the articles approved by the working committee and the government, the bill would soon be sent to the House Commission VI on education for formal approval before being submitted to the House's plenary session, slated for May 20, for final approval.