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.