House likely to vote on national education bill

House likely to vote on national education bill

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Papua/Kupang

Legislators in charge of deliberating the national education bill
failed again on Monday to bridge differences, setting the stage
for the House of Representatives (DPR) to vote on several
contentious issues in the draft.

Members of House Commission VI for education have settled all
but three issues -- the introduction which forms the basis of the
bill, the function and role of national education, and the
recognition of five religions in the country.

The legislators recommended on Monday that leaders of nine
House factions discuss further the contentious issues to avoid
voting at a plenary meeting scheduled for June 10.

In the introduction of the bill, legislators failed to reach
an agreement on the proposal by some factions to insert Paragraph
4 of the 1945 Constitution's Preamble which states that the
government has the responsibility to protect its citizens and
make them clever.

They also could not agree on the function and role of the
national education.

Article 3 states that the function of national education is to
make the nation clever by developing capability, character, and
cultural refinement, while Article 4 says that the goal of
national education is to develop students to become human beings
who have faith, common sense, health, education, skill,
creativity, independence, and to make them democratic citizens.

Several legislators insist on changing the function of the
national education with its goal.

Legislators were still debating on whether there was a need to
specifically spell out the five religions formally recognized by
the government -- Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism,
and Hinduism.

"There is still an opportunity (for House factions) to discuss
the contentious issues," commission chairman Taufikurrahman Saleh
of the National Awakening Party (PKB) said after a hearing with
Minister of National Education Abdul Malik Fadjar here.

"We hope the nine factions will use the available time to
settle the issue. Therefore, there will be no need to bring those
issues to a plenary meeting (to be voted on)," said Heri Akhmadi
of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

Meanwhile, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and Papua legislatures
(DPRDs) expressed strong objection to the bill on Monday, warning
that the bill, if endorsed, would create social chaos in the
conflict-torn country.

NTT legislature speaker Frans Lebu Raya said that the national
education bill would disrupt social harmony.

Last Friday, residents of provincial capital Kupang rejected
the visit of three legislators -- Nikolaus Rajawane, Ni Luh
Mariana Tirta Sari, and Heri Akhmadi -- who wanted to explain the
bill to the local people.

Local community and religious leaders threatened to secede
from the unitary republic of Indonesia should the House insist on
endorsing the bill.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Papua Legislative Assembly John
Ibo said on Monday that the bill contained discriminatory
articles which would disadvantage private schools in Papua,
mostly run by Christian foundations.

Article 13 (1) states that all students have the right to
receive religious instruction in accordance with their respective
faith.

John Ibo emphasized that the stipulation would erode the
identity of private schools if they had to provide teachers of
other religions.

In North Sulawesi, all factions in the local legislature also
rejected the bill scheduled to be endorsed on June 10.

Deputy speaker of North Sulawesi Legislature Col. Rheinhard
Mandagi said the bill clearly contradicted the 1945 Constitution.

The Constitution states that the goal of national education is
to make the nation clever, while the goal mentioned in the bill
is to develop faithful and devout citizens.