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.