Is linking education and politics a sin?

By Mochtar Buchori

JAKARTA (JP): "You have been known by the public as an educational reformer. Why do you suddenly become involved in practical politics?"

For some reason I always feel that this question has an accusatory connotation. Every time I was asked this question, I felt that I was accused of deserting a noble world, education, and have allowed myself to be drawn into a dirty world, politics. I find this question naive and uninformed.

To begin with, I do not share the dichotomous view which considers education as a world inhabited entirely by noble people and politics as a domain entirely populated by wicked people.

This is a very naive view of the real worlds of education and politics. Noble people are everywhere, and so are wicked people. There are crooks and thieves in education beside people with noble self-sacrifice, and there are people with noble hearts and noble ideas in politics beside politicians who live from cheating and manipulating other people.

Secondly, I also do not share the view which looks at education and politics as two totally unrelated worlds.

In normal times, that is in times when there are no social, political and economic upheavals these two worlds -- education and politics -- indeed give the impression that they are unrelated. Each of these two worlds operate on the basis of their own rules and regulations.

But in times of transformation or transition, like the times in which we are now living, education and politics cannot be separated. During this time of social, political, economic, and legal reforms, education cannot afford not to reform itself. And there must be congruence between the formats and designs of both the educational and the political reforms.

If educational reform is carried out without referring to the major thrusts of the political reform, the educational system that emerges from this reform process will produce generations which are incapable of sustaining the new political system. The political reform will become an abortive reform.

The phenomenon of educators embracing politics or "education merging with politics" has been known to take place on several occasions in the history of Indonesian education.

The clearest example of this phenomenon was the founding of the Taman Siswa school system in 1922 by Ki Hadjar Dewantara. It was founded because Ki Hadjar felt the existing colonial educational system was alien to the socio-cultural reality of the Indonesian people, and must therefore be rejected in its entirety. He replaced it with a new system entirely based on his nationalistic political view.

What we saw in his case was not merely an educator playing politics, but an educator creating an educational system inspired by a political vision.

What was unique in the Taman Siswa case was the stipulation that teachers were free to join political parties, but they were not allowed to bring their political beliefs into the classroom. This decision to protect a nationalistic education from parochial politics was a consciously made political decision.

Another example from the 1930s -- concerning the union between education and politics was the increasingly nationalistic stance adopted by the various national school systems and by individual educators in facing the then existing social, political, and economic conditions. These educational systems and individual educators became parts of the national movement towards political independence. Many individual teachers at the time left their financially comfortable positions as teachers at government schools and opted to teach at nationally oriented private schools with much reduced salaries.

These teachers accepted material discomfort for the sake of fuller participation in national politics. During the Japanese occupation another wave of "political migration" occurred among Indonesian educators. A group of mid-career educators joined the National Defense Military Unit -- the Pembela Tanah Air or PETA -- created by the Japanese military authority. They took this step with the purpose of preparing themselves for a bigger political role in securing the political independence of the country.

The same phenomenon recurred during the 1945 to 1949 period of physical revolution when many educators left their positions as teachers or educational administrators and moved into politically more pronounced positions: serving in the military forces, leading political parties, serving in the diplomatic service and others.

Perhaps from these examples it can be inferred that in our case the phenomenon of educators embracing politics happened either out of concern for the existing educational system, or out of concern for the political situation of the country.

Of course there have been instances where educators shifted careers out of sheer practical considerations: to move into jobs that are more rewarding financially. But instances like this should not blind us to the fact that Indonesian educators did join politics out of idealistic considerations in the past, and that this same phenomenon can happen again now and in the future. Does our present social condition need scrutinizing by both educational and political approaches?

Absolutely. Both our political and educational systems have for some time been deteriorating in such a way that drastic measures have been required to stop them from total collapse.

Our political system has been entirely corrupted and cannot stop willful wrongdoing perpetrated by power holders.

Our educational system has become so irrelevant and so inferior that more and more groups within our society cry for another system of education. Both these political and educational deficiencies cannot be remedied by traditional political and educational formulae.

What is needed is innovation based on a combination of political, educational, and other academic views. We are still waiting for such innovators.

I never consider myself a politician, practical or otherwise. I feel I am compelled to join a political party, because this is the only way for me to save our education from destructive politicization.

I can remain outside the realm of politics, of course, and fight for a better education system through non-political organizations. But what is the prospect of such a struggle? Nothing! The only two organizations in the country that can be considered "professional educational associations" have been so thoroughly co-opted by the ruling Golkar that they have never been able to recognize the damage that has been done to our educational system by unscrupulous political manipulations.

I hope that our society will no longer frown upon educators who plunge into legitimate politics.

The writer is an observer of social and cultural affairs.