Mystery still shrouds wealthy school

Mystery still shrouds wealthy school

Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Al-Zaytun Islamic (pesantren) boarding school in the West
Java town of Indramayu was previously virtually unknown to most
Indonesians and foreigners, but it has attracted the spotlight
recently following its controversial vast expansion.

The National Police, quoting a report filed by parents,
accused Al-Zaytun of "brainwashing" its students in an apparent
attempt to strive for an Islamic state.

Parents and others have alleged that Al-Zaytun serves as the
ninth regional military command (KW9) of Darul Islam, an outlawed
militant Islamic movement led by Sekarmaji Marijan Kartosuwiryo,
which struggled for an Islamic state during the early post-
colonial 1949-1962 period.

It has also been accused of accepting funding from former
presidents Soeharto and B.J. Habibie, their families and former
allies, as well as other financial sources at home and overseas
linked to extremist Muslim groups.

All the accusations seem to be baseless.

The Al-Zaytun management argues that their critics and
accusers have never personally visited the pesantren to verify
the facts for themselves, which makes the management adverse to
responding to the allegations.

"It's all rubbish. If we answer them, it means we are rubbish
too," Al-Zaytun top leader A.S. Panji Gumilang simply told The
Jakarta Post.

He then challenged Minister of Religious Affairs Said Agiel
Hussin Munawwar to announce the result of his team's probe into
all the allegations against Al-Zaytun. "If they (the team) dare
to investigate, they should dare to make it (the finding)
public."

Some parents, claiming to visit the pesantren regularly to
meet their children, support Al-Zaytun's denial that heretical
subjects of Islam were taught there, saying such an accusation
was "evil slander" against the school.

However, mystery continues to shroud the funding for the
immensely rich boarding school and the backgrounds of Panji and
other 20 founders of the pesantren.

Panji admitted that Al-Zaytun received contributions from
foreign sources, but said this made up less than 1 percent of the
total funding.

Most of the contributions were given by domestic donors, he
said, refusing to be more specific.

Apart from revenue generated from the pesantren's business
activities, like farming, a hotel and a minimarket, Panji claims
that the school also owns many factories outside the complex,
such as rice and wood processing plants. But he declined to
mention their locations.

The 5,300 students were charged US$1,500 each for the all-
inclusive cost of six years of junior and senior high schools
after they passed an entrance test.

According to the Al-Zaytun management, students' fees only
cover 10 percent of their total living costs at the pesantren,
which has to subsidize the remaining 90 percent.

At least 30 percent of the subsidy comes from profits
generated by its business activities, while the remaining 60
percent comes from donations.

Al-Zaytun is expected to come up with up to Rp 25 billion for
its monthly total spending, including expenses for its massive
construction projects. It pays more than Rp 1 billion in taxes
per year and around Rp 100 million for its monthly electricity
bill.

It seems only natural, therefore, that the huge spending and
its relatively rapid expansion has raised widespread speculation
that the pesantren receives funding from controversial donors.

Panji himself appears reluctant to reveal details about his
life as well as his political and social activities before
establishing Al-Zaytun.

Apparently an admirer of Soeharto and Sukarno, Panji wants
some of Al-Zaytun's buildings named after the two former
presidents.

He graduated from Gontor, a highly respected Islamic boarding
school in Ponorogo, East Java, and Jakarta's State Academy of
Islamic Studies (IAIN).

Al-Zaytun teachers, some of them also Gontor graduates become
reticent when approached by visitors, which adds to negative
speculation about the controversial pesantren.

A Gontor graduate, who declined to be named, told the Post
that some of his school colleagues who have taught at Al-Zaytun
for three years, have suddenly turned reticent toward him and
others.

Another Gontor graduate, Zainal Alim, said that a friend of
his, who used to be very jovial, also turned taciturn since
starting work at Al-Zaytun as a teacher in 1999. He also changed
his name for unexplained reasons. Al-Zaytun -- Page 5