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