No ordinary college

Not many colleges in the country have a strong and influential association of alumni, and even fewer of these associations meet regularly. And perhaps only one college in Indonesia has an alumni association which can get the country's president to open its congress: the Bandung Institute of Technology. But then ITB, as the revered college is popularly known by its Indonesian acronym, is not an ordinary college.

It is not for nothing that President Soeharto addressed the gathering of the ITB alumni association at the State Palace on Tuesday. It is a recognition of the role that ITB and its alumni has played in society in the 77 years of its existence, and is expected to continue playing into the next century.

ITB, founded in 1920 by the Dutch colonial government, is more than a place for young people to study technology, although that is one of its chief missions. It is much more than a center of excellence, although this too is undoubtedly one of its visions.

ITB is also much more than an institute that has consistently supplied many of the country's past and present leaders in all walks of life, including in politics and business. Topping the ITB's hall of fame is no other than Insinyur (Engineer) Sukarno, the country's first president. Presently, 11 out of the 40 members of President Soeharto's cabinet are ITB graduates.

Given the contribution that its alumni have given to the development of Indonesia, including in the struggle for independence in the 1940s, ITB has become an institution.

Many old ITB graduates returned to Bandung this week to touch base with their alma mater. They met and discussed what role the college should play in society in the third millennium. The question that was asked now is, can ITB maintain the role that it has played, and can it keep its tradition in these changing times?

The rapid growth of private universities, some of them with financial clout, no doubt will challenge the position of ITB and other state-run colleges like University of Indonesia which have dominated the academic scene in Indonesia. ITB can no longer take for granted its leading position. It will probably become one of many centers of excellence in Indonesia, which is a healthy and welcomed development for the country.

There is one tradition in ITB however that seems to have disappeared: Campus politics. ITB had been known in the past as a hotbed of student politics. The young Sukarno did much of his political reading and debating during his days in Bandung in the 1920s. Many of his political visions and concepts that he applied during his presidency were developed there. ITB students were also in the thick of things during the student demonstrations in 1966 which, ironically, led to the downfall of Sukarno.

Some of the current political leaders who hail from ITB used their campus as a springboard to launch their political careers. After Sukarno's downfall, college life throughout Indonesia continued to be restless in the early years of the New Order until the heavy military clamp down to quell student revolts in 1978. Life in campuses has never been the same since then. A few years later, traditional campus politics, as they were known then, vanished with the introduction of the government's normalization of campus life in all universities in the country. Campuses are strictly for studying, and any politicking should be conducted outside.

As the ITB alumni gathered in Bandung and as they elected their new leader this week, these questions were begging: With the present academic environment, can ITB continue to furnish the country with its future political leaders? Are we not depriving the nation of one of its traditional sources of political leaders?

The answers will be clear in a few years time when the new crop of young politicians begin to emerge. But then can we really take this risk at a time when good leadership is becoming scarce in this country? Will ITB be content with only supplying technocrats, technologists, engineers and artists, but not political leaders, to the community that has nurtured it?

The greatest service that the ITB alumni, especially those who are in positions of power and influence, can give to their old college is to help maintain ITB's tradition that has made it one of the greatest higher learning institutes in the country.