PGRI distances itself from Golkar

PGRI distances itself from Golkar

BANDUNG (JP): The Indonesian Teachers Association (PGRI) vowed
here on Saturday that it would release itself from decades-long
association with the dominant Golkar grouping and instead strive
to make itself a true professional association.

At the closing ceremony of its 18th congress here, the
association also announced the election of Muhammad Surya from
the Bandung Teachers Training Institute (IKIP Bandung) as its new
chairman.

Set up on Nov. 25, 1945, the association came under pressure
recently when university students marked its 53rd anniversary by
calling for its dissolution. It has been branded a tool of
Golkar, one of former president Soeharto's main political
machines along with the Armed Forces (ABRI) and the bureaucracy.

Surya said that by dissociating itself from Golkar, the ruling
political organization would face losing up to eight million
votes belonging to 1.6 million teachers registered with the
association and members of their families who have reached voting
age.

Surya promised he would make the association an independent
professional body which would strive to improve the welfare of
its members. For years teachers have complained of earning only a
subsistence salary which has often even been cut.

Surya said the association had pledged to urge the government
to improve teachers' welfare and raise the national education
budget from 6 percent of the state budget to 25 percent.

"PGRI will no longer channel the political aspirations of
Golkar like it did in the past.

"Individuals, however, will be free to do so, but as an
institution, PGRI will be independent," Surya said.

Surya was born in the regency of Kuningan in West Java on
Sept. 8, 1941, He is a visiting lecturer at Brunei Darussalam
University and a lecturer at both the Army Staff and Command
School (Seskoad) and Air Force Staff and Command School
(Seskoau).

At the end of the congress, a number of association members
declared the establishment of the People's Enlightening Party
(PMB), joining nearly other 100 political parties that have been
established in the past six months.

The PMB's founders were Saenong, who is chairman of the
association's Southeast Sulawesi chapter; M.S. Rangkuti, who
chairs the North Sumatra chapter; Mizwar, who chairs the West
Sumatra chapter; Sumuan, who is chairman of the North Sulawesi
chapter; W.D.F. Ringo Ringo, who is a former secretary-general of
the organization; and Taruna, J.C.H. Lesilolo and Balkan Kaplale,
who are rank-and-file members.

When opening the congress, President B.J. Habibie said: "PGRI
should not become a device to serve the interests of certain
groups, including its executive board members." (43/aan)