Purged from IKIP

On June 1, 2000, I wrote a letter to the chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) about action taken against me and my colleagues -- eleven persons in all -- by the then chairperson of the presidium of the Jakarta Teachers Training Institute (IKIP Jakarta), now State University of Jakarta, Prof. Dr. Hj. Maftuchah Jusuf, along with members of the institute's screening committee and students council. The act was obviously a violation of the law and of human rights: Maftuchah Jusuf and her group suspended us as civil servants for 11 years, from April 1, 1966 through March 31 1977.

All of us -- the institute's employees, lecturers and lecturers' assistants -- belonged to the nationalist camp (PNI/GMNI/KBM) and very clearly were not members of a banned party. Besides being suspended, we also had to put up with being labeled not free from leftist influence for the entire 32 years of the New Order era under Soeharto. In addition, Maftuchah Jusuf and her clique also discharged 41 students and suspended 36 others without any legal or court procedures.

As a result, we could neither teach nor do anything else in our own society. The act put a stop to our career as civil servants, even in our own institute. Besides, morally and materially we were all belittled and this belittlement was also borne by our families. In other words, this act downgraded our self-respect and dignity as God's creatures and citizens in our own country.

Readers must well understand the plight of people like us, just like the plight of Bung Karno's family members. Firing students from a teachers' training institute is very cruel, an act violating all the teachings of God the Almighty and the five-point principles of Pancasila. It must go down in the history of the nation that IKIP Jakarta belongs to the category of institutions that were most cruel when implementing the cruel policies of the New Order regime.

Ironically, some of these violators of human rights are still free to stay on the campus and hold positions there. When the intensity of the reform movement was at its greatest, they also unashamedly condemned Soeharto in front of thousands of rallying students on IKIP Jakarta's campus. In fact, they had enjoyed the positions handed to them by the New Order administration and practiced the cruelty of the New Order regime on the campus.

So, speaking for myself and on behalf of my colleagues as referred to above, I earnestly hope that state minister for human rights affairs will include in the forthcoming book on human rights education the cruel legal and human rights violations perpetrated by educational institutions in Indonesia during the New Order era. Details of these violations must also be included. Therefore, I have asked members of the Komnas HAM to help monitor and pay attention to this noble project.

Last but not least, in the pursuit of national unity, we all wish to see national reconciliation coupled with legal action against those have committed mistakes and compensation to be extended to the victims. Sticking closely to our conviction in God the Almighty, we must get rid of any desire for revenge. In this way the younger generation will learn from us and never commit the same mistakes in the future.

RAHARDJO PURWOSUDIRDJO

Chief lecturer

Department of Economics,

School of Social Sciences,

State University of Jakarta