Rector defends controversial education bill

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives should pass a bill on national education in spite of protests from some organizations, Suyanto, the rector of Yogyakarta State University (UNY), said in a discussion hosted by the Association of Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI) on Tuesday.

"I acknowledge that several organizations have voiced objections saying that the bill is worse than Law No. 2/1989 on education. On the contrary, I think the bill is better than the existing law," Suyanto, also a former head of the Committee for Education Reform, said.

He said that the protests were mainly focused on point 1 of Article 12, which said that all students had the right to receive religious education according to their faith from teachers who are of the same religion.

As a consequence, Catholic schools, for example, would have to provide teachers for Islamic lessons.

On March 5, a dialog hosted by the National Catholic Education Council (MNPK) and the Christian Education Council (MPK) concluded that the House and the government should postpone passing the bill, which was scheduled to be passed by May 20. One of their reasons was that the bill ignored pluralism in the nation.

The dialog featured education experts such as Ki Supriyoko from Tamansiswa Yogyakarta, Achmad Sanusi from Indonesian Education University (UPI), Soedradjat Djiwandono from Driyarkara School of Philosophy, Muhammadi from House Commission VI for national education and Judo Poerwowidagdo from MPK.

Heribertus Sumarjo, an education commission official of the Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI), told The Jakarta Post in an interview on Tuesday that an education law should support the task of "educating people" as stipulated in the preamble of the 1945 Constitution.

"However, we see that the bill focuses more on the strengthening of religious beliefs, instead. We think religion is a private matter and the government should not interfere in that," he said.

He refused to comment further about point 1 of Article 12 in the bill.

Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, a member of House Commission VI, said in the ICMI discussion that the House would go ahead with its plan to pass the bill by May 20.

"We have already held hearings with representatives of religion-based schools. And they have not raised any objections," he said.

"So, I was surprised to hear of these recent protests. But, I think the protests are not significant."