Rector denies banning Goenawan from campus

SURABAYA (JP): Sentot Soeatmadji, rector of Wijaya Kusuma University, denies having banned senior journalist Goenawan Mohamad from addressing an on-campus discussion on general elections last Friday.

The rector said that he only dismissed the discussion, which had gone on for around 30 minutes, because the participants did not have his permission to speak.

"I never wished to ban him from the campus. I did dismiss the meeting because it didn't have a permit," he said on Saturday.

Goenawan, the former chief editor of the banned Tempo magazine, is also one of the founders of the Independent Election Monitoring Committee. He was invited by the university's student body to talk about the poll watchdog before some 200 participants on Friday.

Goenawan had just begun to speak when deputy rector Bambang Eko Witono appeared and demanded that the participants and Goenawan leave. After some arguing, Goenawan left.

Student leader Fairoz Umar protested the incident and said the students went on with the planned discussion because he had already received "the green light" from Bambang.

Rector Sentot, however, said the university's administration never approved the proposal for the discussion, which was submitted to him on April 6.

"The planned meeting was a political event. This campus is a scientific institution and shouldn't dabble in practical politics," he said.

Since its establishment last month, the independent poll watchdog has been a source of controversy. Various institutions and individual leaders, from both the military and civilian ranks, have had mixed reactions to its formation and presence.

One of the latest comments came from the influential Association of Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals (ICMI). Jakarta branch chairman Achmad Tirtosudiro said that the organization will not prevent its members from joining the independent poll watchdog as long as they do it in a personal capacity.

"By all means," Achmad told The Jakarta Post on Saturday. "But the organization itself supports the official Election Supervision Committee because ICMI believes the committee is fair and capable.

"And should any member violate our regulations, they'll be reprimanded," he said. (15/01/swe)