Wed, 06 Dec 2000

Rectors Forum to facilitate talks on reconciliation

JAKARTA (JP): Troubled by the continuing failure to bring the members of the country's fractious political elite to the table of reconciliation, the Rectors Forum announced on Tuesday its readiness to facilitate such reconciliation talks.

"This country is falling apart and the civilian politicians are busy fighting each other.

"The various efforts to reconcile or unite them have gone unheeded as each of them is driven by his or her big ego," the rector of Trisakti University Thoby Mutis, who is also Jakarta coordinator of the Rectors Forum, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Established in 1998, the forum consists of 600 rectors of public and private universities from across the country.

"Like the other parties who have tried such a reconciliation effort before, the Rectors Forum will try to reach the nation's leaders in both formal and informal ways," he said.

A similar effort to bring about a uniformity of perception among the country's leaders had been undertaken by the Yogyakarta monarch Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X in Yogyakarta ahead of the Annual Session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) last August.

President Abdurrahman Wahid's administration actually still has a chance to bounce back and better the country's situation, Thoby said.

"Rumors about efforts to topple him (Abdurrahman) and even to force him to resign have been circulating.. but we believe that this administration can actually survive.

"If Gus Dur eventually resigns, it will have to be done in an elegant way, not by violence. Those in the political elite do not realize that what they are doing now is completely negating the entire reform movement," the professor said.

The forum is scheduled to meet with Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri on Wednesday.

The group's members include, among others, chairman Eko Budihardjo of the Semarang-based Diponegoro University, Denpasar- based Udayana University rector I Ketut Sukardika, and Makassar- based Hasanuddin University rector Tradigharini.

Thoby Mutis along with Minister of National Education Yahya Muhaimin met with President Abdurrahman Wahid at the latter's office earlier on Monday.

"We've met informally with House of Representatives (DPR) Speaker Akbar Tandjung a couple of weeks ago and Assembly Speaker Amien Rais.

"Actually, our proposition is simple. Everyone has to work on his or her own domain and stop messing with the business of others. In this sense, Gus Dur must stop intervening unnecessarily and so must the DPR/MPR," Thoby said.

The leaders have to understand the basic concept of sharing power and authority and stop making bombastic or sarcastic statements that will only cause tensions, rector Eko Budihardjo said earlier on Monday.

He said people were tired of conflict and were on the brink of losing all trust in the current administration.

"People don't know what to believe anymore. They tend to resort to violence and rebellious acts in solving problems and the leaders are more or less the same," Eko said.

"And, unfortunately, these civilian leaders are just too stupid to realize that in order to forge civil society and gradually reduce the military's role, they will have to unite," he added.

In a bid to share a better understanding of problem solving, several universities have started to introduce new subjects such as conflict resolution, civics, nationhood and nationality, human rights, democracy and literary studies on ethnic and religious wars. (edt)