Rectors Forum to facilitate talks on reconciliation

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)