Reject the education bill

B. Herry-Priyono Lecturer Driyarkara School of Philosophy Jakarta

These are the days of tragic reckoning. It comes from the perennial irony that has long beset this country: Talking law is simultaneously the most irrelevant and most urgent.

Contradictory? The fact that it appears contradictory is itself a measure of the depth of the problem besieging our Republic.

These days, it concerns the fate of the notorious education bill. There is nothing perfect under the sun, but some are more imperfect than others. Among the imperfect, the most ludicrous is the education bill currently being debated.

The absurdity of the bill has received extensive coverage. One of these absurdities is the blatant absence of the fundamental purpose of education, "to nourish intellectual capabilities of the people for a national civic life". The other is the unparalleled sectarian direction deeply involved in the bill to the point that Gus Dur (former president Abdurrahman Wahid) said bluntly that it was a tactic to erect an Islamic state (Public Dialogue, TVRI, June 9, 2003, 7 p.m.-8 p.m.).

We have not even touched upon the other problems besetting the bill, but the above flaws are sufficient to raise the eyebrows of those concerned with education in this Republic.

Many with unrivaled expertise and experience as well as those most knowledgeable about education (such as Mochtar Buchori), have strongly urged the legislature to revoke, postpone, or amend the bill. Their chorus of expertise and wisdom falls on deaf ears.

It is indeed a curious and unhappy fact that such an extremely important and as grave a constitutional matter as national education is left to those who are pedestrian on the issue. Again, in matters of great importance, the fate of the Republic has fallen into thuggery or "preman-ism". How has this happened?

Many views have been aired, but those who reject the bill outright on the basis of its etatist and authoritarian character seem to have misunderstood the realpolitik of the bill. Their criticisms have mostly been directed to the State as the chief actor of this absurdity.

In fact, it has nothing to do with the state. The state is not an actor but an arena, quite like a boxing arena. A boxing arena can do nothing, for it is merely a stage upon which the bouts take place. So, the criticism that the bill is the act of an authoritarian state is a verbal bubble, devoid of substance.

In other instances, a somewhat similar criticism has been directed to the Government as the one responsible for the bill. But, in the strict sense of the term, a government is not an actor either, for it is simply the public agency vested with the authority to manage the state.

In this sense, government is also an arena upon which various actors advance their interests, and history has given countless proof that both the states and governments in developing countries are so vulnerable to this tendency. It is no secret that many governments in developing countries are empty shells or paper tigers with no real power to carry out the tasks they are supposed to do.

Of course, the problem is not whether the actors involved in the struggle have vested interests; the real problem is that some interests are more destructive than others. When we say that "no bill is perfect, but some bills are more imperfect than others", the imperfection simply refers to this destructive tendency. This is exactly what is wrong with the education bill.

But, if the state and government are simply arenas, quite like a boxing arena, who are the actual boxers? It is we. But the "we" here is too broad a term.

Members of the House of Representatives? But the legislature, again, in many respects, is also merely an arena. In the field of political economy, it is an open secret that both the legislative and executive branches of government have often been captive to the power of financial oligarchs. How many times have the rules of the game in labor relations, environment, city planning and the like been easily dictated by such financial oligarchs? Almost always.

The case of the education bill is a case in which the legislative and executive branches, as a collective arena in which the unity of the disintegrated Republic can be rescued, has been bastardized by such a group. Only this time, it is not by the financial oligarchs, but by sectarian actors who, unintentionally perhaps, both stultify the intellectual development of this country's future generation and bring this Republic toward further disintegration.

This is why the sectarian issue mentioned in the bill, which is in fact only one major flaw among many, has also become the most burning issue. Be not surprised then, if in their struggle to win the fight and not to reason over substance, they would use the term "the state" or "government" as the main actor of the bill. It is their sheer pretext.

Once again, the state is an arena, not an actor. The bill can never be drafted by the state. So, pointing to the state as a culprit is a misnomer.

The culprit is the drafters, who do not understand what civic education is, and those who wish to squeeze the substance of civic education into the most sectarian matter.

This concerns not only the minds of future generations, but also the fate of our Republic. It is our fate.

How many times have we lamented over the crisis besieging this Republic? And how many times have we lamented over the troubles that have a real potential to deepen the fissures and further the fragmentation and disintegration of our Republic?

Now, again, we come at a crossroads in history. This time, it is the brutish maneuver to pass the flawed and narrow-minded education bill. The bizarre irony is, those who push the bill still believe that its enactment will reunite the Republic. Quite the opposite!

What is to be done? First, press the executive branch, which needs empowerment, and experts to take part in thoroughly revising the bill. Second, make any necessary societal measures to postpone, cancel, or annul the bill.

In this case, if there are any instances of civil disobedience, they will not be because of the state, but because our Republic is being dragged into an abyss by the enactment of the education bill.