Student council no longer necessary, of official says

Student council no longer necessary, of official says

JAKARTA (JP): A government official Yesterday rejected growing demands for the revival of the student council, remembered for its political activities, to replace the government-sponsored student senate.

Spokesman for the ministry of education and culture Abdullah Irvan Masduki said that with the senate, students already have ample freedom to "express themselves" as they demand.

The student senate was introduced in 1990 to replace the Normalization of Campus Life/Student Coordinating Board, or NKK/BKK, which was widely criticized as restricting political activities on campus.

Masduki said the NKK/BKK concept was discarded with the education ministerial decree on the formation of university student senate.

"Now that the NKK/BKK concept has gone, there is no reason why students should demand the return of the student council," Irvan said.

Debate about the revival of the student council resurfaced last month after a group of students from Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University announced they had established a student council to challenge the existing student senate which, they said, was "undemocratic".

The student council, or Dewan Mahasiswa, existed before the "normalization of campus life" concept was proclaimed in 1978 by then-Minister of Education and Culture, Daoed Joesoef.

At that time, university students -- through student councils -- were much involved in real politics, something Daoed said was not the task of "intellectual university students".

The NKK/BKK concept was introduced to redefine the function of student organizations and to "turn students back into the analytical human beings they are meant to be".

Many educational observers criticized this as being the government's means of getting rid of campus politics, leaving the students powerless in the face of university bureaucrats who then controlled campus life.

In 1990, Minister of Education Fuad Hassan issued a decree on student senates and simultaneously annulled the NKK/BKK concept. He described the new institution as a "bottom-up approach of the students, by the students, for the students".

Critics, however, saw the move as a simple renaming of the NKK/BKK concept, because under the new system the senate not only reports directly to the rector, but must also obtain the rector's permission for all its activities.

Hendardi, from the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation was quoted as saying last week that unlike the senate, the student council was more democratic because it had the same level of authority as the rector -- such as having a say in the election of a rector -- and its activities were free from the intervention of university bureaucrats.

The former student activist also considered student councils "a good place to practice intellectual debates", so students were accustomed to differences in opinions and were able to appreciate them.

During the NKK/BKK period, he said, such arguments were not encouraged.

Irvan, who claimed he was chairman of the student council in his university, said that if students were now dissatisfied with the senate, "its not the senate that must be changed, or the council that must be revived, but the quality and creativity of the students which must improved.

He said that most students were not fully aware of the role of student senates or of the fact that the NKK/BKK concept had been done away with.

"If they knew what they could actually achieve by developing their creativity in the senate, I am sure they would agree that student councils don't have to be revived," Irvan said.(pwn)