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)