Student demonstrations

The incident which occurred in Surakarta last Tuesday deserves our attention. Students of Universitas Sebelas Maret (March 11 University) who had been holding their protests on campus grounds took their action to the street. As a consequence, a clash with security officers occurred and at least 40 students were wounded.

Yesterday (Wednesday), in the same city, protesting students of Muhammadiyah University were attacked with tear gas, whose origin remains unknown. The students, however, accused the security officers who were keeping a tight guard on the campus as having initiated the attack.

Student movements began losing their significance when developing countries started building their democratic systems and mechanisms. Formal democratic institutions took over the role of the students. Campuses went back to their basic function as centers of excellence and became bastions of morality.

For this process to flow smoothly, however, an optimal working of the democratic institutions must be assumed. Whenever the country's government, political parties and judicial institutions fail to represent the living conscience of the nation, students and campuses will become the alternative means of public expression.

A professional management of security is one that is capable of preventing bloodshed. Any blood shed in the name of security constitutes a failure. We hope the present campus protests may soon end in dialogs, as offered by the chief of the Armed Forces. Democracy is badly manifested if our campuses are kept under heavy guard by security officers.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta