Student leaders meet to discuss role in society

Student leaders meet to discuss role in society

By Yoko N. Sari

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Approximately 150 students from 75
universities across Indonesia are gathering here this week to
discuss the role they must now play in society.

One of the debates will, no doubt, be centered around campus
politics. This meeting comes amidst signs of a new attempt to
revive students' political activism in the face of tight official
restrictions.

Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro, who
gave the keynote address opening the meeting on Thursday, warned
students not to look towards the heyday of the student movement
of the 1960s.

Such student activism is a thing of the past, Wardiman said.

Instead, students should answer the challenges of the future
and help this nation develop, he said.

"Reviving the student movement is not the answer," he said.
"We still have plenty to catch."

Wardiman virtually told the students not to duplicate the
massive student movement of the mid-1960s which helped bring down
President Sukarno in 1966 and paved the way for Soeharto, then a
young army general, to take the reins.

Many of these student leaders are now in the government
themselves.

"In 1966, the nation was in a state of chaos, both
economically and politically," Wardiman said. "Now the situation
is different. We are facing different challenges."

The meeting, held on the campus of the Gadjah Mada University,
brings together the leaders of the student senates from 75
different universities. It is scheduled to wind up on Sunday.

The senates in the 1960s provided student leaders with a
spring board to launch their political activities. Nowadays, the
senates are strictly under the rectors' supervision and their
activities are restricted to the campus.

"A students senate is not a political organization but an
academic organization to accommodate students activity," Wardiman
said.

The government is not asking students to shun politics
altogether but to refrain from conducting political activities on
campus, he said.

Students wishing to enter political careers should turn to the
political parties, he added.

He also noted that, in the past, many student activists have
simply turned to the senate because they were not doing well in
their academics.

He also warned the students not to equate academic freedom
with campus freedom.

In clarification he said that the latter means freedom to
discuss, to join organization and express their feeling
scientifically. However, he felt that this freedom can never be
absolute because there are norms and values to respect.

He felt that, even when holding academic discussions, students
should be selective and not pick on subjects that could be
politically sensitive because they could fan the flames of an
already difficult issue.

The meeting of the leaders of student senates is being held
with the objective of finding the appropriate role that
university students should now play, R. Widodo, the chairman of
the organizing committee said.

For the past two decades, the students' roles have not been
optimal, he said, recalling that Indonesia has had a history of
active and effective student movements before then.

"This meeting provides us with an opportunity to unite in
taking part in the national development program," Widodo said.

Some parties in the government were suspicious about the
intention of the meeting, and some university rectors had even
gone as far as barring their senates from sending representatives
to Yogyakarta, according to the students.

Maj. Gen. Hari Sabarno, assistant to the chief of the
political affairs of the Armed Forces, said in his address to the
meeting that there was no need for students to suspect the
intentions of the military.

He acknowledged that such feelings were based on traumas from
the past but stressed that the military's chief concern is
security and stability of the nation.