Student 'must grow as moral force to beat challenges'
JAKARTA (JP): Students from 44 colleges across the country are currently taking part in a three-day forum initiated by the Ministry of Education to discuss "challenges in the reform era" and the threat of disintegration facing the nation.
The forum, which was opened on Sunday by Minister of Education and Culture Juwono Sudarsono, is also intended to "consolidate the students", according to Sudharmadi, the ministry's director of student affairs.
"I think students today are reformists who were left behind after (winning) a battle. They fought for this country and now they are being abandoned. They have nowhere to go," Sudharmadi said in reference to the reform movement initiated by students which eventually toppled former president Soeharto.
He said students must now grow as a moral force and work to beat the challenges posed by poverty and political and economic upheaval.
"I see some of the students have been accused of being 'communists' by some parties. They have to disprove those accusations," he said.
Students also need to grow intellectually and academically, he said.
The forum featured prominent speakers such as Minister of Defense and Security/Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto, who spoke last night. Other speakers scheduled to appear are Minister of Justice Muladi and noted scholars Nurcholish Madjid, Thoby Mutis and Frans Seda.
In the session with Wiranto on Monday night, the students shot volleys of questions to Wiranto but mostly demanded the abolition of the Armed Forces (ABRI) dual function doctrine which enables it to play a role in both security and political affairs.
Wiranto patiently responded to the questions, and said ABRI could not just abolish the doctrine. The reduction of ABRI involvement in politics should take place gradually, he said.
Meanwhile, Sudharmadi said the students were initially wary about the invitation to the forum. "They questioned our motives, but I assured them that it was not (political) engineering," he explained.
Some of the participants conceded they were doubtful about the forum's effectiveness.
Rama Pratama, a student leader from University of Indonesia, however, said the gathering could serve as an opportunity for the exchange of ideas among students from various parts of the country.
"Still, it's the ministry's forum, not ours," he added.
Agung Witjaksono from Bandung Institute of Technology concurred. However, he identified a number of topics discussed in the forum as issues of concern that merited the attention of a wider band of society.
"Discussion of whether Indonesia should remain a unitary state or a federal state is not the main point. What's more important is that we discuss the question of provincial autonomy and improvements to welfare," he said.
Sri Sumantri agreed and said there should be regulations to ensure that provinces are granted a certain degree of autonomy and receive a fair share of profits from the exploitation of their own natural resources.
Derek G. Sanggenafa from Cendrawasih University in Jayapura, Irian Jaya, said people in his province longed for fair treatment in both economic and political spheres.
"If the government is able to meet these demands, there would not be any threat of disintegration," he said. (edt)