Students activists set aside differences
JAKARTA (JP): Student activists laid their differences on the table on Tuesday, discussed them and agreed that any spats among them should not affect their proreform struggle.
Representatives of three major student groups here said that concerns about students being compartmentalized and thus rendering them easy to manipulate should not be exaggerated.
Their most important creed was nonviolence, they said.
M. Novel Ariyadi of the Indonesian Moslem Students Action Front (KAMMI) said people should just learn to face the "true identity" of the student movement, that it was plural in many respects. "Plurality is not taboo; what's taboo is when you always want to win at all costs," Novel, of KAMMI's research department, said.
Demands in students marches have included the creation of a national presidium and the resignation of Minister of Defense and Security/Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto and President B.J. Habibie. Groups have not been consistent in their demands, leading to some being labeled as more radical than others.
However, the students reiterated on Tuesday that their universal demand was free and fair elections while it was only strategies that differed.
Novel said that his group accentuated their Moslem identity.
"But, we can always share a common ground on many other things despite our differences," he said.
Novel noted that uniformity was a value forced into the society over the past three decades. "It's part and parcel of the sole principle (of the state ideology Pancasila being imposed on political parties), the Armed Forces's dual function and Soeharto himself," said the student of the University of Indonesia's electrical engineering faculty.
KAMMI is among the groups advocating the scrapping of Pancasila as an obligatory organizational principle for political parties. It charges that the concept has been abused to dictate to parties to favor those in power.
"Won't a political party be charged with being against the state ideology if it fails to mention (Pancasila) as a party principle?" Novel argued.
Tubagus Ace Hasan Sadili of the Ciputat Student Senates Communication Forum (FKSMC) criticized the student movement as lacking a binding "ideology", but agreed that it should adhere to different strategies.
"There should simply be a division of labor," he said.
Tubagus cited there were groups advocating mass street protests while others were striving to introduce vision and other, less confrontational, tactics. He cited the newly announced University Network for a Free and Fair Election as one variety of the student movement.
The network announced on Saturday that 14 campuses had signed up and dozens more were expected. It plans to be one of many volunteer organizations monitoring next year's elections.
Syafiq of the Student Action Front for Reform and Democracy (FAMRED), prominent in street protests, added that the protests were designed to pressure the decision makers.
"We resort to mass action because the political mechanism doesn't work properly, so there must be pressure to make it work. As Lord Acton said, power tends to corrupt," said Syafiq, a student of the Jakarta Driyarkara Institute of Philosophy.
Tuesday's discussion was co-organized by the Institute for the Study on Free Flow of Information (ISAI) and the Ciputat Students Forum (FORMACI).
Nationwide student protests led to the ouster of Soeharto in May after decades of little activism on campuses. (aan)