Students pledge to remain critical of the government

JAKARTA (JP): Students groups which helped incite the nation to a mass movement that aided the overthrow of former president Soeharto last year, pledged on Wednesday to remain critical and unabashed about rallies if the situation required it.

Speaking at a discussion reflecting on the student movement here on Wednesday, the student leaders said they would take up a role of political opposition acting as a moral force against the government.

"As opposing groups, we'll still work in our respective groups but hopefully we'll have a strong network among us to build communication for our moral mission as a pressure group," said Masinton, leader of the Student Action Forum for Reform and Democracy (Famred).

"If we haven't held any protests recently, it's just because we're observing and waiting for political developments in the country to unfold," he added.

Masinton, however, said that students should be more selective in tackling the issues, warning that some controversial subjects might be engineered.

"We object to Abdurrahman's controversial idea of establishing ties with Israel but we don't see it as an urgent issue; it will gradually disappear if we don't take it seriously," he said of one issue which does not require an immediate mass student response.

He questioned why some groups took up the issue while there were more crucial ones to contend with.

According to Masinton, issues such as militarism and violence were more burning subjects which needed to be addressed but were much neglected by many.

Despite claims that the student movement remained a strong force to be reckoned with in the future, some conceded that with the fall of the Soeharto regime and the election of a new government it would be more challenging to assemble the same kind of force and political unity as before.

Taufan, leader of the Collective Forum (Forbes), stressed the need for student groups to form a strong network to coordinate their activities.

He said that while garnering passionate and emotional gatherings was still possible at any given time, student movements remained weak in a coordinated and conceptualized approach.

"Students are only good at mobilizing masses but not organizing them for systematic and strategic movements," Taufan said.

Warning

Political observer Eep Saifullah Fatah warned the students that they themselves were facing their own political crisis.

He cited the shallow political knowledge among the masses participating in the protests as the single threat to the student movement, noting that participation in rallies was based more on instant hysteria than political conviction.

"If the crisis is not properly managed, it will endanger the moral movement," he said.

He noted recent rallies such as those against the State Security Bill and the Indonesian Military's dual function in which many protesters had little knowledge of the issues at hand.

Sumawiharja of the Big Family of the University of Indonesia (KB-UI) also noted demoralizing symptoms brought about by the negative perception of the unrelenting demonstrations.

He said families of the students were a major persuader as these elders were often swayed by government statements that rallies were being held or undermined by agent provocateurs.

"Students cannot win the propaganda war against the government and security forces as they persistently say those involved in street rallies are provocateurs ... criminals. Many who don't have a depth of political knowledge and are psychologically influenced by the continuous campaigns," he said.

However, the need for student groups to act as a political opposition to the government was underlined by University of Indonesia political scientist Arbi Sanit.

According to Arbi, formal political opposition is expected to come from the political elite and political parties. However, the political environment often caused them to feel "feeble and to compromise".(emf)