Students rebuke Juwono for plan to control protests

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Education and Culture Juwono Sudarsono was rebuked by students he briefed on Friday on the need for "safe, orderly and controlled" street demonstrations to prevent casualties in future protests.

The students -- a group of 60 from the University of Indonesia -- that the minister invited for a dialog at his office, accused him of attempting to reintroduce the much-feared New Order's "security approach." Juwono maintained his composure, and convinced his guests he was just "urging" them, not "regulating".

"Now it is the students who regulate ministers, rather than the other way around," the former dean of the University's school of social and political sciences said. "This won't be a policy, but just a 'message'."

He started by telling the students results of an earlier meeting he had in the morning at his office with Armed Forces (ABRI) Chief of General Affairs Lt. Gen. Fachrul Razi and rectors of 15 private universities in Jakarta. A similar meeting was held on Thursday between Fachrul Razi, Minister of Religious Affairs Malik Fadjar and rectors of 28 Islamic universities.

The talk on Friday was on the need for campuses "to consolidate" so they could retain the basis of a true moral movement, Juwono said.

"If campuses have become bases for mass gatherings, how are gatherings to be made orderly?" he asked.

Juwono announced Sunday there were certain groups working to pit students against security apparatus in last week's demonstrations, which ended in seven students killed at the Semanggi cloverleaf on Nov. 13.

He added Friday that, especially during next year's electioneering, there would be many political figures visiting campuses under the pretext of fighting for the people.

"Especially to the Salemba campus of the University of Indonesia," Juwono, himself a politics professor at the university, said.

So, among other things, Juwono said, the less demonstrators there were, the more easily the demonstration could be controlled and the fewer chances there would be of violence and victims.

However, Juwono commended student demonstrations over the past two days. Besides, Juwono said, students must protect themselves from "infiltrators" by wearing their student cards and varsity jackets.

Juwono said Fachrul Razi had warned of infiltrators. Fachrul also said the Military Police were investigating the possibility that it was some security personnel who provoked the violence.

However, the students slammed Juwono for the briefing.

One student told Juwono to convey it to President B.J. Habibie that if his government wanted to be "truly pro-reform", it must "criticize itself first".

"Do you just want to regulate the people while failing to regulate the security apparatus? And it's so easy to slap the label of treason on people... if it's not true, the government will just lose its credibility," he said.

The student also urged Juwono to tell Habibie not to drag his feet in the investigation into Soeharto's alleged power abuses and corruption over the past 32 years.

Another student accused Juwono of trying to "separate the students from the people" with his suggestion that students wear identities and jackets.

One even called him a spokesman for "a regime that sees demands for change as a threat to its power" and urged his friends to walk out on the minister whom he charged was still "the product of Soeharto."

However his colleagues chose to stay after Juwono asked them whether they still wanted to listen to his response to the accusation.

Juwono later warned students against being "absolute idealists, absolute moralists" which he said were "the beginning of a tyranny."

"If I were an absolute idealist I would have become an environment minister, attending conferences all over the world rather than staying here being scolded by students. But thanks for the scolding," he said, and told students to be "realistic".

In a related development, Habibie said he was sorry he could not yet visit campuses and students injured during last week's clashes with security apparatus due to his tight schedule.

"I'm sorry I can't visit campuses to meet students and talk with them now. I don't have time even for myself," he was quoted by Antara as saying when seeing off an expedition team, Biota Medika, at the Merdeka Palace here Friday.

He asked the team which includes university students to convey his best regards and longing to other students.

"After I am no longer in office but still in good health and if everything is OK, I will visit campuses frequently," he said. (aan)