Students rebuke Juwono for plan to control protests

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)