Students should stay out of politicking: Expert

Students should stay out of politicking: Expert

JAKARTA (JP): The country's students, who were at the
forefront of the reform movement which led to former president
Soeharto's downfall, should refrain from politicking and remain
merely a neutral moral force, observers said here yesterday.

Political observer Hermawan Sulistyo from the National
Institute of Sciences said students must continue to remain
critical regardless of who the president is or which political
forces come to the fore.

"It means that whoever forms the government, if they do not
carry out their duty well, students must ask that government to
step down," Hermawan told a discussion at Nasional University in
Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta.

Hermawan and several of his colleagues have been conducting
research on the student movement since November. He said students
should stay out of political maneuvering in the wake of
Soeharto's resignation.

"Students must stay away from politicking because once they
get involved in the struggle of the political elite, they are no
longer a moral force," Hermawan said.

Hermawan, however, called on students to generate pressure on
the government to accelerate the schedule for the upcoming
general election.

"The economy will not be able to survive that long," Hermawan
said referring to President B.J. Habibie's plan to hold elections
in the middle of next year.

Government critics have said that only a government freely
elected by the people could help restore domestic and
international confidence in the economy.

The Central Board of Statistics announced Monday that the
month-on-month consumer price index rose to 4.64 percent this
month, taking the inflation rate to 46.5 percent for the first
semester of this year. It also said that as of June, unemployment
had reached 15.4 million people.

Hermawan admitted the economic crisis also spelled a gloomy
future for students since new job opportunities would be nearly
nonexistent.

Former student activist Ibrahim G. Zakir, who also spoke
yesterday, said the nationwide student movement had been an
amazing phenomenon.

Ibrahim, however, was critical of the seeming lack of student
unity now that their "common enemy" had been eliminated.

"The fall of Soeharto should not be the end of the reform
struggle," Ibrahim said. (byg)