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)