Students urged to help foster genuine reform

Students urged to help foster genuine reform

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Students, at the forefront of the reform movement in 1998,
have been urged to take up their old role once more in the face
of a political elite widely blamed for diverting the winds of
change.

Former student activist Hariman Siregar and Muslim scholar
Ulil Abshar Abdalla say they believe that students are relatively
free from political constraints and, in most cases, represent the
true will of the people.

Ulil voiced concerns in a discussion held by the Indonesian
Muslim Association (HMI) here on Tuesday that, currently, the
movement was not directed by genuine reformists.

"The sweeping reform was sparked by the students in 1998, and
they initially spearhead the movement ... but their role has been
usurped by legislators and politicians," Ulil told participants
in the discussion entitled "Students and the Plurality of the
Nation."

The takeover of this role has raised concerns among pro-
democracy activists, who have alleged that legislators and
politicians have tarnished the reform movement, said Hariman.

Had the students maintained their leadership role, the reform
movement would have not gone astray, according to Hariman, who
was jailed following a violent anti-Japan rally in 1974, known as
Malari incident.

Hariman noted that, in most cases, politicians and legislators
have failed to live up to people's expectations, since they were
already preoccupied by their own struggles for power.

"It is natural that politicians and legislators tend to think
of their own short-term interests, since they have secured
positions of privilege -- whereas students have nothing to lose
in struggling for the people's will," he said.

"This will minimize the possible abuse of power for sure," he
added.

Hariman said that the legal proceedings for House
Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung were full of political
maneuvering and compromises, leaving justice by the wayside.

Hariman suggested that the students make a concerted effort to
find answers as to why they were unable to take the leading role
in Indonesian politics today.

"The students should think of an engaging and a collective
issue, one which could bring them closer together to push the
reform movement ahead," said Hariman

Besides Hariman and Ulil, the speakers came from a wide range
of political groups, including Muslim activist Bursah Zarnubi;
Harris Rusli Moti, the chairman of the People's Democratic Party
(PRD), and Achmad Doli Kurnia, the secretary general of the HMI.

Hariman pointed out anti-oppression and justice as two
examples of the issues that could be addressed by the students.

He said that the students were united in 1998, but after that
grew fragmented when they began fighting for certain camps of
political groups themselves -- such as Megawati Soekarnoputri,
Abdurrahman Wahid, and B.J. Habibie.

Harris and Achmad Doli, representing the students, conceded
that it was a necessity to find a collective issue to unite the
students.

However, they again acknowledged the fact that the students
fell short of building a common enemy.

"Therefore, it is a pressing need that the students should sit
on a single discussion table to discuss what collective issue we
think will keep our reform movement alive -- and on the right
track," said Harris Rusli from PRD.