Sutiyoso to sue defiant teachers

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

While students of SMP 56 state junior high school studied in the parking lot on Monday, the Jakarta administration prepared to file a lawsuit against teachers for refusing to leave the grounds.

Governor Sutiyoso said on Monday the teachers had committed a crime. He named Nurlaila HM, a senior teacher and the informal leader of a group of 15 protesting school staffers, as among those responsible.

Sutiyoso asserted the classes were being taught without permission from related governmental institutions, including the city administration and the education ministry.

The teachers and staff have insisted on teaching at the school located in the prestigious Melawai area, South Jakarta, even though the building has been taken over by the city administration.

The teachers, backed by 65 students and their parents, are protesting a land swap deal made in 2000 between the administration -- through the Jakarta Intermediate and Higher Education Agency -- and developer PT Tata Disantara, owned by former manpower minister Abdul Latief.

The deal said land in Melawai would be bartered for a plot of land in Pejaten, South Jakarta.

Suspicious of the deal, teachers, students and parents filed a civil lawsuit against it. A lower court rejected the suit last December, however, the Jakarta High Court ordered that pending a final verdict the deal could not be executed.

Earlier last month, PT Tata Disantara spokesperson Dian A Zulkarnain said in a statement that the company would not proceed with the land swap if it were not in accordance with existing procedures and regulations.

But the administration had offered the students and parents the opportunity to continue their studies for free at the nearby SMP 12 state junior high school on Jl. Wijaya, South Jakarta, prompting the teachers, students and parents sought protection from the National Commission on Human Rights in the face of eviction planned by the administration and instructions to cease teaching activities at the Melawai building.

Jakarta Legal Office head Deded Sukandar told The Jakarta Post and Koran Tempo daily the office was analyzing the case to decide whether to press ahead with the lawsuit.

He said teachers could face multiple charges of violating Law No. 20, 2003 on national education and Bylaw No. 11/1988 on public order.

According to the education law, the teachers could face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and/or Rp 1 billion fine, while the bylaw carries a maximum punishment of three months in prison or a Rp 50 million fine.

The National Commission for Child's Protection chairman Seto Mulyadi called the situation, in which students were taught outdoors while public order officers and police guarded the school, deplorable.

He called on the administration and teachers, as well as parents, to open a dialogue to seek a better solution for the students with the commission as mediator.

Meanwhile, coordinator of the advocacy team for parents and students of SMP 56, Lies Sugeng, blasted the occupation of the school by public order officers. He said the children had the right to continue their education.