The same old mentality

The same old mentality

Although teachers had not staged a protest since May last
year, nobody was surprised when these educators were suddenly
back in the news last week. As usual their grievances soon caught
the attention of the public. This shows that the majority of
Indonesians still pay them great respect and the public does not
to want to see the teachers mistreated. Wasn't the word guru
introduced by Hindu followers here many centuries ago, meaning
spiritual teacher? What makes the story of the mismanagement of
teachers more disturbing this time round is that it was
perpetrated by the same old culprits: bureaucrats.

Our teachers have been poorly paid since the birth of the
republic and as time went by the authorities chose to defend
themselves rather than seek positive ways to enhance the
teachers' welfare. They used to claim that the teacher's low
salaries was a common phenomenon here. What they failed to
recognize was the important role teachers played in the nation's
character building and the training of its future leaders.

We heard stories of teachers moonlighting to make ends meet
and that their salaries were unilaterally cut by the bureaucracy
for unclear reasons. Under the regime of president Soeharto,
teachers were not only forced to be members of Soeharto's
political party, Golkar, but also once in five years they had to
round up their students to vote for the party in the general
election.

However, as social and economic conditions improved so did the
teachers' lot, so the government propaganda machine claimed. But
in Jakarta last year, as this country commemorated National
Education Day, thousands of teachers staged a protest rally,
marching from the State Palace to the House of Representatives
(DPR), to demand a better salary. Their indignation was provoked
by president Abdurrahman Wahid's surprising action to sharply
increase the salaries of himself, his Cabinet ministers and the
members of the House of Representatives.

To placate them Abdurrahman yielded and raised teachers'
salaries to a level a little better than other civil servants.
After the storm there was a calm.

However, trouble hit again last week. Thousands of primary and
high school teachers in East Java went on strike demanding back
pay for their salary increase which took effect in January this
year. The same protest was also lodged by teachers in Palembang,
Sumatra, and Kutai, East Kalimantan.

According to the central government the salaries of civil
servants had been sent to the provinces on time. But local
administrations seem to have used the funds on other projects, an
official in Jakarta said on Friday. In Palembang a spokesman for
the city administration said on Tuesday that the January to June
back pay of civil servants, which included teachers, would be
paid soon. Part of the back payment would be released soon, while
the balance would be paid in the second week of December, just
before the Muslim holiday, Idul Fitri.

The provincial governments have turned a deaf ear to the
teacher's demand and many of them blamed the central government
for the chaos. This mentality has been witnessed here for
decades. Here, in any crisis, or even catastrophe, no one comes
forward to claim responsibility, much less quit his or her post.
They claim that to acknowledge responsibility is not part of the
Indonesian culture.

What does this mean? Merely that in the future there will be
more chaos.