Two students expelled for 'bullying'

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

The Institute of Public Administration (STPDN) in Sumedang, West Java, dismissed two students on Thursday in connection with the latest case of hazing in the state-run school.

The dismissal of Nurmansyah Putra, 21, and Imam Suhaeri, 21, from the institute was decided directly by the Ministry of Home Affairs which oversees the school.

"The decision has been made through an internal investigation into the case. There were concrete violations as they (the two senior students) 'trained' their junior," said Sudarsono, the ministry's head of education and training.

He was speaking after attending a special ceremony held on the STPDN campus to dismiss Nurmansyah and Imam. Some 3,000 fellow students were at attendance at the event presided over by school principal I Nyoman Sumaryadi.

Sudarsono told the ceremony that aside from being dismissed, Nurmansyah and Imam were also ordered to pay Rp 3,888,650 (US$432) to the institute for 423 school days since last year, the estimated cost the government had to pay for their schooling. The institute imposes no charges on students as it is subsidized by the government.

"We are badly in need of civil servants. But more important is qualified cadres, not only in term of academic achievements but also morality and character," he said.

After the ceremony, Nurmansyah and Imam were taken away by their colleagues from the venue while hundreds of other students established barricades to block journalists from interviewing the two.

Earlier this week, Sumedang Police named the two second-year students, from Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, as suspects for bullying younger student Ichsan Suheri, 19, on their campus on Oct. 16, 2004.

They had detained the suspects for two days but released them on Wednesday to allow them to take part in an examination at the school.

The two had confessed to beating Ichsan, also from Aceh, and ordering him to lift a 38-kilogram barbell with one hand, according to Sumedang Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Yoyok Subagiyono.

He said the barbell then fell on Ichsan's head as he was too weak to hold it up, adding that the suspects later beat the victim instead of assisting him.

Doctors, who treated Ichsan at the Al-Islam hospital in Bandung, some 30 kilometers from Sumedang, have said Ichsan suffered psychological trauma and needed two months of therapy to recover.

The incident was the latest violence to hit the STPDN known for its reputation to impose military-style discipline on its students.

The institute caused nationwide outrage after a private television broadcast footage of brutality on the campus after the death of Wahyu Hidayat, 20, who was beaten by a group of 20 seniors.

Thirteen students were jailed over the incident and only three of them were dismissed from the school. However, a few months later, the three were allowed to resume studies there.

Sumaryadi vowed on Thursday he would never let Nurmansyah and Imam study again at the STPDN, although a court may rule in their favor.