Uniform shoes a marketing ploy

A private shoe company's initiative has developed into quite a talking point among parents in Indonesia. The issue is whether students should be made to wear uniform shoes supplied by PT Aryo Nusa Pakarti (ANP).

Somehow, by whatever means, this company succeeded in obtaining an endorsement from the Ministry of Education and Culture's directorate general of elementary and intermediate education. As a result, all school students in West and East Java are to wear shoes made by ANP.

If the campaign proves successful in those two provinces, elementary and high school students throughout Indonesia will be asked to buy ANP shoes.

Naturally, we are shocked by this kind of marketing strategy. It reminds us that our bureaucracy can become a most effective tool for business people wanting to monopolize their products.

Another interesting question, of course, is how ANP obtained the relevant circular letter from the directorate general. We can imagine how cleverly the ANP people lobbied the ministry's officials.

Having been independent for so long, Indonesia must begin cultivating a greater maturity among our people in regard to their thoughts and behavior. A glorification of uniformity implies a denial of the character and dignity of the individual.

From elementary school through senior high school, our children are made to perform an overwhelming variety of uniform tasks. To a certain degree, uniform clothes are acceptable. Extending this uniformity to shoes, however, seems excessive.

To accept this endeavor is to open the possibility for officials and businesspeople to make compulsory uniform school bags, ribbons, hats etc.

We certainly oppose the idea of uniform shoes. The matter, however, does not stop there. The question of how ANP was able to obtain a letter of endorsement from the Ministry of Education and Culture is worth examining.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta