Universities move to put reform back on course

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

University communities throughout the country, particularly those in Java, have committed themselves to a nationwide "moral pressure movement" aimed at helping put the country's reform agenda back on track, says Gadjah Mada University (UGM) rector Sofian Effendi.

"We have agreed to meet by the end of this month, or the beginning of next month at the latest, to set up a national steering committee (for the movement)," he told journalists on Saturday after officially closing a three-day seminar on reform in Yogyakarta.

Sofian said the committee would comprise representatives from all the universities nationwide.

The meeting is scheduled to prepare an agenda of activities that universities will partake in ahead of the 2004 general elections, based on the conclusions of the seminar, he added.

The seminar, which began on Thursday, recommended that universities should play a more significant role in the national reform movement, which many say has not been effective as evidenced by increased corruption, human rights abuses and other cases of extreme violence.

"We have all agreed that universities are the only institutions that have the moral authority to push for the right kinds of change," Sofian said.

He said that with a national movement, the universities would provide and disseminate proper information to voters which outline the necessary criteria for the country's next administration, so citizens would not be duped into voting for anti-reformists in next year's elections.

Sofian felt quite strongly that the universities could serve as a strong moral force to put the nation's reform movement back on course in a peaceful, constitutional manner.

The seminar, hosted by UGM to help Indonesia reformulate the goals of the reform movement and put it back on track, ended with some recommendations to resolve the various crises the country was facing.

The recommendations included the need for revisions of the amended 1945 Constitution by involving public participation, so as to be more representative and comprehensive.

The highly respected participants at the seminar also concluded that there was a need for the country to produce clean, intelligent and strong leaders capable of creating mutual trust as social capital.

It was also suggested that a collective leadership would be better for crisis-ridden Indonesia under the current condition.

Djamaluddin Ancok of the UGM's School of Psychology, which chaired a session to draft the recommendations, highlighted the need to make the seminar's results an "anticipatory concept" in case the outcome of the upcoming elections failed to satisfy the nation.

"We have agreed that the electoral process should be carried out according to the Constitution. But should there be something wrong with it, we are ready to come up with a concept of collective leadership as an alternative for the country," he said.

Sofian further said that the country, home to some 212 million people, was immersed in an emergency situation, for which it is in a dire need of a proper solution to its complicated problems.

An opportunity for such a solution would be available to the citizenry in the 2004 elections, he added.

However, he said that as the election was just a few months away, cooperation was most urgent among all community members to make the 2004 polls a success and elect a capable, responsible administration.

Calls for a revolution to mend the country's chaotic conditions also surfaced in the three-day seminar. But Sofian said that he personally saw the idea would be ineffective due to its unpredictable risks.

"A revolution would indeed create change quickly, but it's too unpredictable. We can have a revolution but the person who will take over power could be worse than those of the present time. We don't want such a risk," he said.