Dozens of lecturers at Denpasar's Indonesian Arts Institute (ISI) gathered at the institute's hall Thursday protesting a ministerial decree annulling a recent rectorial election, instructing the defeated incumbent to hold a reelection.
In his decree, the national education minister claimed that the current ISI Senate (council of senior professors) lacked the required authority to hold the election.
In the March 5 election, incumbent rector I Wayan Rai S, seeking a reelection, was defeated 8-15 by I Nyoman Catra, a popular figure among lecturers and students.
Rector-elect Catra said that according to the ministerial decree issued early this month, 12 out of the senate's 23 members didn't possess the appropriate documents required for senate membership.
Therefore, the election result in which the 12 members took part was deemed invalid.
"The decree states that all members of senate must complete the required documents before the senate can convene to hold another election," Catra said.
The decree also stipulates that the next election should be held by Aug. 26 at the latest.
"But we refuse to do that, since we still need to clarify several things about the decree itself first," Catra told a press conference Thursday.
"Among other things, we question the decree's authenticity since the incumbent rector, who currently possesses the decree, refuses to show the decree to the senate's members."
Moreover, the rector also refused to make copies of the decree available for inspection by the senate's members and institute's faculty.
"How can we tell whether the decree is real or not since the current rector fails to provide us with a copy," Catra said.
Meanwhile, I Made Bandem, a senior senate member, questioned the logic behind the decree.
"The current senate is the same senate that in the last couple of years has been working together with the incumbent to advance the institution's goals," he said.
"During all these years, the integrity of the senate and its members has never been questioned by the rector or the minister. Why all of a sudden, when the incumbent was defeated in a democratic process, the senate's integrity is being questioned?"
Bandem is one of the most senior and respected figures in Denpasar's ISI. He was one of its founders and also former two-time rector of prestigious Yogyakarta's ISI.
A source at ISI, who refused to be named because he wasn't authorized to speak to journalists, revealed that the minister issued the decree after being lobbied by several of the ministry's high-ranking officials known to be very close with the incumbent.
"After the election, the incumbent contacted those officials in Jakarta. A high-ranking official then visited ISI several times on the pretext of verifying the election result," he said.
"In fact, the official spent his time intimidating Catra's supporters, telling them to switch sides to support the incumbent rector."
When the intimidation failed, the rector and his backers in Jakarta lobbied the minister to annul the election result.
"They went as far as providing the minister with false information about senate members including a respected figure like Bandem," the source said.
He believed that the rector's strategy would backfire.
Meanwhile, Rai refused to give any comment to the journalists.
His assistant told the awaiting journalists that, "The rector does not wish to discuss this matter with outsiders, particularly journalists".
