T

he academic senate at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta has been urged to reinstate academic freedom as it has been seen to have failed to fully implement such freedom in recent years.

The call emerged following a recent ban by the university on a discussion of a book written by Canadian feminist author Irshad Manji, reportedly due to pressure by hardliners.

Lecturer AAGN Ari Dwipayana from the university’s School of Social and Political Sciences (Fisipol) said that reconstructing the meaning of academic freedom was urgent in order to meet current political and social situations.

“The UGM Statute stipulates that academic freedom is interpreted according to each current era. In today’s context, [the meaning of academic freedom] needs to be reconstructed,” Ari told The Jakarta Post Tuesday.

Providing examples, Ari added that during the New Order regime, academic freedom according to the 1992 statute was only given to lecturers while giving lectures in class, carrying out research and providing analysis on the research.

He said UGM had a number of different versions of the statute: from 1949, 1950, 1977 and 1992, as it was continually amended.

He expressed his hope that by reinterpreting the meaning of academic freedom, there would be no further bans on forums like the recent discussion on Irshad Manji’s book, entitled Allah, Liberty and Love.

Ari also expressed his concern over the decline in academic freedom and freedom of speech at UGM, saying that the ban of Manji’s discussion was not the first to have occurred at the campus.

Arie Sujito, another Fisipol lecturer, concurred, saying that a discussion presenting “Indonesianist” Max Lane from Australia was banned by UGM in 2007 because of similar pressure from a particular group of people. Lane was considered to hold left-wing political views.

Director of UGM’s Postgraduate Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies, Zainal Abidin Bagir, told the same story. Speaking in a recent discussion, he said that some two months ago a discussion on Papua that was held at the center was forcefully dispersed by a group of people.

Hasrul Halili, a lecturer at UGM’s School of Law, said a number of lecturers had once been summoned by the university because they had given lectures considered “confusing” to their students. “This is really threatening academic freedom,” Hasrul told the same discussion forum.

A noted UGM political expert, Ichlasul Amal, was once terrorized by a group within the community because of his academic statements about certain issues and the bill on Yogyakarta’s special status. An angry mob arrived at his house, telling him to leave Yogyakarta because of his differing statements on the issues.

“It’s a real tragedy if we lose our academic freedom,” Ari Dwipayana said.

Chairman of the Yogyakarta branch of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Idham Samawi, said his party would deploy some 6,000 personnel from its paramilitary task force to condemn violence, instead expressing love and peace and encouraging respect for pluralism.

“We officially condemn violence and intimidation committed in the name of religion,” Idham said.

He agreed, however, that the rise of political tensions and increased violence in the province may have something to do with the prolonged deliberations of the bill on Yogyakarta special status in the House of Representatives in Jakarta.

Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X has urged the local police to investigate the violent dispersal of Manji’s discussion at the LKiS office, which injured several participants. So far, no one has been arrested or named a suspect in the case.