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KPK honors students for honesty
Model students: Pauline Arifin, the Corruption Eradication Commissionâs (KPK) director for education and community services, pins an emblem of appreciation on Muhammad Tsaqif Wismadi, one of five Yogyakarta State Senior High School 3 students who discovered and made public dishonest practices surrounding the recent national exams
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span class="inline inline-center">Model students: Pauline Arifin, the Corruption Eradication Commission's (KPK) director for education and community services, pins an emblem of appreciation on Muhammad Tsaqif Wismadi, one of five Yogyakarta State Senior High School 3 students who discovered and made public dishonest practices surrounding the recent national exams. JP/Bambang Muryanto
Five students at state senior high school SMU 3 Yogyakarta were honored by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Wednesday for their honesty in not using questions leaked online when sitting the national exams.
The students also had the courage to report the case to the school and one of them even sent an email to Gadjah Mada University (UGM) advising it not to use the exam scores in deciding student admissions this year.
'KPK leaders wish to show the highest appreciation for their courage in voicing the truth. They had the chance to use the leaked questions but chose not to use them,' Pauline Arifin of KPK's education and public service directorate said after presenting the honor to the five students at the school.
Pauline attached pins bearing the phrase jujur itu hebat (being honest is great) on the five students, namely Muhammad Tsaqif Wismadi, Inria Astari, Khalid Umar, Dzar Bela Hanifa and Daffa Abhista.
Recognition was also shown to the school's principal, Dwi Rini Wulandari, and Yogyakarta Municipal Education Agency head Edy Heri Suasana.
Pauline said it was the first time that the antigraft commission had ever honored students for showing honesty.
She expressed hope they would inspire others. 'We want to encourage people to have the courage to stand up for truth and justice,' Pauline said.
A day before the national exams, which were conducted from April 13'15, Tsaqif and his friends came across leaked exam questions on the Internet. When they sat the exams the following day, they found that the questions were almost the same as those they had found online.
They reported the matter to the school, and persuaded their whole grade to agree not to use the leaked questions. Tsaqif then sent an email to UGM, calling on the university not to take the exam scores into account in its new student admissions.
Tsaqif said that he had received insults and threats after sending the email to UGM, but had not been deterred.
'My father gave me many lessons on honesty and integrity,' said Tsaqif.
Inria shared her classmate's opinion. 'Three years of hard study will mean nothing if we use the leaked questions,' said the former chair of the high school's student body.
She said they had agreed not to cheat on the exam because it was a form of corruption. 'I chose to be honest because that's what all religions teach,' Inria said.
Local education head Ery described the students as 'heroes of honesty', explaining that following the students' report, his office had reported the matter to the Culture and Elementary and Secondary Education Ministry, leading to the sites leaking the questions to be closed.
'We will tell the public about their good deeds,' Edy said.
The ministry announced last week that 30 of 11,730 exam material packages nationwide had been uploaded online to Google Drive.
The national exam documents were reportedly available online for three days before being deleted by Google following a request from the ministry. The ministry has yet to decide if students in Aceh and Yogyakarta will have to retake their exams.
In spite of an intensive probe, the National Police has yet to name a suspect in the case.
So far, police have questioned 13 witnesses and confiscated a number of pieces of evidence, including computers used by employees of a state-owned printing firm.
