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Radical ideologies thrive on campuses
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Security talks -- Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto (right) talks with National Intelligence Agency (BIN) head Budi Gunawan (left) before a limited Cabinet meeting at the Presidential Office in Jakarta on Dec. 29. (Antara/Widodo S. Jusuf)
T
he growing support for radical ideologies, including those calling for the establishment of a transnational Muslim caliphate, at Indonesian universities has raised alarm over the future of the country’s unity and pluralism.
Such concern was evident on Thursday when Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto gathered dozens of vice rectors of student affairs from state and private universities in Greater Jakarta.
During the gathering, the minister told the members of academia that Indonesia was facing a new nonconventional threat to national security: the rise of radical ideologies that threaten the state ideology of Pancasila.
These ideologies, he said, were also thriving on campuses.
“Pancasila is our nation’s way of life, and when people begin comparing it to other philosophies, this already serves as a warning. There’s already an early attempt to obstruct our state ideology,” Wiranto said. “Any ideology that opposes Pancasila, may it be called right-wing, left-wing, or an extremist ideology, cannot be disseminated on university campuses.”
The gathering came amid the growing perception that Islamic radicalism is gaining ground across the country, with religious groups once considered as fringe now becoming more assertive and even playing a prominent role in the recent Jakarta election.
State Islamic University (UIN) Syarief Hidayatullah Jakarta vice rector of student affairs Yusron Razak acknowledged there were groups of students at the university that showed interest in the idea of a caliphate or Muslim rule.
