A number of students demonstrate while blocking the road by burning used tires in front of the University of Muhammadiyah (Unismuh) campus in Makassar, South Sulawesi, on Thursday (26/7). They reject any form of the sale of state assets because it would harm the state and lead to the decline of people\'s welfare.
Amid changing times, student protests are not as big as they once were. Despite remaining critical, students have changed their movements in line with technological advancements.
As of Thursday (26/7/2018) afternoon, traffic still snarled on Jl. Sultan Alauddin in front of Makassar Muhammadiyah University (Unismuh) in South Sulawesi. Dozens of Unismuh students had staged a protest in response to various problems, including state oil and gas company Pertamina’s plan to sell some of its assets.
Apart from taking up a part of the road, the students also burned tires. The traffic jam worsened after the students held a salt-transporting truck hostage and used it as an impromptu podium for orations.
“We are taking it to the streets to raise public awareness that Indonesia is not OK right now. There are many problems, including economic ones, that are not properly tackled,” Unismuh student Amri Amrullah said in his speech.
A few hours before, the local Pancasila Youth Student Movement also held a demonstration. Hailing from several Makassar-based universities, the students held their protest on an overpass. Among other issues, they protested the judicial review on the term limit rule for vice presidential candidates.
The protest was led by Hasrul Kaharuddin from the Indonesian Muslim University. He said he had been involved in countless street protests in the past decade. “For me, ‘street parliaments’ remain an effective form of voicing our ideas. Of course, our pattern has changed. In the old times, people often see student protesters as anarchists. Now, we hold peace protests,” Hasrul said.
Makassar is infamous for its student protests over the past few decades. Many of these protests have turned into violent brawls that led to arrests. Nowadays, however, things are changing. Many said that local students were adapting to global changes, including in technology.
Local student activists acknowledged that social media and technological developments had affected how they held protests. Social media is now seen as an effective form of spreading critical think pieces and ensuring that people’s voices are heard.
“We are aware that the important thing of our movement is to make sure that our messages are delivered. If we can make something viral [online] that policymakers have to consider it, why not do it?” said Makassar State Islamic University student Ghalib Al Idrus. Ghalib is also an executive at the South and West Sulawesi branch of the Islamic Students Association (HMI).
Changes can also be seen in the many choices of interesting activities available for students in universities. The Hasanuddin University (Unhas), for instance, has various students’ arts, sports and discussion groups that keep students busy and make them not as ferocious as their seniors had been years ago.
The Unhas Student Search and Rescue (SAR) unit, for example, is popular among students and is often involved in evacuating victims in local disasters. Activities such as robotics competitions are also popular among students.
Unhas deputy rector of student affairs Arsunan Arsin said that, as more students were actively involved in academic and non-academic activities in the campus, students’ movement was not as violent as it used to be.
There is a unique sense of pride in students who gained academic and other achievements. “However, the negative side effect of these academic activities is that they don’t boost the students’ social connections. We will surely improve this,” Arsunan said.
Discussion
Group discussions and studies are also on the rise – not only in universities but also among the general public. Popular topics include public policies, which used to be the major theme of protests. Religion topics, including caliphates, are also popular. “We try to monitor everything,” Arsunan said.
In Malang, East Java, head of the local branch of the Islamic Students Movement (PMII), Ragil Setyo Cahyono said that radicalism was gaining popularity in public discussions. “Especially on how the millennial generation spends so much time online, amid the flurry of hoaxes, radical ideas and political hate speeches based on ethnic, religious, racial and intergroup sentiments,” he said.
In Yogyakarta, Romli Muallim, head of the Student Executive Board (BEM) of Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University (UIN) said that the BEM promoted three major ideas, namely culture, nationalism and Islam. These three things are formulated as cores of efforts to encourage students to safeguard national unity. “These three things unite the nation,” Romli said.
Times may have changed. However, students are still critical in fighting for people’s welfare, despite lacking the ferocity of student movement from decades ago. (NCA/WER)
