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Studying, teaching atheism now OK for UGM students
Jakarta Post - January 7, 2014
"The ban has been revoked by the university authorities because, after evaluation, a clause in the regulation was deemed to have multiple interpretations," UGM chief spokesperson Wiwit Wijayanti told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
The clause in question by human rights activists is Article 12 in the UGM Rector's Regulation No. 711/SK/HT/2013 on UGM student conduct guidelines. The regulation, endorsed by UGM rector Pratikno, was brought into effect on Aug. 26, 2013.
In a statement released by UGM on Dec. 23, Pratikno said the article was revoked and the regulation would be reviewed later for the sake of UGM's principles and commitment to improve and strengthen the spirit of democracy, plurality and nationality.
"We understand that the inclusion of the clause has resulted in multiple interpretations and we sense negative impacts in the future," Pratikno wrote in the statement.
Pratikno also apologized for the emergence of the issue due to neglect in including Article 12. "There is no intention whatsoever to restrict students' diversity. We instead develop the spirit of respecting diversity," he said.
The controversy surrounding Article 12, which restricts the religious lives of UGM students, surfaced after a number of human rights activists in Yogyakarta voiced their protest to the UGM rector through text messages.
"We raised the issue with the UGM rector earlier," said Valentina Sri Wijiyati from the IDEA group, which provides advocacy in economic, social and cultural issues.
However, she said she was not satisfied with the rector's statement because it was issued through UGM's public relations and later spread through social media.
Separately, Yogyakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH) director Samsudin Nurseha said that the UGM rector's statement had not yet resulted in formal changes to Article 12 and added that Article 12 violated the Civil Politics Rights Covenant, which had been ratified by Indonesia with the issuance of Law No. 12/2005.
"In the law, a state that ratifies the International Civil Politic Rights Covenant is obliged to protect freedom of religion of its citizens in accordance with their respective faiths," said Samsudin.
He added the UGM rector's regulation also violated Law No. 39/1999 on basic human rights. "If UGM has good intentions, it should immediately revise the regulation formally, as failing to do so would damage UGM as an educational institution," said Samsudin.
Wiwit rejected the notion that the regulation was issued due to influence from intolerant groups whose presence is gaining momentum within the UGM campus.
"Initially, the article emerged to prevent students from joining certain movements in which some of them had gone missing, but the article came to have multiple interpretations and should be improved," said Wiwit.
Teaching or learning atheism is often linked to communism which is still illegal according the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) decree banning communist teachings.
Meanwhile, despite its status as a special province, the Yogyakarta provincial administration has yet to show a strong commitment to fulfilling and protecting the basic human rights of its residents.
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