TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Violence in our campuses continues to happen.
Masked as extracurricular activities with the ‘seniors are more powerful than junior’ spirit, this string of violence that end up with losses of lives happen every year and as if it has become a routine.
Recently, two students from the Indonesian Islamic University in Yogyakarta were dead after taking part in a nature lover training in Mount Lawu last week.
Syaits Asyam and Muhammad Fadli died after their seniors allegedly tortured them during the training.
Previously on 10 January, Amirullah Adityas Putra, a freshman at the Indonesian Merchant Marine Academy (STIP), was also dead after his seniors tortured him.
These two incidents have added to the list of violence in campus that leads to deaths.
The government should formulate strict policies to prevent violence in our campuses from happening again.
It has been proven that the existing regulations, such as the Decree of the Director General of Higher Education Number 38 of 2000 that bans hazing, cannot prevent these violent acts from happening again in the campuses.
Such a regulation is like ‘a riffle without bullets’ because it does not include sanctions. As a result, those hazing activities are still common an widespread.
The orientation program or the introduction to ways of learning in campuses is actually a common thing to do. New students need to adapt to new learning ways, to interact with lectures or to find learning materials at the library.
However, what often happens is that the orientation is done in the form of military-style training and becomes an opportunity for seniors to commit violence against their juniors.
Senior students also often treat new students as their innocent targets. They force the new students to carry out activities not related to learning process at all. Imitating a porn film scene, for example, is clearly not an educated activity. It is this type of orientation program that must be completely banned.
The government must revise the regulations and include severe sanctions. It must be understood that using violence to hurt others deliberately is a maltreatment crime. Organizing a program or creating a condition so that the maltreatment can be done can be considered as a planned maltreatment that should be given a more severe sanction, especially if it causes injuries or leads to loss of lives.
Given that sanctions imposed are only imposed to students who commit the action, it must considered extending the punishment. Considering that those hazing activities and extracurricular activities are known and receive permits from the university, lectures and rectors must also be held responsible.
Another type of sanction can be in the form of lowering the accreditation of the university. Through this way, the rector will be more serious in supervising activities in campus that can potentially cause violence.
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