IPDN rector suspended after student's death

M. Taufiqurrahman and Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Bandung
The Home Ministry suspended I Nyoman Sumaryadi from his post as rector at the Institute of Public Administration (IPDN) on Wednesday following the public outcry over the death of sophomore Cliff Muntu at the college.
Acting Home Minister Widodo Adi Sucipto said Sumaryadi would be suspended for the duration of internal reform at IPDN, which includes an investigation in the death of Cliff and other suspicious incidents at the college in the past.
"He is suspended so that the evaluation can go smoothly and will not be a burden for him," Widodo told reporters after a ceremony swearing in the members of the newly established Presidential Advisory Council.
Yohannes Kalo, an official with the Home Ministry, has been installed in Sumaryadi's place.
Sumaryadi said he would accept the government's decision to suspend him.
"As a civil servant and a professor, I am ready to be dismissed anytime. After all, I can still teach," Sumaryadi told reporters at the IPDN campus in Jatinangor, Sumedang, West Java.
The IPDN is currently under the management of the Home Ministry, but in a Monday cabinet meeting, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the establishment of an inter-departmental team that will start reform at IPDN, including transferring its management to the Education Ministry.
The team has been told it has two months to change the militaristic culture of the college that is blamed for the death of Cliff.
The President also ordered the end of all activities that involve junior-senior student relationships.
To break the cycle of violence among students, Yudhoyono has also decided that IPDN will not enroll new students for the 2007 academic year.
The government has also announced that it will rehash the curriculum of the college, which was established during the New Order era to train middle-ranking government officials.
This is not the first time the government has intervened in the college in the wake of violent incidents.
In September 2003, then Home Minister Hari Sabarno dismissed rector Sutrisno following the fatal beating of student Wahyu Hidayat.
Little changed after his dismissal, however, with many observers saying that the situation got worse instead.
It has been alleged that the college's faculty collected illegal levies from local governments that sent students to IPDN, with money also being taken from the stipend paid to the students.
The government annually spends around Rp 150 billion (US$16.4 million) to run IPDN.