Ministry of Education and Culture hijacked by groups undermining state ideology, expert says

Jakarta, NU Online
Dictionary of Indonesian History Volume I Nation Formation (1900-1950) and Dictionary of Indonesian History Volume II Nation Building (1951-1998) have reaped polemics. The book published by the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud) in 2017 contains the name of a person who went out of prison for being involved in several terrorism cases, namely Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, especially in volume II on page 11.

 

However, the narrative chosen seems to neutralize the man who just got free in early 2021. The book chooses the words "accused" and "considered". In fact, Abu Bakar Ba'asyir was legally proven to have played major roles in various movements to undermine the state.

 

"... accused of making incitement and rejecting Pancasila as the sole principle and accused of being one of the leaders of the Jamaah Islamiyah movement which is considered to have links with Al-Qaeda ..." linguistics expert of UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta Makyun Subuki said that the diction selection was a form of neutralization of a figure who has repeatedly been a suspect in any terrorism case.

 

"Surprisingly, certain figures who have been jailed several times because they have been proven to undermine the state ideology - and there are still many copies of the video or news circulating today - are neutralized through a number of lexical forms that assume the error is possible and uncertain," he told NU Online here on Wednesday (21/4).

 

Furthermore, the Head of the Indonesian Language and Literature Education Department (PBSI) said that this action was a form of affirmation for those who undermine the state through discourses played by the state institution, in this case is the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud). On this stand, the ministry has been "hijacked" by those who are close to the figures.

 

"Affirmations of certain figures who clearly undermine the state ideology through official channels of discursive practice of state institutions are not only unjustified, but also show how these institutions have been hijacked by those who also have ideologies that undermine the state (ideology)," the alumnus of the Ash-Shiddiqiyah Islamic Boarding School, Kebon Jeruk, Jakarta, said.

 

Therefore, Makyun firmly said that an apology was insufficient in this case. According to him, this must be investigated because it is related to certain ideological infiltrations that could undermine the state.

 

"Investigations on the possibility of ideological infiltration within the Ministry of Education and Culture must immediately be carried out," he concluded.

 

Contributor: Syakir NF
Editor: Sudarto Murtaufiq