Camelia Pasandaran – At least 40 University of Indonesia professors are calling for the resignation of university president Gumilar Soemantri.
They are condemning Gumilar for, among other things, his decision to award an honorary doctorate degree to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.
Gumilar's decision to award the honorary doctorate in humanities and sciences last month provoked severe criticism because of a string of abuse cases involving Indonesian domestic workers in Saudi Arabia.
Thamrin Tomagola, a UI sociologist acting as the professors' spokesman, told the Jakarta Globe that Gumilar did not have the authority to confer the degree and it should have been awarded by the university's board of trustees (MWA).
Thamrin said Gumilar illegally dissolved the board, depriving it of the power to confer degrees.
"The MWA is still the highest regulatory body at the university," Thamrin said. He added that the law Gumilar used to dissolve the board, the Education Entity Law, was no longer valid as it was annulled by the Constitutional Court in 2009.
Thamrin and several professors concerned about Gumilar's actions gathered at the home of former Environment Minister and UI professor Emil Salim on Thursday morning to discuss the issue.
"On Monday, Emil Salim will deliver a speech at the School of Economics of the University of Indonesia and will talk about the meeting," Thamrin said.
Thamrin accused Gumilar of neglecting young lecturers by not making them permanent employees; intervening in the recruitment of sociology post-graduate students; increasing student fees four times; and failing to keep the university's finances transparent.
The MWA plans to hold Gumilar accountable. "The MWA is the body that selected and installed him. A meeting will be conducted to decide Gumilar's fate," Thamrin said.
"If Gumilar rejects the MWA's decision, we will increase the pressure to oust him." UI spokeswoman Devi Rahmawati said the rector would step down as long as the process was legitimate. "He has nothing to lose," she said.
Since Gumilar took over in 2007, Devi said he had enacted many changes. The university had a Rp 600 billion ($70 million) budget when he was appointed, according to Devi, which rose to Rp 2.4 trillion on his watch.
In addition, Devi said the university had an integrated financial system that centralized operational and research expenses. In the new system, all funds disbursed to professors for research or comparison study were approved by the rector.
"UI is the one and only state university audited by an external company, and we got a good audit result," she said.
Devi added that a new culture had been fostered by Gumilar that gave younger professors more opportunities to assume leadership positions. "The result is visible. We can now see deans and professors who are just 35 years old," she said.
Devi said the university understood the controversy surrounding the decision to award the honorary doctorate to King Abdullah, whose government is widely accused of condoning the torture, rape and abuse of Indonesian migrant workers.
"The process leading to the award started three years ago," she said. "It doesn't mean we're ignoring public sentiment. There is opposition now only because of the domestic work ers issue."