Nurfika Osman – Bowing to intense criticism and pressure from activists and academics, the government has finally decided to recall a series of 10 books on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono circulating in junior high schools in Central Java.
"The books have created so much controversy across the country that we have spent so much energy on this issue and we are now exhausted," Edy Pramono, head of the Youth and Sports Affairs Office in Tegal district, told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday. "Therefore, we are recalling the books. The pressure was extraordinary."
Edy said the recall was decided after a meeting with an alliance of students concerned about education in the district and at the behest of the district legislative council.
The recall, he said, was already under way and district authorities were cooperating with the books' publisher and local education groups. "We are going to send the books to the central library of Tegal district so that everyone can read the books, not only junior high school students," he added.
Replacing the books on school library bookshelves will be texts like "Cultivation of Orchids," "Cultivation of Catfish" and other titles aimed at helping boost students' entrepreneurial skills.
The books on the president, produced using money from the state budget's Special Allotment Fund (DAK), had been distributed to 87 junior high schools in Tegal in December.
The books have titles such as "Getting Closer to SBY: Arranging Words, Composing Notes," "SBY: Long Journey to the Palace," "SBY: Window to the Heart" and "SBY: The Beauty of a Violence-Free Country."
Activists have said the books were obsequious and insensitive because Yudhoyono is still in power, but the Ministry of National Education has brushed aside suggestions political motives were behind their distribution.
Tegal's Youth and Sports Affairs Office stressed it had also circulated books on other important figures like the country's first president and vice president, Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, and women's rights activist Raden Ajeng Kartini.
Fasli Djalal, the deputy education minister, had previously said the books would not be recalled because they had been reviewed by an independent panel of education experts and had met all the requirements for school texts.
Diah Haryanti, the Education Ministry's head of curriculum, however, has said the review panel that approved the books will be re-evaluated to prevent a repeat of the embarrassing episode.