Four important universities in Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Bandung and Bogor are on the menu for the voracious multinationals and the International Monetary Fund. International capital is breaking into the temples of knowledge through the new laws of financial autonomy. This is the international policy of capital, to run education on the basis of market laws. This so-called democratic government is completely submitted to the dictatorship of international capital which wants its loans to be paid back with extra profit. This means that all 70 state universities in the archipelago will be forced to increase the fees and impose other cuts.
Universities expect thousands of their students to drop out.
They will not be able to pay for the fee hikes. As a direct result of the financial crisis two years ago 8 million young people dropped out of education. Capitalism is hitting the weakest. If this movement is linked to the workers' movement awakened by the price increases of fuel and electricity, it can shape the next stage of mobilisation in Indonesia. There is plenty of money which could be used to fund education.