Institut Pegawai Dalam Negeri (Institute of National Public Officers) is a collge-level school that supposes to teach their students on how to become a good public servant high-level officers (county leaders, city mayors, governors, etc). In theory, its graduates suppose to lead district governments and lead them nicely. But as in every college-level insitute in Indonesia, there is something inherently wrong in this IPDN: the tradition of pressures enacted by seniors to juniors and the brutal behaviors of majority of the students.
Three years ago, a murder done by seven or more seniors was revealed. They brutally harrassed their juniors simply because he walked past the senior dormitories without their consents. Another ridiculous reason added was the fact that the junior came from different region from the seniors.
The seniors was tried, and the institute was promised to be reformed. The name was to be changed to Institut Ilmu Pemerintahan (Governing Educations Institute)
But a year later, another brutality occured. Several students (called Praja) brutally harassed a bike-taxi driver. This is followed by series of other brutal behaviors shown by seniors to juniors, and by students of different regions toward others unlike them. The Institute has been on spotlights ever since, but still the brutalities occured.
What could make the institute resistant to change?
Money and Prestige and Corruptions.
You see, many of the Prajas pay their way into admissions. Some of them even pay enough money to buy cars. Some of them have parents whose jobs are government officers and they have access to persuade IPDN staffs to let their children in. Some has parents who are high level military officers and want their children to be a high civil officers. Some are simply children who are raised in a rich but corrupt families and their parents indulge their instincts for corruptions when they force their children to come into IPDN.
They and their parents hope that when they graduate and become civil officers, they can tap into the attractive corruption pipelines and enrich themselves through mark-ups and stealing subsidies. Once they are on high enough levels in bureacracies, they will gain prestiges and tributes will automatically flow into their coffers, submitted by those corrupt officers who will do anything to maintain their positions and inflate their bank accounts. The high level officers will collaborate with the ruling politicians because the politicians simply need follower to secure their positions.
Once inside, the students will face many others corrupt-thingking students, some of them even don't have high enough intelligence to follow college-level educations. Some of then are so uneducated and wild that the only way they can talk through debates is by using their punches and kicks. Some students are even able to intimidate teachers by thretening that their parents will stop supplying tributes and will sending hitmen to harrass the teachers.
And to make matter worse, many of the teachers are military educated or are following military way of disciplining their students. They will let "strict disciplining" occur if that will make their situations under control and the rotting situations inside don't get smelled by people outside.
But the rancid smells had found their way outside, through the unruly behaviours of the students and the staffs themselves. First a student was injured mortally, then another student died, another almost lost his cornea, a female student was admitted when she was pregnant outside marriage, and the peak was when a gang of students murdered a bike-taxi driver.
The incumbent goverment has promised to reform the school and refuse to disband the system because "the system is good, but the personnel are not".
On Saturday, March 8th, 2008, five students punched and kicked a fried rice vendor simply because they could not find a better way to talk to the vendor to leave their school because no outsiders are allowed to come inside.
The dormitories of the students are called barracks.
A teacher who has written about the corruptions inside was expelled and has become a bit of celebrity two years ago.
The students are not allowed to eat outside the school premises.
One of the known brutal students was admitted as a high-ranked civil officer in a county in Sumatra.
The brutal traditions continue till today.
