When Corruption Perpetrators Revoked Their Bachelor's Degree

JAKARTA - 'Binus University does not hesitate to revoke the diploma of Binus alumni who are proven to have committed corruption'. That is the caption attached to a photo from the Twitter account @arifz_tempo.

The tweet contains a photo of a projector with someone hoping to be on the stand, with a collage of photos of clothes with the words KPK detainees with the caption 'Binus University does not hesitate to revoke the diploma of Binus alumni who are proven to have committed corruption' under it. The photo was added with the caption, 'This campus will revoke the degree if the graduates are proven to be corrupt'.

This campus will revoke the bachelor's degree if the graduates are proven to be corrupt. pic.twitter.com/Kq6NPRXsxF

- arif zulkifli (@arifz_tempo) December 11, 2019

Binus University has issued this policy for a long time, 2012. This information was published on Kompas.com with the title Corruption, Certificate Revoked, which was issued on July 27, 2012. Binus University Chancellor Harjanto Prabowo said at that time, this policy was an effort and commitment of the university to fight corruption. This policy will always be reminded of every bachelor graduation.

College, for him, does not just teach science. But also educate the character of students. Therefore, apart from scientific education, discipline, honesty, and anti-corruption education are also instilled during lectures that must be implemented in the community.

"Therefore, if it is proven that they are corrupt, it means that the undergraduate has failed to implement higher education values so that his diploma deserves to be revoked," said Harjanto.

This year, the KPK and the Muhammadiyah Central Board (PP) are committed to building an anti-corruption culture at all levels of education held by Muhammadiyah. Launching from kpk.go.id, this was realized by the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) by KPK chairman Agus Rahardjo and PP Muhammadiyah Chairman Haedar Nashir, Thursday, July 18, at the PP Muhammadiyah Headquarters, Yogyakarta.

PP Muhammadiyah data in January 2019, the number of AUM was recorded as many as 14,346 at the TK / TPQ ABA-PAUD level, 2,604 SD / MI, 1,772 SMP / MTs, 1,143 SMA / SMK / MA, 174 universities, 102 Islamic boarding schools, 6,270 mosques and 5,689 musala.

The consequence of this agreement is the revocation of certificates of alumnus of Muhammadiyah educational institutions if they are proven to be corrupt. This was done by Muhammadiyah as a sanction and in order to have a deterrent effect. "This is necessary as part of efforts to prevent and eradicate corruption. At least it can have a deterrent effect," said Haedar after the signing of the MoU, as reported by Tempo.

The discourse of revoking an academic degree for a convict of corruption has surfaced in 2018 after a proposal by the Council of Professors (MDGB) of Legal Entity State Universities (PTN-BH) which asked for the revocation of academic degrees for corruptors. This discourse caused a polemic.

Launching Media Indonesia with a news entitled Campus Has the Right to Revoke Academic Degrees, the Director General of Learning and Student Affairs of the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education (at that time), Intan Ahmad said that the revocation of academic degrees could be done by the related universities.

"(Institutions) that have the right to revoke the academic degree are those that issue the relevant diploma," said Intan, Wednesday, April 18 2018.

The penalty for revoking this academic degree can be given from a judge's decision regarding a corruption case. Spokesperson for the Supreme Court (MA) Suhadi stated that judges in their decisions may include clauses to revoke certain rights of corruption convicts, including revocation of academic degrees.

"Judges have their own considerations whether the person concerned is eligible to be deprived of his rights (to hold an academic degree) or not, like revocation of political rights. However, the deprivation of certain rights of the defendant should not be carried out carelessly, it must have a correlation with the case that befell him," said Suhadi.

Launching from this year's Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) data, of the 22 corruption cases committed by members of the Republic of Indonesia DPR for 2014-2019, some of them are graduates of well-known universities, some of whom are high school / high school graduates. From that data, at most from UI, namely 2 people, the rest are spread across various campuses, each one person.

Among them, Trisakti University, 17 August 1945 University Semarang, Makassar State University, Jakarta State University, Sultan Agung Islamic University, STIEM KALPATARU, STIAMI, STTNAS Yogyakarta, STIA YAPPAN (Jakarta), Hasanuddin University, Tanjung Pura University, Diponegoro University, Institute Technology Bandung, Brawijaya University, Padjajaran University, and Lampung University.