LPDP Scholarship Interviewer Calls Student Hijab Desert Human, Fadli Zon: LPDP From People's Money Why Islamophobia?

Gerindra Party politician Fadli Zon. (Instagram @fadlizon)

JAKARTA - Gerindra Party politician Fadli Zon believes that normalizing Islamophobic behavior is not justified in the sphere of education.

This was conveyed by Fadli in response to the alleged racism of the Chancellor of the Kalimantan Institute of Technology (ITK) Budi Santoso Purwokartiko when interviewing prospective recipients of the Education Fund Management Institute (LPDP) scholarship.

Fadli also asked the candidate recipients of the Indonesian International Student Mobility Awards (IISMA) LPDP program, the results of the ITK Chancellor's sorting should be re-selected.

"It is better if those exposed to Islamophobia are stopped immediately, the results of the selection are evaluated," said Fadli, quoted from his Twitter account, @fadlizon, Tuesday, May 3.

The ITK Chancellor uploaded a statement containing ethnic, racial, religious, intergroup discrimination (SARA) on social media regarding his interview with LPDP scholarship recipients. He wrote that female students who cover their heads (hijab) in the style of desert humans are different from other female students who are open-minded and intelligent.

As far as his experience goes to education in various countries, Fadli said that belief and religion are not included in the mechanism for evaluating scholarship recipients. The DPR member said that the LPDP scholarship funded by the people should not be mixed with religious sentiments.

"I've received scholarships from the United States, Britain and Singapore, nothing related to religious beliefs. How come the LPDP which is a scholarship from the Indonesian people's money can be "Islamophobic"?" said Fadli.

The President Director of LPDP, Andin Hadiyanto, raised his voice regarding the statement by ITK Chancellor Budi Santoso Purwokartiko. He said, LPDP really appreciates and respects the differences and cultural diversity of the people of Indonesia and the world.

"The LPDP upholds proper ethics and etiquette as well as tolerance and does not allow and disapprove of hate speech and attitudes, as well as discriminatory attitudes, including sentiments based on SARA," Andin said in a written statement, Tuesday, May 3.

Andin added that Budi Santoso Purwokartiko's writing is a personal opinion, but has the potential to pose a reputational risk to the activities concerned as an interviewer for the IISMA scholarship program.

IISMA is known to be a program to fund Indonesian students who move at leading universities abroad for approximately one semester. The program was implemented by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikbud Ristek) with the full support of the LPDP.

Andin said that his party would immediately coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Culture, Research and Technology to evaluate the interviewers of the prospective IISMA LPDP scholarship recipients.

"LPDP will continue to coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Culture to continue to evaluate and supervise the implementation of the duties of the interviewers to ensure the implementation of the collaborative scholarship program selection, in accordance with applicable regulations," he said.

Previously, ITK Chancellor Budi Santoso Purwokartiko uploaded a statement on Facebook. The post is suspected of containing hate speech and racial intolerance because it offends Muslims who wear the hijab.

The uploads of ITK Chancellor Budi Santosa Purwokartiko on his Facebook page on April 27 are as follows:

I had the opportunity to interview several students who participated in student mobility abroad. The Higher Education Program, which is funded by LPDP, has received a lot of attention from students. They are smart children who have extraordinary abilities. If plotted in a normal distribution, they may include 2.5 percent of the right-hand side of the student population.

None of them I get this hobby demo. There are students with extraordinarily high GPAs above 3.5, some even 3.8, and 3.9. Their English is cas cis cus with IELTS scores of 8, 8.5, even 9. Duolingo can reach 140, 145, some even 150 (though the minimum requirement is 100). Extraordinary. They are also active in student organizations (professional), social, and lab assistants or lecturer assistants.

They talk about down to earth things: what are their goals, interests, efforts to support their ideals, what are their contributions to society and their nation, nationalism and so on. Not talking about heaven or life after death. The choice of words is also far from heaven's words: insaallah, barakallah, syiar, qadarullah, and so on.

This generation is a demographic bonus that will fill positions in state-owned enterprises, government institutions, the world of education, the private sector in the next few years. And it so happened that of the 16 I had to interview, there were only two boys and the rest were girls.

Of the 14, there were two absent. So the 12 female students I interviewed, none of them covered their heads like desert humans. His brain is really open minded. They seek God in developed countries, such as Korea, Western Europe and the US, not in countries where people are good at telling stories without technology.