Why the requirement for higher education may not be the solution?

The past months, Indonesian has been protesting against the unprofessionalism of their parliament members. The constant show of insensitive comments and behaviour, as well as questionable policies that seem to have only benefited them, has thrown people into rage. The blatant unprofessionalism stirs the discourse on the incompetence of the people in power, which leads to doubting their educational background. It has been revealed that several parliament members do not hold any university degrees. These facts fuel the uproar, considering many job vacancies in the country require a minimum bachelor's degree. Why is it different for parliament?

(Source: https://www.tvOnenews.com)

Certainly, not all parliament members are “low in education”. Some of them have master's or doctoral degrees and are experts in politics. But the blatant ignorance of the majority of the parliament members brings the demand for higher education requirements set for future candidates.

The discourse about the minimum educational requirement of parliament members is heavily linked to the fact that people are struggling to find jobs in the face of massive layoffs. A university degree does not always guarantee a good job in this economy. We heard a lot about people with university degrees ending up working blue-collar jobs. Not by choice but by circumstances. On top of that, the requirement for an entry-level position often appears to be too astronomical. People are required to be ridiculously educated and experienced to be paid the minimum wage. Just enough to live paycheck to paycheck.

While that is the case for the people, the parliament members are found to get the position of power without having any degree or significant experience. Moreover, they are paid almost 27 times the average minimum wage. A pretty irony.

(Source: https://www.instagram.com/kompascom/)

For that reason, people start to demand that the Mahkamah Konstitusi apply a minimum requirement for future parliament members running in the next election to hold a master’s degree. Another demand is for them to have a minimum TOEFL score of 550, which oftentimes applies to many job vacancies. This demand rises due to the hope that the high educational requirements will filter out only the competent individuals in positions of power. However, I should say that setting a high educational standard for parliament members might not be the solution to having a functional parliament.

Firstly, higher education does not guarantee people to be good at their job. We have seen many intellectuals who ended up being a fraud (remember the infamous Gayus Tambunan?). On the other hand, we also have Ibu Pudji, a former minister of fisheries, who is not only a middle school graduate but arguably performed well in her reign.

While this argument could be easily twisted to a book-smart vs. street-smart debate, it does not diminish the role of education in generating capable individuals. In fact, I do agree that if even the GPA on your degree certificate cannot always do justice to one’s capabilities, then what can? The ijazah and good score tell not only capabilities but commitment and resilience to handle academic pressure and challenges. That may then be reflected in an individual’s professionalism. Highlighting that being a professional parliament member requires not only hard skills but also many soft skills.

Secondly, setting high educational requirements brings us closer to the meritocracy trap. Understanding that people who have access to higher education are usually people with privileges, only 0.4% Indonesian who hold a master’s degree, this makes the position only available for the privileged. In the long run, the parliament will only be fulfilled by people with access to higher education. It beats the purpose of parliament who supposed to be inclusive. It needs to cover all groups, and limiting it only to educational background will limit the pool. When we talk about education and power, we surely won’t make education to be the tools to widen the power gap within the nation.

Lastly, setting education as the requirement will only limit the focus solely to the educational background. We have seen many politicians attend university only for the degree. We have even seen how the Ijazah of our former president is still a big scandal. It beats the purpose of having competent parliament members to only having members with degrees.

With that being said, I must say that the answer is not to set the minimum educational requirement. It’s to select only people with empathy, competency, and humility to carry out the job. It’s to make the sense of humility a common practice in our lives. For a reform in the system to favor competent people instead of celebrities with little knowledge about politics. To gain votes not from gimmicks but a real intellectual and competencies battle. To ensure the accountability of people in power.