Jakarta, Oct. 18 -- "How can a building stand firm if one hand builds while the other destroys?" The centuries-old wisdom of a Middle Eastern poet resonates strongly with Indonesia's current effort to strengthen its Islamic boarding schools, or pesantren.

It reflects the enduring spirit of gotong royong - mutual cooperation - that defines the Indonesian people. True strength, the saying implies, comes not from divided labor but from collective purpose.

Today, that spirit lives on in the government's new initiative to ensure pesantren become safe, comfortable, and dignified places of learning for millions of students, or santri, across the country.

Shared responsibility

Following a series of structural failures at pesantren buildings, ...