Knitting Diversity in Building a Civilized and Prosperous Nation

A few days before this event was held, one of our lecturers who is also the chairman of the ITS board of professors, Prof. Imam Robandi had informed early about this event as a substitute class for the Introduction to Research Field course for the Master of Power System Engineering program. Of course, I don’t know the details of the event that I will be participating in on Wednesday, September 27, 2023. I thought that the event would discuss power system material but with a different atmosphere, namely the atmosphere of studying in the auditorium belonging to the ITS Research Center.

            In the morning, I set off from my temporary residence in Surabaya with many questions about what to discuss and what to report as my accountability. Arriving at the venue, I accidentally met one of the important people from ITS, the first vice-chancellor, Prof. Adi Soeprijanto who was in the elevator going up to the 11^th floor. The clock I was using at that time was already 8.00 AM. However, the invited guests had not yet arrived and only the sound of Prof. Imam practicing and coordinating with some traditional musicians could be heard. I chose to sit in the audience with a position almost parallel to the speaker so that it felt like I was face-to-face. About 50 minutes after my arrival at the venue, the workshop event began with instructions issued by the two hosts. The national anthem “Indonesia Raya” was sung by all invited guests without exception with wisdom. Before heading to the main event, some remarks were made by Prof. Imam as Chair of the ITS Professors Council, then continued by Prof. Adi who here represented the presence of Prof. Ashari as ITS Rector. Through these remarks, Prof. Adi advised that diversity is the essence of God because something beautiful is sometimes created from diversity and not created from monotony. The main session began with the welcome of the three speakers who had attended, namely Prof. Imam as Chair of the ITS Professor Council, Prof. Franz Magnis-Suseno (Professor of Driyarkara College of Philosophy), and Prof. Surya Rosa Putra (Former Ambassador / Permanent Delegation of Indonesia for UNESCO and Professor of the Department of Chemistry ITS). It is known that the main session this time will be guided by a moderator, Prof. Budisantoso Wirjodirdjo (ITS). The first agenda was filled with Prof. Imam’s explanation of the topic “Tembang Tembang Tuladha Penyelaras Keindahan Kehidupan Berbangsa“. Prof. Imam mentioned that it is very important to recognize the harmonization produced by 2 different gamelans. The explanation was ended with a traditional song performed by Prof. Imam with the theme of struggle by the previous warriors. From the song, it can be seen that our ancestors were already adept at describing their conditions in a traditional song that is pleasant to hear. The agenda by Prof. Imam ended with the reading of a paper he wrote a few years ago about the puppet story which indirectly has a relationship with what is happening now. Prof. Imam gave a closing message in the form of his story in Japan which we all know that the country has become a civilized and cultured nation, so Indonesia needs to immediately implement the concept.

            The second agenda is continued by Prof. Magnis for discussing about how Indonesia to face a multipolar world. Multipolar itself has a definition as the existence various new cultural sources that can threaten the world’s well-organized culture. From this, the world needs to face 5 challenges starting from the first is the social gap between winners and losers. The second is the emergence of a democratic crisis that leads to democracy that begins not to represent the people but rather favours people who have power and money. The third challenge is the emergence of extremists who bring tribal, ethnic, religious, and other sensitive issues so that disputes occur that can result in casualties. The next challenge comes from the environment where in the next few years, such as in 2030, the ice structure in the north pole will melt and will cause the collapse of the environmental ecosystem around us, such as the issue of the city of Jakarta. Apart from the five challenges for the world that have been mentioned, Indonesia has more specific challenges according to Prof. Magnis. These problems are Polyarchic Democracy, the destruction of the vertical economic order, and the challenge of corruption which is increasingly difficult to eradicate. Prof. Magnis gave a final statement regarding Pancasila which is still relevant to be able to answer all problems and challenges for Indonesia. The role of the younger generation is the most important thing where they will all bring the Indonesian nation forward in the next few years.

            The final discussion agenda was presented by Prof. Rosa who presented the theme of the role of universities as a locomotive to strengthen national identity. Prof. Rosa talked about the importance of us as Indonesian citizens having the principles of Pancasila in our daily lives, as was the case in her story when communicating with other countries that are members of UNESCO. Then, Prof. Surya presented the general condition of the world and explained its relationship to the identity of a nation. UNESCO has made several recommendations to strengthen national identity with the help of higher education institutions in Indonesia, especially because Indonesian national identity is now starting to decline compared to several decades ago. Learning using the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) system plus art is assessed by UNESCO as being able to shape the innovative characters of the younger generations. It is hoped that from the recommendations and systems that have been designed, so Indonesia will no longer lose its national identity because it has been drowned out by the rapidly increasing identity of foreign nations.*^*