UNAIR NEWS– Indonesian University Alumni Association (HIMPUNI) in collaboration with Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI) held a dialogue of culture Kahuripan Hall, Campus C UNAIR on Thursday, November 24.
It was attended by dozens of academicians with a theme “Merajut Indonesia Melalui Budaya Guna Memperkuat NKRI”. There were four speakers, Chairman of HIMPUNI Nur Sidiq, a member of RRI Supervisory Council Dwi Hernuningsih, Vice Dean I Faculty of Humanities (FIB) UNAIR Puji Karyanto, S.S., M.Hum, and Director of Universitas Brawijaya Television Riyanto.
Nur Sidiq started the discussion by stating that all alumni of universities in Indonesia have obligations and responsibilities for the unity of NKRI (Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia).
“As a member of academic community, we have to be responsible to maintain the unity of NKRI. So we need to contribute ideas and concepts,” he said.
Even though alumni are not in the parliament or administrations, Nur Sidiq emphasized that their roles are necessary. “We are not in the parliament, we are not in the administrations but morally we greatly support them,” he said.
“For short, we believe that we are a country. A nation cannot be separated from disturbances, threats, either from the outside or inside. One thing which can unify us is cultures,” he explained.
Dwi Hernuningsih agreed to the statement and added that Indonesia can be unified again through cultures, one of them is the arts.
“I want to emphasize, that cultures, one of them is arts, is a universal language which does not differ the people’s backgrounds. Through Arts, we can be unified and gathered together,” she said.
Representing the academicians, Puji Karyanto said that our national motto Bhineka Tunggal Ika has been implemented and existed in campus academic life.
“We are from university. If we talk about university we have talked out kebhinekaan (diversity). Because in university there is ‘versi’ which means bhineka and ‘uni’ which means one. So, kebhinekaan is around us. But don’t forget, the unity is in education,” he said. (*)
Author : Dilan Salsabila
Editor : Binti Q. Masruroh
