UNAIR NEWS – “Diversity is potential for the progress of the nation”. It was expressed by A. Muhaimin Iskandar in the oration of honorary doctorate he obtained from Universitas Airlangga on Tuesday, October 3.
In presence of hundreds of attendees consisting of high state officials, UNAIR officials, and sympathizers of political parties and relatives, the national figure known well as Cak Imin delivered an oration entitled “Managing the Nation’s Progress and Welfare”.
In the oration of the honorary doctorate ceremony in the Hall of Garuda Mukti Campus C UNAIR, Cak Imin said that Indonesia as a nation has a lot of potentials. It is the country with numerous of islands, ethnicities, dialects and varied languages and supported by the largest Muslim population in the world, according to Cak Imin it is a potential nation in the future.
However, Cak Imin also did not deny that with diversity, frictions and sentiments between groups often occur. Cak Imin also revealed various examples of upheavals between ethnics and groups in various regions, Aceh and Papua for example. The fundamental thing that causes the upheaval according to Cak Imin is the social and welfare inequality.
“This upheaval represents a form of national disappointment to the state related to the imbalance distribution of welfare and cultural domination of certain ethnic groups to other groups,” explained the Minister of Labor of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono era.
Cak Imin also mentioned various development breakthroughs and equitable development to create strength and unity. He presented four steps of inclusive social economic projects that include economic partnerships, agricultural industry, banking optimization, and village development.
“The task of the state is to prepare a material for strengthening national consensus through inclusive development that is oriented towards promoting the general welfare and prosperity as much as possible for the people of Indonesia,” said the father of three children.
Before finishing his oration, Cak Imin told the academicians to make campus as a place to give birth resources and policies that can realize the progress of the nation.
“I hope the campus is not only a source of inspiration and theory, but the campus can be a place for the seeds of the nation’s progress, ” he asserted.
After the oration of Cak Imin, Rector of UNAIR Prof. Nasih delivered a speech related to efforts managing diversity to be the nation’s potential. For Nasih, diversity in Indonesia is indispensable. Prof. Nasih also asserted that managing diversity for prosperity and justice is a form of piety to God.
In the end, Prof. Nasih emphasized that to manage diversity to be a potential for the progress of the nation cannot be separated from efforts to create prosperity and social justice for all the people of Indonesia.
“Piety and justice as the foundations of this nation become our strength to unite,” Prof. Nasih concluded. (*)
Author: Nuri Hermawan
Editor: Binti Q. Masruroh
