Issues of thousands of persons of Indonesian descent dwelling in Davao, the southern Philippines without having citizenship are unique but complicated for Indonesia and the Philippines. The people entail care and empowerment in terms of understanding as citizens, socioeconomic conditions, and cultural identity as Indonesian offspring. Thus, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) sought to implement tri dharma perguruan tinggi (Three Principles of Higher Education), particularly community service, to provide a solution through sending students to do an International Community Service (ICS) program in Davao. On Saturday (28/7) at Rector’s Lobby, their departure ceremony was conducted and attended Rector of UMY Dr. Ir. Gunawan Budiyanto, M.P.
Gunawan informed that the program was appreciated from various parties. “Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, Pilipino Government, and other universities stated that the program should be appreciated because the program is firstly organized by an Indonesian institution. The ICS is a progressively soft diplomacy since many Indonesian figures have talked about how to confront ASEAN Economic Community without significant actions,” he declared.
The ICS was initiated by Department of International Relations of UMY. “The program has been commenced since 2016 in Davao, 2017 in Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia, and 2018 in Davao. 27 students of Department of International Relations will depart to Davao on Monday, 30 July and will arrive on 31 July. Dr. Nur Azizah, M.Si. and I will accompany them,” said Drs. Bambang Wahyu Nugroho, M.A. as a supervisor of the ICS program.
Additionally, a team leader of the ICS Rahma Fitri told there are two programs of the ICS in Davao. “First, we would like to empower creative economy and Indonesian cultural identity. Second, we would like to promote Muhammadiyah in Davao, particularly give understanding of Muhammadiyah efforts in community empowerment, education, health, economy, environment, disaster and Islamic dakwah as rahmatan lil ‘alamin,” she mentioned.
The ICS program is expected to build formal cooperation with all stakeholders. Hence, the ICS can sustainably be organized and can engage students from other departments.
