ASEAN countries are the center of world cultural diversity due to the extremely high cultural heterogeneity. Seeing the fact, young generation and ASEAN Muslim students are expected to preserve the cultural center.
Deputy Foreign Minister Dr. A. M. Fachir acted as a keynote speaker of a seminar and opening of ASEAN Muslim Students Summit (AMSS) 2015 in Sportorium of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) on Monday (18/5). He uttered that young generation, particularly Muslim students, ought to have high morality and integrity toward their countries and religion. He also should preserve the culture of their country. He gave an instance that Indonesia has 300 cultures of distinct communities but they could maintain one another. “Indonesia possesses 300 cultures among various communities. It is only Indonesia. If we take a look at ASEAN, it must be greater cultures and communities that we would recognize. Those are the heterogeneity which needs to retain,” he stated.
The Deputy Foreign Minister also asserted that ASEAN Muslim students are required to save their own culture since it is the key of togetherness. As occurring in Indonesia, according to Dr. Fachir, various cultures of Indonesia are the vigor of the nation and Indonesian youths to unite and confront the country issues. It is also expected to ensue in ASEAN countries. “It is hoped that the ASEAN Muslim Students Summits could be a forum for ASEAN Muslim students to promote their own culture and be a medium of unity. Therefore, ASEAN Muslim students ought to preserve world cultural diversity in ASEAN,” he wished.
He also mentioned that, facing the bright future, young generation should be able to interact with people from other countries. They might gain a lot of experiences and it might become a medium of interaction among youths of other nations so that they could acknowledge issues faced by other countries, especially ASEAN countries.
Moreover, he advised Indonesian young generation to be Indonesian ambassadors who have high morality to display that Indonesia is a huge country upholding the principles of humanity and unity. “Please have a look at out founding fathers who wrote the principles on the preamble of UUD 1945. Thus, as young generation, you have to be Indonesian ambassadors who have high moral,” he emphasized.
Furthermore, a student of International Relation Studies of UMY batch 2013 Zazan Arifianoko, as well as Chief of AMSS 2015, said that AMSS is a forum of ASEAN Muslim students. It aimed at gathering ASEAN Muslim student associations and declaring ASEAN Muslim Student Summit on Tuesday (19/05). It could be conducted three days, from Monday (18/5) to Wednesday (20/5). The event was initiated by Student Executive Board (BEM) of UMY, representatives of State Islamic University (UIN) of Raden Fatah Palembang, and International Islamic University Malaysia.
“It also points at coining a scaffolding of programs and optimizing ASEAN Muslim students’ roles. In addition, it is the way to support the implementation of ASEAN Community which would be undertaken in the end of 2015,” he told.
Zazan inserted that the rundown of AMSS comprising of public lecture and talk show of three selected topics regarding ASEAN Community, namely Political Security, Economy, and Socio-Culture. “There would also be welcoming dinner of all participants of AMSS 2015, traditional dance performance of UKM Sentakamudya of UMY, and Masterpiece Showcase exhibiting cultural performance of each ASEAN country. We wish that, as ASEAN Muslim students, we could engage in developing ASEAN,” he ended.
