Unifying Muslim students in ASEAN, BEM (Student Executive Board) of UniversitasMuhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) organized AMSS (ASEAN Muslim Students Summit) on 18-19 May. The event was attended by student representatives of outer Indonesia. On Tuesday (19/5) there were a declaration night and closing ceremony. In the night, BEM UMY declared the establishment of ASEAN Student Muslim Summit.
The declaration was a stepping-stone of ASEAN Muslim students to succeed ASEAN Community. It also aimed at optimizing skills of the students during the ASEAN Community. The event compassed of a talk show discussing three topics regarding ASEAN Community, namely Political Security, Economic, and Socio-Cultural aspects. Additionally, the theme of the AMSS closing was ‘Master Piece of ASEAN Cultures’.
On a remark, Sugito, S.IP.,M.Si., a representative of UMY, uttered that the first AMSS was a special momentum for ASEAN Muslim students to prepare for ASEAN Community in January 2016. It also became a forum to acquaint cultures of AMSS participants’ country that the cultures would basically not be fused to be one culture. “This university welcomed the first AMSS. BEM UMY has already confronted challenges to prepare for ASEAN Community competitiveness through conducting this AMSS. I wish that the AMSS would be an ongoing event and could be better,” he stated.
Moreover, in the night it was announced the draft of discussion findings of ASEAN Muslim BEM representative forum. The discussion revealed three essential findings. First, ASEAN Muslim students are involved in maintaining ASEAN political security regarding drugs and human trafficking. Second, they engage in developing economy among ASEAN countries, particularly Islamic Economy, and enacting ASEA as an Islamic economic center. Last, it deals with ASEAN socio-culture that they partake in preserving cultural and religion diversity, and assisting to cope with issues encountered by Muslims in ASEAN as Rohingya and Myanmar Muslims. It was also selected a team to arrange AMSS organizational structure that Zainuddin Arsyad, President of BEM UMY, was elected as the chief of the team.
Zainuddin asserted that the job description of the team would be discussed in a team meeting in Januari-February 2016 in Universitas Malaya, Malaysia. “We, ASEAN Muslim students, commit to telling Islamic values wherever we are,” he assured.
Furthermore, in the closing of AMSS, there were various cultural and art performances from ASEAN countries as traditional dances performed by several IKPMs (Student Family Associations) from various areas in Indonesia. There were also an exhibition of National clothes and art performances from participants of AMSS.
