Two students of International Relations of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY), Ichtiar Melia Chayanti and Sitta Wahyu Qurana, succeeded to reach an outstanding achievement in a category of Joint Statement Forum of ASEAN Economic pillar in the 26th PNMHI at UNPAD XXX. Proposing Islamic values on the draft which they conveyed turned them to be the best speakers in the category defeating twelve other partners coming from various universities of Indonesia. The achievement brought UMY in line with UGM and UI being the winners of the other two categories.
Melia stated that her team could be the best of the competition since they recommended a unique idea which was unpredictable by other teams. The proposed idea, Melia continued, was the establishment of a certification and standardization institution in ASEAN level to welcome the coming ASEAN Economic Community 2015. She argued that, in economic aspect, the position of Indonesia would be beneficial if the institution existed because Indonesia is a country having the greatest number of the citizens who are mostly Muslims. Indonesia, she maintained, now had halal certification institution which the standard was acknowledged by developed countries such as Australia and Japan.
“What we want to offer is that we (ASEAN) have halal food and beverage. There should be an institution in ASEAN which could tell everybody immediately that the food is halal when they hear a word of ASEAN,” explained Melia in Public Relations and Protocols of UMY on Saturday (22/11).
Having the strength, Indonesian products would be easily exported to other countries. She thought that most Indonesian products had been certified halal by LPPOM MUI. Another advantage of the existence of the institution was that, if a country had not had a halal certification institution, it could carry out a halal certification in Indonesia. There would certainly be cost to get the certification since a standard employed by an ASEAN halal certification institution was a standard determined by MUI. Hence, she supposed that it was necessary for government to propose the idea.
“The merit is that we turn a milestone because most of our products are halal. Australian and Japan even adopted MUI’s system. It could be said that we are the center,” continued the student of International Relations year 2012.
Besides, Sitta Wahyu Qurana added that the achievement she got was special since it was the first time that Joint Statement Forum in PNMHI became a competition and UMY achieved the best of the category. In fact, UMY was not the novice in the annual competition which all International Relations students got together. Last year, the student of year 2013 continued, UMY was the winner of a category of Short Diplomatic Course at UI.
Overall, what was assessed in the competition was the presentation and contribution of each participant in amending both redaction and substation on the proposed draft of International Relations students to the government. Sitta uttered that her seven friends and she prepared for the competition for three months with her lecturers and seniors of International Relations of UMY.
The 26th PNMHI attempted to rise ASEAN up as the main theme discussing three pillars of ASEAN which are Security Politics won by UI, Socio-Cultural won by UGM, and Economy won by UMY.
While Ganendra Widigdya, a delegation of the other category in the PNMHI, felt that he got many positive lessons when joining the competition. Particularly, he perceived that he had a chance to practice his diplomatic ability which was a compulsory for International Relations students to have it.
In the 26th PNMHI, UMY delegated eight students who were Ichtiar Melia Cahyanti (2012), Sitta wahyu Qurana (2013), siti Widyastuti (2013), Iqbal Dwiharianto (2013), Adhie Putra Perwira (2103), Achmad Yusuf Alkatra (2013), Ganendra Widigdya (2013), dan Galuh Octania P (2013).
