Many upheavals often occur in global society. It is proven by many decisions taken by country leaders in the world. According to the Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Turkey Dr. Lalu Muhamad Iqbal, the condition of upheavals happens because international society is now in an anomaly. This condition forces all countries to be more considerate when taking decisions.
At Laporan Tahunan Rektor dan Pidato Milad (Rector’s Annual Report and Speech) of UMY’S 38th Anniversary held at Hall of A.R. Fachruddin B Building of UMY on Thursday (28/3), Lalu stated that the anomaly ensued because an old system in international society has collapsed while a new system which is supposed to replace the old one has not existed yet. “The result is that all concepts and theories found by previous academicians now have to be reviewed to test the validity. We also need to consider several aspects in this anomaly era,” he conveyed.
Lalu continued, “What we firstly need to comprehend is related to national interests. As long as a country exists, national interests will always follow. Only countries with full comprehension of their national interests will survive in this anomaly era. Otherwise, a country will be lost in a flow and become a failed state if it does not perceive its national interests. The hardest part of all is to determine the national interests. Hence, policy makers should entirely grasp every problem in their country.”
Subsequently, there is a connection between national and corporation interests. This connection is a pattern frequently happens in a decision-making process. In fact, many countries consider their corporation interests as their main determinants. He added, “This phenomenon is inevitable. All we can do is trying to bridge the gap between the two interests so that they will perform consistently.”
“Our foreign policy pattern is already set long time ago when the country was firstly founded by Mohammad Hatta. He delivered that Indonesia’s foreign policy is pictured as a sail between two corals. This means that it is important for Indonesia to forestall unipolarity in international relations. Indonesia’s interest is to assure the presence of balance of power and to propel more than one power in the world. In this context, we all are ummatan wasathan (a moderate society), meaning that we do not pull over in one coral,” detailed Lalu.
Lalu explained that as a big country Indonesia possesses a broad margin of errors. Anyhow, this cannot be an excuse for Indonesia to take haphazard decisions. “In my point of view, a country with a horrendous margin of errors is more likely to get easy access to take policy decisions. Hence, we should observe the United States taking its policy decisions. By monitoring the United States, we will endow explanations in detail related to foreign policies. Indonesia also possesses lots of a margin of errors, but we perform them carefully,” informed Lalu.
A Hope for UMY
As an alumnus of Department of International Relations of UMY, Lalu contended that UMY has experienced a rapid progress, compared to the old era. Therefore, as a high achieving university, UMY should maintain and improve its accountability. He confessed, “In this position, UMY will face various expectations from people. This credibility is a crucial point so that it needs serious maintenance. Every academician of UMY should conduct blessings, especially in term of appreciation of UMY implementing its core values.”
Meanwhile, Secretary of Central Board of Muhammadiyah Dr. H. Agung Danarto, M.Ag. stated that UMY should be a pioneer creating da’wah of Islam as a means to build the nation. “Religion should interact with sciences and reality in society so that Islam will bring goodness to the nation. In this case, UMY should be a locomotive to carry society into the baldatun thoyyibah (the ideal country),” ended Agung.
