Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat giving a keynote speech at a national seminar on “The Role of Higher Education in Developing Indonesia’s Integrity,” Friday (10/8/2021) at Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS), Surakarta. Photo by Humas MK/Yuwandi.

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Friday, October 8, 2021 | 16:08 WIB

SURAKARTA, Public Relations—Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat gave a keynote speech at a national seminar on “The Role of Higher Education in Developing Indonesia’s Integrity” on Friday, October 8, 2021 at Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS), Surakarta. Faculty members and academics from universities across the country also attended the event, which coincided with the inauguration of the Smart Board Mini Courtrooms of Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS), Pancasakti University of Tegal, Soedirman University (Unsoed), Diponegoro University (Undip), Satya Wacana Christian University (UKSW). The Court’s Head of the Public Relations and Protocol Bureau Heru Setiawan was also in attendance.

“This national seminar’s theme is actual, an important discourse in today’s state and nation’s condition. Higher education must affirm its role in the framework. It is undeniable that higher education have the most strategic and decisive role in the development of the nation and civilization, without ruling out the role of education at lower levels,” he said.

A nation’s civilization today and in the future, he added, is actually reflected from its higher education. The better the higher education is, the bigger its role, the more aware it is of the solutions to society’s issues, the higher the civilization.

Future Civilization

In other words, Justice Arief said, higher education has an important and strategic position for a step forward, even for a nation’s civilization. It is often said to be but a project of a nation’s future civilization. It produces intelligent scholars with scientific capacity, empathy, and responsibility for the progress of the nation.

"That’s why higher education is seen as highly credible by the public. Why? Because so far it has been proven that it has always uphold its original roots to think and act critically, objectively, responsively to become problem solvers, and always speak out for truth and justice,” he explained.

On that basis, he said, higher education must strengthen its role in producing constructive breakthroughs to improve the quality of the nation’s civilization through the tridharma (three pillars). In the Indonesian context, higher education is no longer only required to be scientific laboratories, but also a medium for the development of human character as a whole in accordance with the views and noble values of the nationality as reflected in Pancasila. The products of higher education are expected to be humane, respective of diversity, competitive, and collaborative in meeting every situation and challenge.

“In other words, I would like to say, from higher education a generation of nations will be born with reforming characters, strong intellectual tradition, a global perspective without disregarding the wisdom and noble personality of this nation. Before presenting the main theme of the scientific oration as I mentioned earlier, I would like to invite all of us to remember and understand well the mandate of the 1945 Constitution, especially related to education,” he said.

Justice Arief said the constitutional philosophy of “developing the life of the nation” must be made the foundation of higher education, not only to develop academic abilities, but also to shape the character of Indonesia as a dignified nation. Thus, the development and improvement of the role of higher education, both now and in the future, must be based on and oriented to this philosophical foundation.

Practicing Law in Indonesia

Justice Arief further said that the law in Indonesia is different from that in other countries. He compared Indonesia with two Muslim-majority countries, Turkey and Pakistan, where the law is practiced differently. Turkey separates state and religion, or secular, while in Pakistan Islam is the basis of the state and the Pakistani state was born based on the principles of the Islamic religion.

Meanwhile, Indonesia, he said, upholds not only democracy and nomocracy, but also theocracy based on the synergy between religions and beliefs that live in Indonesia. Thus, Indonesia is not secular, neither is it based on any particular religion. However, in Indonesia, the law is based on the One Supreme God and must always be inspired by divinity.

Writer        : Nano Tresna Arfana
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 10/11/2021 10:32 WIB

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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