State Secretary, Prof. Dr. Pratikno M.Soc.Sc., and Central Java Governor, Ganjar Pranowo, gave a speech to some 4,096 new students of UGM Graduate School in Grha Sabha Pramana UGM Hall on Tuesday (30/8). Pratikno said poverty issues became the serious attention for President Joko Widodo. The government is, therefore, trying to reduce poverty level from year to year.
Minister Pratikno said recently the President visited Serang and Banten cities to know firsthand the slums there. The President considered some residents still live in indecent housing. According to the Minister, the President was concerned that the poverty in Serang which is not far from Jakarta is pathetic. Even the local government has not paid enough attention to it. “Imbalances in our country is extraordinary, we’re trying to make those imbalances smaller,” he said.
To the students, Minister Pratikno expected them to seriously learn and collaborate with students of other study programmes so that science and technology development through transdisciplinary approach can be achieved to resolve problems in the society. “That is why the government has the programme to build Indonesia from the outskirts. But no problem can be solved with only one discipline of science,” he said.
Governor Ganjar Pranowo emphasised the importance of character education to build nation integrity. In his opinion, if educational institutions do not instill good manners and character education, it is feared that the graduate will have low integrity. For example, the rampant drugs circulation in the country is because they are backed by certain officials. “The mentality of Indonesian people gets ripped because people have no integrity, no shame in taking possesion of other’s,” he said.
Furthermore, Governor Ganjar promoted products from SMEs in Central Java, such as sugar powder from Banyumas and coffee from Temanggung. He asked the new students to give input on these products. He said that he wanted to inform the students that ideas can show up any time, but this needs science and technology from the campus to develop it further. Still, “science and technology from the campus will be fruitless if these don’t produce anything,” he said.