YOGYAKARTA – Limited physical condition is not a barrier for someone to make outstanding achievements in college. Two students of Universitas Gadjah Mada have proved this. Muhammad Karim Amrullah and Mukhanif Yasin have always good grades academically.
Muhammad Karim Amrullah, law student of UGM, has both of his hands unable to function normally. Even so, the 20 year old student from Sleman, Yogyakarta, has a GPA of 3.44. He was also the best law student in 2012 at UGM.
Karim represented UGM in the Asian Law Student Association Conference in Singapura in early 2014. That gave him an insight on how other countries treat disabled people. “I also observed how Singapore treat its citizens that are disabled,” he said at UGM on Tuesday (25/2).
According to Karim, the Singaporean government accommodated the disabled people with “Guiding blocks in many public spaces, lifts that display the braile,” he explained. He hoped the Indonesian government would learn from his Singaporean counterpart on this matter.
Since he was a child, he liked to make drawings, which brought him victories in local competitions. He also won photography competitions.
Similar achievements were made by Mukhanif Yasin Yusuf. Khanif, as he is often called, came from a modest family. But due to his academic achievements, he earned scholarships to support his studies.
The student of Indonesian study programme, Faculty of Cultural Sciences UGM class of 2011, said he often got rejected in his own environment. He lost his hearing since 11. Unable to cope with mockeries from his young friends, he stopped going to school. “I stopped coming to school for two years. My mother encouraged and supported me to continue study.” From then on, he stepped forward, trying to prove that he could be as outstanding as others.
During his study at Madrasah Tsanawiyah, Khanif was always among top three. In high school, he even became the student chairman. He also won a number of writing competitions.
At Faculty of Cultural Sciences UGM, Khanif was diligent by always coming on time and noting down what his lecturers wrote on the whiteboard.
Khanif is able to achieve a GPA of 3.59 despite his busy campus activities. The writer of poem and short stories anthologies wants that disabled people are treated equally like others. He initiated the Disabled Student Forum which has now become a student unit that cares for the disabled people. “The university’s response was good, now we became an acknowledged student unit,” said Hanif.