Harmoni Indonesia 2018 is an event to raise love of the nation and develop patriotism among young generation of Indonesia through singing. It ran on Sunday in the east side of Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) stadium in Senayan, Jakarta.
President Joko Widodo also came to the event and sang together in the event to celebrate the upcoming 73rd anniversary of independence.
The largest mass event this year was joined by 34 universities from 34 provinces and student representatives and conducted by musician Addie MS. Research, Technology, and Higher Education Ministry becomes the coordinator. They appointed 33 points of gathering across the country. In Yogyakarta, the point is UGM. Later, a live conference with the President was done as well as national livestreaming.
Rector of UGM, Prof. Ir. Panut Mulyono, M.Eng., D.Eng., in his remarks said that the gathering had important significance especially in remembering the heroes.
“By singing, we can raise our spirit and follow the example of our heroes. They had fought for the independence. Now it’s our duty to maintain sovereignty and honour of the nation,” said Panut.
According to Panut, the struggle in the high technology era was different from those before independence. But the substance remains the same, to fight for sovereignty and honour of the country,
“The arena of fight also gets more varied. For universities, the fight to understand, acquiesce, develop, and use knowledge is the essence of work for improved competence, performance and productivity,” he said.
The Rector added use of information technology currently was very beneficial to increasing unity. Participants from Aceh to Papua can efficiently come to one place and do things together as if they were meeting one another. He asked for appreciation towards this type of event that unifies the nation.
Besides the national anthem Indonesia Raya, other songs such as Garuda Pancasila, Rayuan Pulau Kelapa, Padamu Negeri were also sung.