Following the recent acts of terrorism happening in the Police Mobile Brigade Headquarters in the outskirts of Jakarta, a number of churches in Surabaya, and other places that have took a number of lives, injured people, and damaged buildings, Universitas Gadjah Mada issued a declaration of nine points, condemning all kinds of acts of terrorism that endanger the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.
“UGM extends its profound condolences to the family and victims of acts of terrorism. We also condemn all kinds of acts of terrorism perpetrated by anyone that tries to destroy the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia and destroy civilisation,” said Rector of UGM, Prof. Ir. Panut Mulyono, M.Eng., D.Eng., in a press conference on Sunday (14/5) in Hotel University Club UGM.
Panut added UGM supports the security forces to immediately arrest and bring to justice those responsible for the incident, and to structurally de-radicalise and prevent the emergence of radicalism in the future.
“We support the government to develop an education system from each level to prioritise value of tolerance, diversity, and commitment of Indonesia,” he added.
UGM also supports all efforts to uphold the four types of state consensus, namely Pancasila, State Constitution, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity slogan), and Unitary State of Republic of Indonesia, and ask all components of the nation to unite against act of terrorism, radicalism, and intolerance.
Following this, UGM reinstated its commitment to developing academic and non-academic activities that enhance the value of pluralism and nationalism, and prohibiting all activities at UGM that give rise to the growth of radical views and movement that are against the Constitution.
Dean of Faculty of Law UGM, Prof. Dr. Sigit Riyanto, S.H., LL.M., added the act of terrorism whether as a means or goal was unjustifiable under any reason. Thus, the people need to look back to their national identity as a unifying factor.
“There needs to be persuasive acts, essentially we need to return to the true identity of our nation, back to diversity value. This is most important,” he emphasised.
For the students, the spirit of diversity can be developed through many things, including discussion between students who have different views. According to Dean of Faculty of Agriculture, Dr. Jamhari, S.P., M.P., this could develop the attitude to respect each other and get rid of roots of radicalism.
“The roots of radicalism need to be prevented since early on from elementary education. In higher learning, we need to increase discussion from different perspectives so that we may respect each other,” he said.
Dean of Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Dr. Erwan Agus Purwanto, M. Si., added the need for government to resolve the draft anti-terrorism law which will be the legal umbrella for security forces to resolve acts of terror and do deradicalisation better.
“I think the big homework is that there is still fragmentation in terrorism handling, because the law that regulates who is involved in the prevention has not been well resolved,” he said.