Civitas Akademika UGM Bersatu Lawan Terorisme
Civitas Akademika UGM Bersatu Lawan Terorisme
Around one hundred lecturers, staff, and students of Universitas Gadjah Mada gathered at the Balairung of UGM Main Office on Monday (14/5) to jointly voice their concerns over the recent acts of terrorism happening in Indonesia.
“In the past few days, Indonesia has been ravaged by a number of terrors that not just taken the lives of people and damaged buildings, but also torn humanity. Our gathering here is a form of concerns toward the recent incidents,” said Deputy Dean of Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Dr. Wawan Mas'udi, who led the campaign to declare their stance against acts of terrorism.
A declaration was read out by all participants, preceded by a remembrance of the victims of the incidents. Professor from Faculty of Social and Political Sciences UGM, Prof. Dr. Susetiawan, S.U., later expressed condemnation of the act of terror.
“We condemn the act of terrorism recently just like we did on various acts of terrorism in the past. It’s enough for all kinds of attacks to happen in this country. We, lecturers of UGM, ask everyone to reject all forms of terrorism, starting from our own neighbourhood,” he said.
He added that the rampant acts of terror showed the importance of preventing the growth of roots of terrorism by everyone, including educational institutions. In particular, higher learning has responsibility to do preventive efforts by adjusting educational curriculum.
“We support the UGM leadership to prevent roots of terrorism from spreading among academic community. There needs to be a more comprehensive prevention, such as pro-peace and pluralism curriculum,” said Susetiawan.
Support to anti-terrorism efforts was also raised by President of Student Executive Body of UGM, Obed Kresna. He said that terrorism has become a monster for Indonesia. So, the government needs to take a firm stance to break up the chains of terrorism in the country.
Obed is one of nine UGM academic community representatives that declared the 9 stance against terrorism. The declaration, among others, stated that UGM fully supports the security forces to arrest and bring to justice those who are held responsible, also supports a structured de-radicalisation and prevent radicalism from occuring in the future. UGM is committed to the development of academic and non-academic activities that enhance the value of pluralism and nationalism, and prohibit all kinds of activities that give rise to the growth of radical views and movement that are against the Constitution.
“UGM as a university mandated to be the national university, university of battle, university of Pancasila value, university of the people, and university of cultural centre is very concerned with the developing situation. The concerns are expressed in, among others, a declaration of stance, and later we will do concrete measures to realise these nine points of stance,” said Vice-Rector for Education, Teaching, and Student Affairs, Prof. Dr. Ir. Djagal Wiseso Marseno, M.Agr.