Former Vice President and Chairman of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), Muhammad Jusuf Kalla, asserted that the Indonesians, to be able to progress and catch up with other nations, need not only spirit, but also mastery of science and technology. "Spirit alone is not enough without science and technology. Similarly, if the nation does not want to import rice and want to be independent, it should have passion in science and technology," Kalla said after signing a memorandum of understanding between the PMI and Universitas Gadjah Mada in the Graduate School, Wednesday (12/10).
The cooperation includes the field of humanitarian, disaster, and peace.
On that occasion, Jusuf Kalla expressed appreciation for the cooperation that had been built between the PMI and UGM. According to JK, as he is familiarly called, cooperation with UGM is expected to help the PMI to meet the needs of availability of blood bags in various areas in connection with the potential disasters at any time. "Indonesia has a lot of disaster potential areas, natural disasters and human disasters, but more people have died of the human disasters," he added. To be able to live in areas potentially affected by disasters is by always living watchfully. "We can live with disasters by learning it as good as possible," said JK.
UGM Rector, Prof. Ir. Sudjarwadi, M. Eng., Ph.D., welcomed the cooperation of UGM and PMI. According to the Rector, such cooperation cannot be separated from the role of Jusuf Kalla, who opened the cooperation for a long time, even when JK was serving as minister. “Exceptional gratitude is extended to him, always inspiring, especially for students as successors to the nation," he said. The courage values and spirit shown by JK in various humanitarian and peace activities, according to the Rector, are able to inspire UGM academic community to do the same.
Chairman of the UGM Disaster Response Unit (DERU), Slamet Widiyanto, S.Si., M.Sc., said cooperation with the PMI is not only in the supply of blood bags, but also assistance provided by PMI in the construction of the DERU office. "(It is) The six floors building near the UGM roundabout. The construction cost 9 billion rupiah, financed entirely by the PMI," he said.
JK further attended other events. Previously, he launched the Directory of Blood Donors in the Faculty of Medicine. This facility will be connected to the national blood donor directory system. The next agenda, JK was asked to become speaker in the seminar to bring peace through humanitarian diplomacy, which was held at the Graduate School of UGM.