A ceremony commemorating National Awakening Day 2012 at Universitas Gadjah Mada ran smoothly. The ceremony took place on Monday (21/5) at the Hall of UGM with UGM Rector, Prof. Ir. Sudjarwadi, M.Eng., Ph.D. as the inspector. The ceremony with the theme "In the spirit of national awakening, we increase the awareness of having a characterized, peaceful, and competitive nation toward the public welfare" was attended by the Board of Trustees, the Academic Senate, the Professor Council, University and Faculty leaders, students, lecturers and academic staff.
The Rector, who read out the speech of the Minister of Communication and Information said that following in the footsteps of Indonesia's National Awakening history, nationalist way of thinking in building a new Indonesia in the future is how to put the interests of national life. In this case, the nationalist thinking is expected to be the antithesis of the individual thinking, regional thinking, party or group thinking, and the absolute antithesis of colonial thinking. "Therefore, giving meaning to the national awakening and Indonesia’s discourse which is better, more independent, more prosperous and more dignified, requires a correlation between awareness of history, social facts, and the spirit of Indonesia's nationalism which has authentic Indonesian character," the Rector said at UGM Balairung yard.
Therefore, the commemoration of the 104th National Awakening Day in 2012 becomes important, if the national values, the values of unity, the values of honesty, and shared values that characterize the Indonesia's - which has been pioneered by our predecessor through the "Boedi Oetomo" movement - can be used as an energy for the next steps. This can be both reflection and evaluation, to what extent the spirit of nationalism is implemented in each of the potential, professions, duties and responsibilities of the behavior of each citizen of Indonesia in the society, nation and state.
In line with the spirit of national awakening that has been pioneered by the predecessor, the Rector said, is not excessive if the Indonesian people today become the center of regional nations in ASEAN, Asia-Pacific, and even the world. That the problems of social and cultural development, economic growth, as well as defense and security issues, become the focus of discussion, in which Indonesia has been able to successfully host for the benefit of regional nations in ASEAN and Asia-Pacific, which is expected to be realized in 2015. "Hopefully, the spirit of national awakening that has been pioneered by our predecessors that we commemorate in 2012, remains and continues to be the light to move for the nation to maintain and develop the construction of the real Indonesian nationalism. A characterized nationalism construction as a religious nation, the character as a civilized nation, the character as a united nation, a powerful nation, and the character of the participating nations, for the glory of Indonesia," the Rector said.