The Spirit of Gotong Royong and Diversity Became the Key Message during Indonesia?s 72nd Independence Ceremony

The Flag Raising Procession during Indonesia?s 72nd Independence Day Ceremony at UPH Karawaci 

As a proof of its nationalism as a citizen of Indonesia, the civitas academic of UPH held a ceremony to commemorate the 72nd Independence Day of Indonesia. There was about 4.000 civitas academic of UPH, including leaders, lecturers, staffs, as well as the new students of UPH who crowded the Basketball Court of UPH Karawaci on August 17, 2017.

In his opening speech, UPH Rector, Dr. (Hon) Jonathan L. Parapak, M.Eng.Sc., as the ceremony leader, read a speech from the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education, with a message that encourages the entire community to flourish the spirit of gotong royong (teamwork) and diversity as a citizen of Indonesia. 

In the speech, the Rector stated that in the middle of the progress and achievements that Indonesia has made, such as a lowered-rate of poverty, easy access to health facilities, education and the rising development paradigm from consumptive to productive, Indonesia has to be aware of the challenges ahead, be it in national, regional as well as local scale.  

 ?Our main challenge is the quality of our Human Resources, in which they are lack of academic background. The low-skilled workforce may affect Indonesia?s competitiveness in this globalization era. Therefore, Kemenristekdikti statement has answered this challenge; in which it was stated that the relevance of quality and quantity of the human resources has to be improved. We have to improve our ability in innovating and in science and technology as a way to improve our competitiveness. Thus, we have to start with ourselves, and then we move on to the people around us and our environment, as well as our institution, in order to support the goal of Kemenristekdikti in developing an anti-corruption, anti-drugs, and clean campus culture,? the Rector of UPH added.

In this Independence Day ceremony, all participants followed the flag raising ceremony and sang along to the national anthems. Hopefully, through this ceremony, all civitas academic of UPH may live with the gotong royong spirit. (mt)