Hasan Azhary and Zakiyah Samal from Wadah Foundation became speakers at the closing seminar on the results of the Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka Program for Bela Negara (state defence) program at Parahyangan Catholic University (Unpar) (MBKM Bela Negara) with the theme “Learning from the Community, Playing a Role in Building the Country”. This activity was attended by the academic community and Unpar’s students participating in the Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) program and Wadah team both directly in the Visual FISIP Unpar auditorium room and online on Friday, December 16th, 2022.

Learning from the Community, Playing a Role to Build the Country

According to Sophan Adjie, lecturer coordinator at Parahyangan Catholic University, MBKM is a program of the Ministry of Education and Culture that aims to provide opportunities for students to hone skills according to their talents and interests by going directly into the world of work as career preparation. Whereas the “MBKM Bela Negara” (program is Unpar’s unique MBKM which encourages innovations based on potential community-based problem-solving for ideological resilience, development of local wisdom, food security, anti-corruption awareness, interculturalism, and digital citizenship. One of the methods used by Unpar to make this program effective is to study in and with the community. with the hope that students have a critical attitude and sensitivity in solving problems.

Kiky and Azhary have experience working with the community as facilitators who often accompany the community in solving their problems. Their experience is expected to add to students’ knowledge in carrying out their roles and responsibilities in the future society. Furthermore, Sophan emphasized that “MBKMBela Negara” program should not be interpreted and understood narrowly, for example in a physical war, but understood in a broader context, for example building a society so that it is empowered and dignified.

Spiritual, Moral, and Character Values Guarantee the Unity of the Nation

Azhary, who presented material entitled “Anti-Corruption and Ideological Resilience”, underlined that the key to the success of the MBKM Bela Negara program is learning and working with the community in a spirit of service. This is in line with Wadah Foundation’s motto, “We Grow to Serve and We Serve so that Others May Grow Together with us”. That is, when carrying out activities with the community, students and the community must benefit from these activities. According to Azhary, to make the theme of Bela Negara easier to be understood by the student, it needs to be grounded in simple actions that can be started by understanding who one is and what one’s role is. In addition, it also requires social and spiritual intelligence of all parties involved in it so that they do not experience the phenomenon of “moral stunting”. Someone aware of himself and his role so that he is not morally stunted will have the ability to develop the country, for example by not being corrupt. The Indonesian people have noble values passed down by their ancestors. These values then become a national ideology that becomes a pillar that must be maintained because it has been proven to maintain the integrity of the Indonesian nation from time to time. Through working with the community, MBKM participants in defending the country will receive and experience concretely the implementation of moral values and a nation’s ideology that continues to live. With that experience, students are expected to take the slightest role in maintaining the resilience of the nation’s ideology.

Social Media As A Global Village

Zakiyah Samal who is familiarly called Kiky presented material entitled “Local Wisdom and Digital Citizenship”. According to Kiky, local wisdom is knowledge developed by ancestors in dealing with the environment, then this process is introduced from generation to generation. Wisdom itself is universal and is a good practice that exists in regions and Indonesian society. While Digital Citizenship is the quality of individuals responding to a social relationship through the digital world. This is important because we live in a global life, where distance is relative.

With digital technology, everyone is free to be creative as much as possible on social media. Of course, there are positive and negative impacts, everything has consequences. Just like a village, which is a showcase for the nation, social media is a global village. To anticipate the negative impact, we need the ability to respect each other, appreciate each other, learn from each other, inspire each other, and then protect the rights of every citizen, such as the concept presented by Microsoft, namely “Respect, Educate and Protect”.

As the Vision of Wadah Foundation is “Creating an Empowered and Dignified Society”, then to make this happen requires the support of the younger generation who understand their roles and responsibilities in the digital era. By remaining based on ethics and norms, the digital world will contribute to development, including in making social contributions, for example with the existence of a digital platform that makes it easier for us to be able to contribute to assisting our friends in all corners of Indonesia. It is also undeniable that digital technology can have negative impacts which can be anticipated by continuously instilling and implementing the noble cultural values of the Indonesian nation as our stronghold to be wise and prudent in using technology.

Kiky closed his presentation by taking an example of an educational program run by Wadah Foundation. One of them is assisting the community that organizes Pre-Primary School (PAUD) to instil universal life values such as Godlines, Sincerity, Family, Humility, Togetherness, and Diversity. One of the Pre-Primary School institutions assisted by Wadah Foundation, which adopts these values, is now joining the driving school program in the Merdeka Curriculum. Hopefully, this will be one of the contributions of Wadah Foundation to defending the state.

Kiky also underlined that the collaboration of the whole community is needed to educate a child, especially in the digital era which has the potential to reduce the values held by a family. Under these conditions, young people must continue to be connected with wisdom. And defending the country in Kiky’s view is the impact of the awareness of several individuals and the final form of collective work through the ability to work together from each family with other families and individuals with other individuals. Through cooperation with the campus, the values and good practices of Wadah Foundation are expected to be more widely disseminated and participate in improving the moral and spiritual quality of the nation’s youth.

Father Yohanes Driyanto, Head of the Lembaga Pengembangan Humaniora and Lecturer in Catholic Religion and Church Law courses at Parahyangan Catholic University at the end of the seminar concluded that in terms of collaborating with the community, Wadah Foundation can be a role model for students who attend and can begin to practice in carrying out their role in society.

Participants seemed enthusiastic about participating in the seminar and actively asked questions and discussed them in the Q&A session. The topics that were very interesting and liked by students in this session, besides regarding the relationship between digital citizenship and local wisdom, also regarding moral and spiritual stunting.

Author: Ni Luh Devi Kusumawati

Editor: Paula Stela dan Yohanes Ghewa