Writer’s note:
“I would like to give my deepest gratitude towards Parahyangan Catholic University for the opportunity to become a part of ASEACCU Student Conference 2008.”
At the first time, I had to admit that I am not really familiar with the topic of ASEACCU: The Role of Catholic Higher Education to Promote Love and Solidarity as Responses to Economic and Cultural Globalization. Perhaps, the essay that I wrote earlier before the conference has represented my Point of View towards the theme—however, after the conference ended, I could understand more about the theme. Both theme and the three-day conference are equivalent to each other—there are a lot of events that positively expand my views to the Values of Life.
Being the part of the Parahyangan Catholic University delegations in the 10th ASEACCU Student Conference 2008 has definitely changed my life. For the first time, I could meet a lot of students from different countries. Moreover, I also feel so honored to become on of the talented Students which has selected by the University to be the representation in the Conference.
When the University asked me to make an essay to give the conclusions of How 10TH ASEACCU Student Conference 2008 has Broaden My Views on the Values of Life, I decided that there are three parts of my life that has been expand by the conference: my life as a Moslem, as a Student and last but not least, as a Friend.
Firstly, raised as Liberal Moslem, my parents always taught me that one of the most celebrated values of life is the so-called Beauty of Diversity—especially when it comes to the diversity of religions. My parents also supported the decisions to attend Parahyangan Catholic University—they believe that in order to praise our own religion, we must respect other religions—including Catholic.
Being part of the conference has indeed broadened my values—as we all know that the members of the conference are all the Catholic Higher Educations in Asia. Not just me actually, I believe that my other fellow Muslims such as Patricia Paramita, Iman Nurmanysah, Prieta Rahma Hanani and Turin Airlangga also experienced the same thing. We are so proud to represent Unpar heterogeneous Students in the conference.
Furthermore, I feel so overwhelmed to see that most of the participants perceived us being Moslem in the Conference as something positive. For example, the Group-discussions, we shared thoughts about the importance of Solidarity between religions. The other participants also get the positive impact to see Moslem’s perspective at the Conference. At last, the Conference has indeed given me the experience to become a more decent Liberal Moslem in the future.
Secondly, being one of the Students in International Relations I always get the doctrines that our Major is the best at our University—which is something positive! However, sometimes I felt that some of my colleagues always underestimate other Major—especially in our own Faculty such as Business Administration and Public Administration Major.
Then, one of the events in 3-days conferences has changed my views. Seeing the effort from the Public Administration major on the Garut villages has broadened my perception towards them. Meeting the local villages are very fruitful to me—the Public Administration colleagues has definitely proven that they could shared the impact of Globalization in a positive ways.
Now, I believe that every single Major could provide something positive to our society. From now on, I would never underestimate other majors again—especially those on my Faculty.
Thirdly, I also believe that one of the values of life is to respect other cultures and enhanced friendship with other person from other cultures. But, being part of the conference has definitely made me more believe to the value itself. One of my newest-bestest friend from Australia, Jayde Clark is one of the example. We shared thoughts and and some deep talks between each others. I believe that many other participants experienced the same thing—ASEACCU 2008 has successfully made it happen. I also find out that the so-called language barriers is something that could not prohibited solidarity throughout our development of friendship—through patience we could enhanced the so-called friendships even though at some occasions we had some language barriers that we could not avoided.
In conclusion, I would like to repeat the quotation on my earlier essay for the conference. I quote Mother Theresa’s words “There is a tremendous strength that is growing in the world through sharing together, praying together, suffering together, and working together.” At the moment, I had experienced every single word from that quotation through ASEACCU.
First, Sharing Together—the Conference has enabled as to share our thoughts, experiences and views together. The three-day program that has been scheduled by the University has made the communication between the Students possible. Especially, the moments we shared when we visit Garut, Sampireun and off course, The View.
Second, Praying Together—earlier in the essay, I had written the experience that I get from the Conference as a Moslem Students. Although there are some participants with other religions, but the Conference has made the inter-dialogue between each other possible. Furthermore, before the Conference even started we pray together—this is one of the evidence that the Conference has represented the so-called Praying Together conception.
Thirdly, Suffering Together—the Conference has emphasized itself to the Solidarity conception. This is something that could be represented by the term “Suffering Together”—not precisely by feeling the pain together, but more into feeling each others’ struggle. The Conference has indeed, given us the understanding of Solidarity—for example, when there is some language barriers between the Students, we should give empathy to the particular Student in order to make the communications effective. Some Students, in fact, become a translator for each others especially at the Garut Villages. This is also proven that the Conference has given us the opportunity to implement the concept of Solidarity.
Last but not least, the Working Together-concept. The group discussion—even though the Conference has yet done something real to implemented the theme—the sessions and the recommendations that been written throughout the end of the conference could be seen as a stepping stone for the participants. From the networking, the participants could start to put the discussions into our daily practice in the future.
