Institut Teknologi Bandung

In the public lecture that was open to students of ITB, public and mass media, General Tito delivered a lecture entitled “The Challenge of Unity in Democracy and Globalization.”

He began with a story about the uniqueness of Indonesia at which live diverse tribes, cultures, races, and religions. These diversities have long lived and embraced under the national motto “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika”, a Sanskrit phrase meaning Unity in Diversity. The motto was conceived by the founding fathers that envisioned the objective of this nation together.

”To upgrade a society, we should identify every objective and then identify the differences and similarities. From there, to develop unity, we focus more on the same objectives and leave behind different objectives. It is the same as building a nation,” said General Tito.

If diversity is not embraced, it will beget discord and threaten the unity of Indonesia. Moreover, many ideologies could now easily enter and influence mindset in this globalization era. The Democratic system, which embraces diverse interests of people could be abused by certain groups, mingled it with Liberalism to benefit only the powerful parties in economic, politic, media or all of them.

Therefore, the successes of Democracy, which facilitate diversity in Indonesia, require the support from both the government and the people. The government and the people have an unspoken contract in which the government is obligated to ensure the welfare and security of people, whereas the people are to abide to the rules set.

General Tito reminded the students to remember the struggle the youth had done in uniting this country through Sumpah Pemuda. With their attempt to unite the land, people and language, we should have concerned ourselves with preserving the integrity of indonesia as Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia (NKRI).