As a ‘bhineka’ (plural) country, Indonesia has a history of social conflicts that have caused major losses. We remember any how social conflict never culminates in prosperity. Leaving his comfort zone, Jusuf Kalla initiated a peace dialogue and dared to pioneer the peace-making process in three major conflicts namely Poso, Ambon and Aceh conflicts. Despite being an important history of our nation, the experience of handling the conflict, though, has not been studied and contextualized in depth.
Therefore, Jenggala Institute for Strategic Studies (JISS) supported by the Overseas Indonesian Students Association Alliance (PPI Dunia) organize an essay writing contest to review the experiences of conflict management and peacemaking in Indonesia.
Leaving comforts
People in the world have always wanted a peaceful life where no one has to be complicated with any conflicts. We all have seen some living men who sacrifice their lives for peace. One of them is Jusuf ‘JK’ Kalla, Indonesia’s current Vice President.
Great global leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Malala Yousefzai, Martti Ahtisaari and so on, have done their best to bring peace at the price of their comfortable lives and futures, many of whom were bestowed the Nobel Peace Prize, even though some are not yet.
JK is just like other businessmen-turned-to-be-statesmen who have thousands of reasons to live happily with their abundant wealth. His courage and bravery brought him to step into some prolonged conflicts just to reach one goal: peace.
Horrific conflicts in Indonesia, namely Ambon and Poso conflicts, as well as in Aceh were pacified thanks to JK’s work. Taking a great number of death tolls, these conflicts had drained government budget. People doubted that JK could end the conflicts.
But the doubts have never got the best of him. JK and his team came up with a lot of works, discussion and compromises that eventually resulted in peace treaties. JK seem to never stop his efforts to better our society. He leads an organization focusing on peacemaking in Asia Pacific region called CAPDI (Centrist Asia Pacific Democrats International). It gathers some great world leaders to take part in peacemaking processes in the region. Not being power during the period of 2009 – 2014, JK decided to continue his noble job by taking responsibility to be the Indonesian Red Cross (2009-now).
Recently, Hiroshima University awarded the highest academic title of Doctor Honoris Causa to JK for his contributions and dedication to maintaining peace and development in Indonesia. The university believed that JK’s peacemaking experience is beneficial in strengthening global peace as well as greater and better inter-nations relationships including between Japan and Indonesia.
JK’s leadership and statesmanship have always come with ideas of peacemaking that are proved to benefit our humanity. “Only peace can develop human civilization,” JK believes.
Reviews and reflections on JK’s experience
JISS and PPI Dunia acknowledge that Indonesia’s significant experience in dealing with social conflicts can be an inspiration and input to efforts to create peace in other countries. JK’s thoughts, leadership and policies in handling social conflicts such as Poso, Ambon and Aceh should further receive reviews in the form of appreciation, criticism, input, reflection, etc. to inspire future peacemaking efforts in Indonesia and the world.
As for the competition results, a jury team will award the best works with first, second, and third prizes in the amount of IDR 10,000,000, IDR 7,500,000 and IDR 5,000,000. In addition, the 25 best essay authors will be invited to attend a dinner reception with Vice President Jusuf Kalla. And, those 25 best essays will be published on the JISS website and will be published in a book, edited by a special editing team.
The deadline of the essay submission is August 30, 2018. For more info about this competition, please visit JISS’s website jiss.jenggalacenter.org.
Best,
Jenggala Institute for Strategic Studies
https://jiss.jenggalacenter.org
For the complete instruction, please visit https://jiss.jenggalacenter.org/essay-competition/
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