University of Muhammadiyah Jakarta becomes the next stop of the ASEAN-IPR University Tour, organised by this year’s ASEAN Chair

18 August 2023, University of Muhammadiyah Jakarta

Bringing the spirit of the 56th ASEAN Day and the 78th Indonesian Independence Day celebration, the ASEAN Institute for Peace & Reconciliation convenes another leg of its University Tour, this time to the University of Muhammadiyah Jakarta (UMJ). Organised by the current Chair of ASEAN and ASEAN-IPR, Indonesia, this leg of the University Tour also brought the spirit of Indonesia's chairmanship theme of ASEAN in 2023 – "ASEAN Matters: Epicentrum of Growth".

Up to 120 students from University of Muhammadiyah Jakarta participated in this leg of the ASEAN-IPR University Tour, where it was also graced by the presence of Members of the ASEAN-IPR Governing Council (GC)/Permanent Representatives to ASEAN, Members of the ASEAN-IPR Advisory Board (AB), Executive Director of ASEAN-IPR, as well as leadership and faculty members of the University.

H.E. Artauli Tobing, Chair of the ASEAN-IPR AB, highlighted that aside from introducing the ASEAN-IPR, the University Tour is intended to reach out, engage and establish linkages/network with relevant academic institutions with a view towards collaboration and exchange of expertise and experiences on peace, conflict management and conflict resolution.

In his Keynote Address, H.E. Ngurah Swajaya, Chair of the ASEAN-IPR GC, underlined that under the chairmanship theme, ASEAN aspire to respond and provide solutions to current regional and global challenges with a positive perspective, cooperation, collaboration and optimism. He further underscored that this chairmanship cannot be considered successful if it is not inclusive and focus on the people of ASEAN, especially the Youth. Therefore, the University Tour to UMJ is important to ensure the youth's involvement and participation in the ASEAN Community Building process. This University Tour brought three presentations, coming the Executive Director (ED) of ASEAN-IPR, Representative of the Philippines to the ASEAN-IPR Governing Council, and a Lecturer/Faculty Member of UMJ.

The ED of ASEAN-IPR provided a foundation for discussion by introducing the ASEAN-IPR – namely background of its establishment, mandate, functions, organisational structure, activities, work plans, network, outreach programme, publications along with its other milestones/achievements thus far. Dr. Debbie Affianty, Faculty Member and Executive Director of Laboratory on Indonesian and Global Studies (LIGS), Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of UMJ, provided her take on research gaps in peace studies in Southeast Asia. Her research showed significant gap between peace studies and highlighting and/or analysing the role of ASEAN as well as ASEAN-IPR amongst university students within the region. As one of the champions for the youth, peace & security (YPS) agenda in the region, Representative of the Philippines to the GC, H.E. Hjayceelyn M. Quintana, shared the Philippines best practices and lessons learned in developing National Action Plan (NAP) on YPS. She underlined that the Philippines youth themselves lead the formation of the NAP for their empowerment – where it was initially drafted by a group of young people and subsequently circulated to a multi-stakeholders group, with academic institutions, civil society organizations (CSOs) and national government agencies for their contributions. The young authors of the NAP asked to be considered equal partners in peace and security. They asked for trust from the government and they rallied their fellow youth to meaningfully participate in peace.

After the presentations, a lively and frank open discussion (question-and-answer) between the speakers, students and members of the faculty followed. On the sidelines, a sharing session or academic writing clinic was organised, with members of the GC and AB taking part as facilitators. GC Members of Malaysia and the Philippines, AB Member of Malaysia, along with a senior official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia imparted wisdom and guidance with 22 students from UMJ who are planning or interested in writing academic papers on topics related to ASEAN. In parallel, student participants were also tested on their ASEAN/ASEAN-IPR knowledge through a quiz session – facilitated by the ASEAN-IPR Secretariat.

To close off the event, an exchange of tokens between ASEAN-IPR and UMJ took place, represented by Chair of the ASEAN-IPR and Prof. Dr. Ma'mun Murod Al-Barbasy, Rector of UMJ – respectively. The next ASEAN-IPR University Tour is scheduled to take place in September, continuing Indonesia's lead of the initiative under their Chairmanship of ASEAN and ASEAN-IPR. ASEAN-IPR will also hold a Panel Discussion &; Youth Consultation Simulation, in collaboration with the Embassy of the Netherlands in Jakarta, entitled "Lessons Learned on Developing National Action Plan (NAP) on Youth, Peace &; Security (YPS) on 14 September 2023 at Erasmus Huis Jakarta.

Stay tuned to ASEAN-IPR's website and social media platforms for other interesting events by the ASEAN-IPR, or contact ADMIN@asean-aipr.org if you would like the ASEAN-IPR University Tour to stop by your campus!