SPEECH about EDUCATION

The honorable Mr. Samsul Maarif , the Chief of English Department

The honorable Mrs. Nunik Sugesti, our inspiring lecturer

and good morning for all freshmen of English Department YSU 2010

Firstly, Let me say welcome for the freshmen of English Department especially attending this occasion. I can guess what you feel from your face that today you are happy because you’ve become a university student, right? This college is your choice, but I don’t know if some of you are still disappointed with this choice. Some of you maybe consider this college is not the best one you choose. No matter for that, I only want to ask you now. Are you pride become a student of this college? Is there any freshmen here still ask like: what can I get from this university? If I were you I would reply that I am very lucky become a part of Yogyakarta State University moreover become a student of English Department. Why? Yes, of course. Because you have just enter to a university that has a status Road to World Class University or WCU. Actually, that is what I want to talk here, I’d like to introduce you what is world class university and what should we do to get its benefit while consider to support this program.

Dear freshmen,

To begin with, we all know that quality of education in Indonesia, especially higher education is still left behind compared with other countries. We need the right strategy to improve our quality of education. World Class University seems to be the main requirement for Indonesia if we want to compete with foreign universities. Nowadays, some countries have  made education as a reliable source of income. For example, our friends who study abroad would be asked to pay higher prices than usual. If we count, it reaches 10 times more expensive. Imagine, how much income from this field. It does not include the income that accompanies the field of education itself. Our government understand those, but it is difficult to get the financial sources to improve higher education because our government has focused to pay 9-year compulsory education. To overcome that, our government made a policy to change the college became a legal entity.. That’s why our college now establish BLU  or  Public Service Agency. It doesn’t mean that we are to face with education capitalization because the income from BLU will be used to improve our education in our college.

Dear freshmen,

Then, what can we do to support our college on road to WCU? In my opinion, there are at least six important roles we should play as a student. First, we need to minimalize demonstration as far as the problem can be solved by discussion. Second, It is important for us to take a part in larger society activities to enlarge our knowledge. Third, keep our self-image as a student of Yogyakarta State University wherever we go. Fourth, join many competitions, for example, joining debate contest, science Olympiad , promoting our dances and music, etc. Fifth, learn about research little by little from now because research is one of strategy to reach WCU beside it is also essential to give benefit to our society. The last we can do and maybe it’s familiar among us is that as a student whether student of English department or not, we need to practice our English more to help the progression of our college on road to WCU.

Dear freshmen,

Now let me reiterate, our quality of higher education is still left behind compared with other countries because of limited funds. If we let it happen continually, of course we’ll only become a stagnant country that can not develop its quality of education. To increase quality of education our college has encountered a new idea that is world class university, while to solve the problem of higher education funds we have established BLU or Public Service Agency. Both of them are still new for our college but we must be sure that one day we will be able to reach our dream to have the same level quality with foreign universities. Therefore, we must support this idea by those six roles I’ve encountered before because we are part of education components in this college. At last, there is a good quotation “one day, our children will feel that education developed today could give them better living”.

Thank you.

OMNI; WHY MUST WE STRUGGLE NOT TO STOP THIS CASE?

By

Maria Wulandari

            A difficult problem that is faced by the court in Indonesia today is Omni case, a case between ex-patient and Omni International Hospital, a hospital located in Tangerang, West Java. This case began when Prita had a medical treatment  in Omni International Hospital in August 7, 2008. Prita felt unsatisfied with the medical service and also the doctor  caring her.  She shared her feelings to some of her friends through e-mail. While Omni felt that their name has blackened because Prita’s e-mail has spread in some blogs. Omni brought this case to the police and sent Prita to the jail for about 3 weeks. Omni judge that Prita has collided with a regulation about Electronic Transaction of  Information. They also asked Prita to pay 261 millions. Knowing this irrational punishment, our society with a huge number of people criticism Omni’s action by supporting Prita through a social activity called ‘Coin for Prita’. They think, Prita just want to share her feelings. So, she’s not absolutely wrong. Actually, this is a simple case, but it becomes more controversial  in this recent time. Even, this case encourage SBY to show his attention to this case as a president. He said that to justify we must use our heart. However, from many opinions and judgments, it remains that we need to know the clear ending. Therefore, this case should be continued because of two reasons that is  to get the clear ending and to prove the law enforcement in Indonesia.

                The first reason is that it is still unclear who is  the right and who is the wrong in this case. In fact, Omni didn’t give Prita opportunity to explain this problem. Whereas,  if Prita brought to the court, so Omni should be brought to the court too. Both of them must be justified to clarify the fact. The chief of Law Enforcement Center said, for Prita, the court will do an inspection of matter to give a legal certainty and to prove whether she has did a defamation or not. If the information gave by Prita via e-mail is right, the court must take a decision to punish the doctor in Omni International hospital who did a wrong medical service. A legal observer, Ronald Simanjuntak also said that in this case, the process of matter is not easy. It is still difficult to know who is  the wrong and who is the right. There will be still a long process to find the final point between Omni  and Prita. It is a very important process aimed to know who should address an apology and what action is forgivable.

                The second reason is that this case shouldn’t be stopped to prove the law enforcement in Indonesia. It means, there is a good time for us to see how equitable is  the law can take a part in this case. In fact, Indonesia has a good law concept, but in application to the society sometimes it tends to have no attention to human rights. If there is an ordinary civil faced with a big power or institution, he/she will undergo a kind of injustice. We may see Prita’s experience, when   the police and the court receive an  information from Omni, they response it and brought Prita to the jail directly. Ironically, we may see at one time when the ordinary civil want to report a certain case, will the police or the court also response them as they response to Omni case? No, usually the ordinary civil tend to get the response with more complicated process. Even, the plolice or the court often decide a wrong decision. An example is Asrori’s case in East Java. He was brought to the jail because the court assumed that he had taken apart in a murder case. Whereas, he knew nothing about that and finally it is proved that he was not the wrong one. From this example, we can not trust our law directly. We need to take apart by controlling our law enforcement and this case shouldn’t be stopped. If the court finally gives a wrong decision, it is no doubt that the law in Indonesia is still deformity and we can not trust 100 % our own law and vice versa.

              In conclusion, because we need a clear ending and also need to prove our law enforcement, Omni case should be continued. Therefore, people should support the court and our government to achieve a good decision. We can take a part by controlling our law enforcement so it won’t collide with human rights.