A Note on "The Role of Youth Leadership in Managing Global Issues"

It was two years ago when I first took part in the team having the responsibility to organize the student reporter for the conference from selection, the D-days, and final report. I love my student reporters, they are totally awesome. I did make some troubles due to my first time experience. It was a big deal with some important people but I really did not have any bad intention. I am simply this little ordinary person. Anyway, we did learn something from our past mistake. 

The second year I helped my friend with the same agenda. This year marked my third year, and who knows might be my last year. I love reporting and writing that is why I was so happy when the committee asked me to be part of the rapporteur. Here, I would like to share the minutes of the enlightening plenary session with Mr. Imam M. Bashar Arafat. Even though I made this on my own, the copyright is for the committee. The full report and the declaration is at the ownership of the committee as well so I just enclosed the summary of the plenary but I did not enclose the discussion here. I am sorry that honestly I was exhausted for the second plenary since I had no break (only limited for dhuhur due to a tight class schedule) from morning till the second plenary. I feel bad that I did not concentrate and do well in the second plenary. However, let me just share the first plenary session. The only motivation for me to share it on my blog is to share goodness. It was a very heart touching and inspiring speech from the first plenary. Goodness is supposed to be shared with each other, right?

Jogja International Conference

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Sidang Kertanegara

Speaker:

Mr. Imam Mohamad Bashar Arafat                           

President of the Islamic Affairs Council in Maryland and Founder of Civilizations Exchange and Cooperation Foundation

Moderator:

Mr. Bambang  Riyanto

Lecturer of Accounting Major, Faculty of Economics and Business, UGM

Rapporteur:

Nur Isnaini Masyithoh

Plenary Session I

Mr. Imam has been living in US for 25 years. He left Syria in 1989. The issue was how to manage the local potential not only the particular subject in particular area but also to manage the global issue. He dreamed of creating the bridge of global civilization. The youth are hope of each nation so every nation depends on them. If we invest them properly, they will solve our global issues such as global economic crises, climate change, poverty, and so on. So, the global issues have both positive and negative impacts. The wars and conflicts have been around the world such as in Palestine, Egypt, in Southeast Asia, Myanmar, Thailand, Philippines-Mindanao, and Nigeria.

When he goes to Africa they do not know what is happening in Southeast Asia because it is not in their interest. If we live in Indonesia but we are not aware of what’s going on beyond Indonesia, we really miss the boat.

The Lord is for the whole world. Rahmatanlil’alamin, mercy for the whole world, for mankind. According to Imam, that is the true Islam because the message from Muhammad is to embrace the teachings of all prophets from Abraham, Josef, Jesus, to Muhammad. They all are the messengers of Allah who delivered the teachings. So, the lack of faith and moralities of others should be considered. Hence, in managing the local potential we have to cope with the global issues. Since Allah wanted happiness to all mankind, we are reminded to be taqwa which is the combination of love and iman to be called ibadah.

Imam is an entrepreneur and Muhammad is also an entrepreneur. There is example how to manage the potentials as Indonesia is the most visited country by tourisms and there needs to be partnership between government and society in order to build civilization with civil involvement. The Quran shows us the roadmap not only to manage economical issues but also the spiritual issues and the intellectuals to study what’s on earth and beyond. For instance, Islam through Quran teaches you what to eat and what you cannot eat because they are harmful which the teachings align with biological needs. Besides, we do learn to live in the society, how to be a good wife, husband, and so on so that we can build a strong society, a strong global community. Imam said, “The reason why I come here is not only for the conference but for what is called silaturrahim.”

The economic issues is a global issues such as Islamic finance emerging in the west, such as in England. The economic bubble burst because there is no morality and ethics when we deal with financial system. In Quran Surah Al Muthaffifin, there will be bad destiny for those who cheat people with what they sell. In Quran there was an example that the Jews cheat in their selling. Therefore, we have to learn from good Jews, good Christians, and Muslim. God teaches us love not hate, so we shouldn’t generate that all Jews are bad and not all Christians are bad. So, that is why Islam is rahmatanlil’alamin. Muslim reaches the world such as in khilafatul Umar ibn Khattab because we bring justice. We are not the best because we are muslim but because of our attitude.

We are now at the time that is different from the era of Muhammad, everyone nowadays has the iphone, Samsung, facebook, so the world changes. It is important to avoid the obstacles, in the Quran, wahlul’uqdatammillisani helps me to untie the tongue to speak appropriately.

Sometimes we don’t know how to deal with diversity, fanaticism, extremism, and terrorism. Business runs away from these. Leadership means to manage the diversity. BUBW (Building Understanding for Better World) is one program offering a way to understand differences and make the changes. This is a human conference not a religious conference. This is to help each other understand what makes us different.

“Changing the world is even a bigger thing so how to change is what is inside of me.”