The House of Representatives (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat / DPR) of Republic of Indonesia (RI) through the Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Agency (Badan Kerja Sama Antar Parlemen / BKSAP) counducted a discussion on parliamentary diplomacy to the students and the academics of University of Pelita Harapan (UPH) Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP). Was titled as ?BKSAP DPR RI and the Strategic Role of Indonesian Parliament Diplomacy?, this discussion aimed to introduce BKSAP as one of the Board Tools which acts as the cornerstone of Parliament diplomacy.

Conducted on Tuesday, October 30, 2018 at Building D 502 UPH Lippo Village, this discussion presented four BKSAP members as speakers. These four were Juliari Peter Batubara (Deputy Chairperson of the BKSAP, Commission VI of the Indonesian House of Representatives), Bara Krisha Hasibuan (BKSAP Member, DPR RI Commission VII), Agustina Wilujeng Pramestuti (BKSAP Member, Commission IV DPR RI), and Dwie Aroem Hadiatie (BKSAP Member, Commission VI DPR RI). The discussion was also attended by the Dean of UPH FISIP, Prof. Aleksius Jemadu, Ph.D as the moderator and UPH Rector, Dr. (Hon) Jonathan L. Parapak, M. Eng. Sc. who had the opportunity to give a speech.

“Thank you to the members of DPR RI who have come to UPH. Today we will learn from those who have done extraordinary diplomacy tasks at home and abroad. Through this event, the students can get knowledge about the ways to fight for Indonesia?s interest through the parliamentary channels. Hopefully in the future they can also be a part in fighting for Indonesia’s interests, “explained the Chancellor in his speech.

As it?s known, diplomacy is very important to be carried out by all peoples, including DPR RI as a state parliament that represents the peoples. Therefore, DPR RI has BKSAP who will develop and enhance the cooperation relations between DPR RI and the other state parliaments, or in other words carrying out parliamentary diplomacy.

As already said by Juliari, BKSAP has done a lot of things in parliamentary diplomacy, like conducting the Indonesia Pacific Parliamentary Partnership (IPPP) on Human Development and Maritime Sustainability in July 2018 attended by countries in the Pacific Region. In addition, BKSAP DPR RI has also always fought for the issue of handling the victims of the Palestinian war conflict in the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) general assembly in Geneva, Switzerland on 14-18 October.

Agustina also added some concrete example of parliament diplomacy that she does as the member of BKSAP DPR RI.

“At that time, there was a Steering Committee of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO (SC PCWTO) in Geneva, Switzerland. At that conference, I and the Indonesian delegation insisted on including issues related to comestibles and the results in PCWTO document outcome draft. This is important because Indonesia must continue the agricultural protection products related to food stocks with a mechanism to protect local products,” said Agustina.

On this opportunity, Agustina also expressed her appreciation to UPH students who could practice the character education and leadership that has been provided as the learning material at UPH.
“I highly appreciate these UPH students who have a high interest in serving in remote areas such as Papua,” said her.

The discussion was also enlivened by questions and answers by the participants and the speakers, continued by giving prizes to the students who could answer the questions by the people?s representatives. This activity took place lively.

At the end of the session, Prof. Aleksius gave a ultimate question for the people?s representative about the important issue in Indonesia that needs to be fixed, so Indonesia will be able to face the other issue in the future.

According to Bara, the issue of tolerance, economic inequality, and the high practice of corruption are three important issues nowadays. Jualiari also agreed on the issue of corruption practices, but the most important position according to him is about the quality of Human Resources and the sense of humanity that began to disappear. Meanwhile Agustina agrees with Juliari regarding the issue of humanity. Besides that, the issue of character building and the sense of nationalism that began to fade are equally important. Finally, Aroem places the issue of economic inequality in the first position, followed by trade and industry problems, and the rampant corruption practices. (it)