Ambassador Percaya and Cultural Attache Mundai visited Newcastle University recently on a visit organised by the local PPI. Education and opportunity were often the topics under discussion. Having read the Rainbow Troops recently, it is clearly an area Indonesia is working on and has much to acheive.
Not only was the visit highly anticipated but also keenly attended and managed. Few (or maybe none) student associations are as active as the PPIs in UK universities. The breadth of activities they organise amongst their cohort and nationally is quite astonishing from national sporting events to cultural shows and down to the smaller pot lucks or movie nights.
Indonesia is well-known as a closely-knit society despite its incredible diversity and that cultural keenness can be clearly noted in the PPIs. They run as a family with a vast number of voluntary roles keeping everyone involved and included. My research focuses on sociocultural adjustment into the UK and I’ve been endlessly impressed by the effort and range of activities which support the students here.
Back to the topic in hand. Pak Percaya is not only seen as a kind of rockstar (he does play the clarinet and saxophone!) by the students, but he is also humble enough to avoid such a tag. His coffee sessions, where he fields questions from an interviewer and the audience, have a relaxed feel, but the encouragement and honest appraisals of what it takes to get to UK university and beyond do not shy away from hard truths.
Indonesia is a country on the rise, and these students are forerunners, but much more needs to be done to ensure these opportunities are accessible to more Indonesians from all the islands of the archipelago.