Environment Give Strength in Uniting People

Monica Rexana
SMA Santa Maria 1 Bandung

Unity is something important that should be possessed by every country. In a

country there are various kinds of ethnics, religions and cultures, which is called as

diversity. For example, in Indonesia there are 6 religions, 714 ethnics and 1.001

regional languages, said our President, Joko Widodo at Kompas, March 30, 2019.

Thus, unity within diversity is needed for us in uniting people. So we can work together

to build a country with its peace and prosperity.

The biggest question is, “Why unity within diversity should be strengthen?” As

written from the previous paragraph, our strength to build peace and prosperity is unity

within diversity. Beside that reason, there are such a terrible condition in Indonesia. It

is issues about racism and conflicts among ethnics and religions. As shown by a

reported news on BBC Indonesia that university students in Surabaya talk about racism,

on August 19, 2019. They were being insulted and some people call them smelly,

monkey and other bad expressions. This is one of the examples about what really

happened in Indonesia nowadays. There are more than this, such as, a tribal war in

Papua, burning church in Aceh, student’s protest about the new law that caused five

people died, and many more. This terrible condition should open our mind and heart to

solve the estrangement between Indonesia’s people.

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 More questions, “Who will take the responsibility to strengthen unity within

diversity in Indonesia?” Some thoughts said that it is government’s, others said that it

is education’s, and the basic answer is family’s. Those answers are right. This is

Indonesia, our country, our responsibility to take. Mahatma Gandhi once said, we must

learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. If everyone in this country

can work together, unity within diversity can be created as well.

The last question is, “How do we strengthen unity within diversity?” There are

many medias to do it. The first media is, through family. Family is a group of people

that we live with. Here, we will be taught to respect every member of our family, accept

the diverse about beliefs and thoughts. In fact, in a family, every member coming up

with different personality. But, personality, which is a result of our own thought, is our

rights to keep it. Even though we are allowed to express our feeling, it does not mean

we can do anything we wanted to do. This is our chance to practice how to accept

people, so our daily life is running well.

The second media is through education. As a student we spend half of our day

every day at school, this makes the school is having a big role to strengthen unity in

diversity. Through extracurricular, students can be put together in an activity they love,

such as, basket, soccer, dance, debate and others. The member of the team is diverse,

yet we supposed to work together to build a great team. Therefore, this can be only

created by uniting the team to reach their goals, that approved by the team. Not only

through extracurricular, but also organization, for instance, student council and scout.

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Moreover, in school we usually have a study group to do some tasks, to get the high

score we should help each other. It is expected that being in a group at school can help

students to learn how to unite the diverse.

The third media is through society. We live side to side with random people

that we don’t recognized before. Communication in society can be done by regular

even, such as youth organization and social gathering. By keeping communication with

each other, we can be closer with others. Moreover, the society will have a great

relation. This condition gives positive effects on our life, it is peace and no hatred.

Furthermore, an organization was built for goals. The way to reach the goals is by

working together, in the same way with giving thought, accepting thought and

respecting thought.

The last media is through Pancasila. Pancasila is the basic principal of

Indonesia, which is exist since June 1, 1945. The most important thing to guide our

behavior is by implying Pancasila’s principle. The first principle teaches us to believe

in one God and embrace a religion, and practice it well. Religion is a personal stuff, so

we must not bother others about it. As a result, we will have peace in the society. The

second principle tells us to respect everyone with their human rights. No one can act

without boundaries. The next principal remind us, that we are in the same nation and

history, where we can be united for that reason. Another point of the principal is the

fourth principal, is to emphasize that as Indonesian nation lead by a president, we need

to be supportive as well. So the relation between the government and citizen runs well.

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The last principal talk about justice, which is such an important thing to be spread

evenly. Justice is what we really need to make people feel respected, considering what

mentioned before about racism on Papuanese.

It can be concluded, great relation in our environment give strength in uniting

people. Strengthening unity within diversity can be done through family, school,

society and Pancasila. These efforts are conducted to create good character of

Indonesian nation. One sentence to keep in mind is, “United we stand, divided we fall”.

Let’s all participate in strengthening unity within diversity.