Indonesia-Singapore bilateral relations have entered their 55th year. These on-going bilateral relations can be stated as a firm, trust-based relationship between the two countries. After entering a better situation during this pandemic, H. E. Mr. Dr Mohamad Maliki bin Osman, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Education and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs of Singapore to Indonesia, spent his time visiting Jakarta as the first momentum of his state visit to make a dialogue with the students exclusively in enhancing cooperation for higher education between Indonesia – Singapore at University Al-Azhar Indonesia (UAI) on September 5, 2022.
Minister Maliki, along with the Singapore Embassy to Indonesia’s entourage consisting of Ambassador of Singapore to Indonesia, Mr. Kwok Fook Seng, Counselor of Singapore Embassy, Mr. Aaron Chee, Deputy Chief of Mission of Singapore Embassy, Mr. Jeremy Sor, Deputy Director of Singapore Embassy, Mr. Terrence Teo and the officers of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singapore was not only welcomed by Prof. Dr. Ir. Asep Saefuddin, M.Sc as the Rector of UAI, the Vice Rectors, and Deans of the Faculties, but also the students from various departments. As the event took place in the Serbaguna room, 2nd floor of UAI, His Excellency began to deliver his thoughts.
His Excellency’s visitation aimed to give students a room to discuss about the foreseeable future of education between two countries that meets everyone’s goal, especially for the young generation both from Indonesia and Singapore. In discussions with students, he pointed out several points that need to be addressed in terms of enhancing cooperation for higher education between Indonesia and Singapore. Some of these points are: (1) How to overcome the nationality crisis, (2) The importance of firming national and regional security, (3) How to minimize the inequality gap, and (4) Building trust, invest and collaborate, and see everything as an opportunity as the key.
In overcoming the nationality crisis and to minimize the inequality gap, His Excellency provided an example of the solutions that have been applied by the Singapore government. Some of which are the implementation of the Singapore Government’s bilingual policy. English is promoted as the “working language” of Singapore for inter-ethnic communication, while the other official languages are considered “mother tongues” of the major ethnic groups. Consequently, people still can communicate by using their mother-tongue yet still connected with the international community as well. He also highlighted how the distribution of resources is the key to overcoming this issue.
The Role of Government is to Make the Young Generation Feel Inspired,” (Minister Maliki)
Moreover, not only on investing in human resource development at a very young age, but also in terms of firming national and regional security, all we need is building trust, and see everything not as a threat, but as an opportunity to build a stable relationship to invest and collaborate further (FA & TSH).