Prof. Madya dato, Dr. Abdul Razaq Ahmad (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) were to give keynote speech in the studium generale organized by Educational Policy study program, the Department of Philosophical Sociology Education with the theme of `Policy of Nation and Character Building: Comparing Indonesia-Malaysia`. The agenda attracted 159 participants at the Abdullah Sigit room, FE YSU (10/3). The Dean of Faculty of Education YSU, Dr. Haryanto, M.Pd. urged the participants of this studium generale to gain knowledge on the education in Indonesia and Malaysia. “We hope that the cooperation between YSU and UKM will continue to prosper”, he stated.

At the same time, Prof. Madya dato and Dr. Abdul Razaq Ahmad were present together with Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Rahman to share their knowledge and expertise in education based on their research. In his speech, Prof Razaq delivered his admiration towards the Indonesian society who still uphold Indonesian language as their national language. This is because national language is paramount for students and youngsters to hold on to, this is important for building a strong character and national identity.

Furthermore, Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Rahman explained his research about patriotism in Malaysia, this is because, in Malaysia nowadays, there are many nations and ethnicity that still carry their own deep-rooted culture which have an impact on the low level of patriotism in Malaysia. “Currently in Malaysia, the Malays are enrolling their children in the Malays school, this is also true for the Chinese and the Indians, they tend to send their children to their own ethnicity’s schools respectively. This border between ethnicity will create a gap and distance that will affect the spirit of patriotism, as explained by Tan Sri. After the question and answer session, the event was concluded by the moderator. (dk/anton)