Jakarta, GIVnews.com – In a piece of news that brought laughter and expressions of disbelief to many Indonesians, The Jakarta Post reported last Monday (25/01) that Universitas Indonesia (UI), one of Indonesia's three premier universities, have struck a partnership deal with the government of North Korea.
Representatives from the country, legally known as the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea, and from its university reportedly requested that UI open a new class which will be named in honor of North Korea's current 'Supreme Leader' Kim Jong-un.
"The North Korean government, including their universities, and UI have agreed to form a partnership. The partnership was made after their visits to UI. The demand for a special Kim Jong-un class is part of the agreement between the country's university and UI to carry out exchanges of students, staffs, and lecturers. We will examine all of their requests," said Nesti Rahayu, a staff in UI's International Office, to the Post.
This agreement looks to be the final step of a long process that went back to at least early 2015. In early May 2015, Nasri Gustaman, the ambassador of Indonesia to North Korea, stated that a lecturer exchange agreement between UI and the Kim Il-sung University is in the talks. Kim Il-sung University, named after the country's founding father, is the first and the best university in North Korea. So far, it is not clear what the benefits that UI or Indonesia will reap from the agreement are.
A month after that, UI received a formal delegation from North Korea's government and Kim Il-sung University. According to UI's website, the delegation came as a reciprocal visit to UI lecturers' attendance in a national economic seminar held in North Korea in 2013. In the meeting, the Korean representative invited UI to conduct another visit in the coming years and talked about the possibility of conducting exchange programs with UI's Faculty of Economics and Business.
The news has attracted mixed responses from Indonesians, although many people just laughed it off. Here are some comments from Indonesians in the web:
"What's the purpose of UI opening a Kim Jong-un class? There is no benefit… If the exchange program is held with South Korean students then there's no problem, but it's North Koreans. A country which until [2016] still doesn't have public phones and Internet," commented user kodok.istana in Kaskus, a popular online forum in Indonesia.
"I think it is alright. As long as North Korea is prepared for the variety of undergraduate's perspectives. After all, other Communist thinkers are also comprehensively discussed in Western Political Thoughts class (and Asian ones too)," commented user skyrio, also in Kaskus.
In the comments section of the original Jakarta Post article, Robert J. Cochrane stated, "Perhaps Minister Nasir (Indonesia's Minister of Research and Higher Education – ed.) would be better off sorting out this embarrassing fiasco which will damage UI's reputation than criticizing LGBT Study Groups on campus," referring to Nasir's latest statement regarding the presence of an LGBT-related group in UI.
(Read more: The LGBT Stigma in Indonesia)
Meanwhile, among other nations of the world, Indonesia has always enjoyed a unique relationship with North Korea. Indonesia is one of just a handful of countries which maintains a bilateral diplomatic relationship with the DPRK, with both countries opening embassies on one another's land.
The friendship blossomed especially during the reign of President Soekarno and Kim Il-sung in the sixties, when North Korea participated in the Indonesia-led Asian-African Conference and the Non-Block Movement. Soekarno even honored Kim Il-sung by naming a species of orchid from Makassar as Kimilsungia, declaring it as an eternal symbol of friendship between the two states.
In the more recent era, multiple visits by leaders from both countries are also conducted. Then-President Megawati Soekarnoputri, Soekarno's daughter, went to Pyongyang in 2002. The Speaker of DPRK's legislative house, Kim Yong-nam, visited Indonesia in 2002, 2005, and 2012. DPRK's government also maintains a restaurant called "Pyongyang" in Jakarta, which offers authentic North Korean food and dining experience.
While Indonesia has repeatedly expressed its disagreement with North Korea's human rights aggressions and nuclear tests, Indonesia believes in the method of dialogue to deal with the differences between North Korea and the rest of the globe. Indonesia does not believe in isolating any country, including North Korea, and instead seek to replicate the same approach that it used in opening up Myanmar to the world.
Source: Universitas Indonesia's Partnership with North Korea
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