Strengthening Unity Within Diversity

Monica Rexana
XII IPA 2
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, unity within diversity is our strength to build a

country with its peace and prosperity. 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 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 example 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 others. This terrible condition should open our mind and heart to solve

the estrangement between Indonesia’s people.

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

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

said it is education system’s responsibility, and the basic answer is family’s

responsibility. Those answers are right. This is Indonesia, our country, our

responsibility to take. If everyone in this country can work together, unity within

diversity can be created as well.

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

are many medias to strengthening unity within diversity. The first media to do it, 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 thought.

Even in a family, every member coming up with different personality. Sometimes we

like it and sometimes we do not like it. But, personality, which is result our own

thought, is our rights to keep it. Even though that we are allowed to express our feeling,

it does not mean that we can do anything we wanted to do. This is our chance to practice

how to accepting people, so our daily life is running well.

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

day every day at school, this makes school have a big role to strengthening unity in

diversity. Through extracurricular, student can be put together in an activity that they

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

diverse, but we are supposed to work together to build a great team. And this is only
created by uniting the team to reach goals, that approved by the team. Not only through

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

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. Moreover, the society will have a great relation. This

condition gives positives effect of 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, 2019. 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. And

then the second principle tells us to respect everyone with their human rights. No one

can act without boundaries. The third principal remind us, that we are in the same

nation and history, where we can be united for that reason. Another point of the fourth

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

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

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

evenly.
 To summarize, strengthening unity within diversity is our priority right now.

Strengthening unity within diversity can be done through family, school, society and

Pancasila. These efforts are conducted to create good character of Indonesian nation,

so we can work together to build a country with its peace and prosperity. One sentence

to keep in mind is, “United we stand, divided we fall”. Let’s all participate in

strengthening unity within diversity.