Yogyakarta – In addition to causing problems in global health and economic crisis, the World Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recalled that the COVID-19 pandemic can also cause a world food crisis. According to the FAO, the food crisis is predicted to begin in May-June 2020, and is even likely to continue for the next two years before the global situation returns to normal.

To support food self-sufficiency in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic, urban communities can utilize urban farming models, such as optimizing land or open space by creating community garden, roof garden or vertical garden. Also, developing urban farming model on limited land can also be done, such as vertical, hydroponic, and aquaponic gardens.

As one of referenced institutions for research in population and policy, Center for Population and Policy Studies (CPPS) UGM always seeks to ground the discourse it builds into the most practical and strategic actions needed in dealing with a crisis situation.

In facing the food crisis in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic, CPPS UGM initiate home gardening movement. For example, a researcher and CPPS UGM manager of media and publication, Hakimul Ikwan, made a home garden using urban farming systems (vertical, hydroponic, and aquaponic garden) in his yard.

Hakim said that he has planted many kinds of vegetables so far, such as spinach, kale, and mustard greens. Also, to support food self-sufficiency, he has made a simple fish pond for the cultivation of freshwater fish, such as tilapia, catfish, and carp.

Freshwater fish farming is also carried out by the Head of CPPS UGM, Agus Joko Pitoyo, by making a fish pond behind his house. He has also planted cassava as the way to support food security.

The same thing is done by Citra Sekarjati (a research assistant at CPPS UGM) who has made a vertical garden on her house wall. In addition to growing vegetables, she said that she likes to plant mint leaves because it benefits human health.

Besides, Sri Purwaningsih (a researcher at CPPS UGM) has also planted chili using pot on the porch in her house terrace, as well as Setiadi (a researcher at CPPS UGM) who has planted spinach using polybags as the planting media.

To support food security in urban areas, we can try to plant lowland vegetables, such as kale and spinach. The care for these vegetables is not too difficult and relatively quick to be harvested. Spinach and spinach are usually ready to be harvested at the age of 21-25 days.

In addition to the two vegetables, as reported by tirto.id, other food security groups that can independently be planted are tomatoes with a harvest period of 60 days, chili peppers in 70 days, tubers in 80 days, cucumber in 75 days, eggplant in 90 days, then mustard greens and caisim which are ready to harvest after 40 days of planting. Also, gardening for personal consumption can save the costs of vegetable purchasing and transportation by up to 50-60 percent.

Writer: Nuraini Ika  | Language Editor: Rinta Alvionita

Yogyakarta – Center for Population and Policy Studies (CPPS) UGM helped vulnerable communities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

CPPS UGM collaborated with several disaster response action associations to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, including Dapur Umum Melawan COVID-19 (Public Kitchen to Fight COVID-19) and Tolong Sesama Lawan COVID-19 (Help Others to Fight COVID-19).

In collaboration with Dapur Umum Melawan COVID-19 initiated by Solidaritas Pangan Yogyakarta (Yogyakarta Food Solidarity), CPPS UGM distributed the donation in the form of Vitamin C and Vitamin E to the elderly and children in need in Gubung Kidul Regency, Sleman Regency, and Kotagede, Yogyakarta.

Meanwhile, in collaboration with Tolong Sesama Lawan COVID-19 initiated by interfaith, cultural, and professional networks in Yogyakarta, Central Java, and Bali, CPPS UGM also provided food stalls and distributed them to informal workers who were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also, the team of CPPS UGM directly involved in distributing 290 food packages to a number of families in need in Yogyakarta on 10-11 April 2020. In detail, 160 food packages were distributed to Sleman Regency, Yogyakarta City, and Bantul Regency, and 130 packages were distributed to the Sukoharjo region as well.

Basilica Dyah Putranti, a volunteer of Tolong Sesama Lawan COVID-19 as well as CPPS’s researcher, explained that such disaster response action aims to help those who are in need and to mutually reinforce communities so that they can rise from the global health crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There is no need to wait for government assistance, everyone is basically blessed with a conscience and a sincere desire to help others who need help. The COVID-19 pandemic is a global disaster, it’s us who should help each other to get up together from adversity,” she said.

She added that the spread of COVID-19 is very fast and the vaccine has not been found, so one of the most likely efforts to not be easily infected by COVID-19 is to maintain body immune, one of them is to regularly take vitamin C and vitamin E.

In addition, an effort to fight the spread of COVID-19 is to do physical distancing. This significantly affects the decline in economic activity and volume, especially for those who belong to lower-middle income groups, the majority of whom work in informal sectors with daily wage. This group also does not have assets and savings that can be relied upon while facing the lost or decrease their income.

“In addition to the high percentage of informal workers (around 55 percent) in Indonesia, they are also one of the most affected groups in the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, we distribute food donation in the hope that it can ease the burden on those in need,” she added.

As a referral research institution in population and policy, according to her, CPPS UGM is supposed to always ground the discourse that it builds into the most practical and strategic actions needed in a crisis situation.

Triyastuti Setianingrum, CPPS UGM Finance, Asset, and HR Manager, said that the COVID-19 pandemic has many implications that affect various aspects of life, such as economic, social, cultural, religious, and political. Therefore, good cooperation and awareness of all parties is needed to immediately get out of this condition.

“Therefore, CPPS UGM is moving together, hand in hand to fight the COVID-19 pandemic by donating and collaborating with various parties to help those in need,” she said. According to her, this action is also one of the implementations of Tri Dharma Perguruan Tinggi (Three Pillars of Higher Education), that is community service.

In addition to hold collaboration with some parties, she highlighted that CPPS UGM also had a plan to provide assistance in the form of basic foods given to internal and external parties of CPPS UGM.

Moreover, CPPS UGM also had a scientific agenda related to COVID-19, such as holding online seminars and publishing the Special Edition of Jurnal Populasi on COVID-19.

 

 

 

 

 

 

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE & SUMMER COURSE 2018

“POPULATION AND SOCIAL POLICY IN A DISRUPTED WORLD”

Cooperation with Center for Population and Policy Studies (CPPS) Universitas Gadjah Mada, Master and Doctoral Program of Policy Study (MDSK) Universitas Gadjah Mada, and PT. Bank Mayapada Internasional, Tbk.

 

Yogyakarta, PSKK UGM – Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) proudly holds International Conference “Population and Social Policy in a Disrupted World” and series of Summer Course “International Labour Migration in the Shifting World: New Insights and Policy Challenges” activity.

The implementation of the activity departs from three problematic matters accompanying world change. First, the incompleteness of epidemiological transition in rapidly developing countries such as countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The epidemiological transition begins from complex changing in health status and the main pattern of disease causing death, where there is a decrease in the prevalence of communicable diseases, while degenerative diseases tend to be catastrophic, such as heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, are increasing.

Changing of lifestyle, increasing of consumption of fast food highly containing cholesterol, salt, sugar, but low in fiber; and low physical activity such as exercise cause people vulnerable to degenerative diseases. Lately, many teenagers suffer from degenerative diseases. If it is not well handled, it will affect the quality of the young population. Handling such problem draws most of the financial and technical resources belong to the government.

Second, issues and problems of complex voluntary and forced international labor migration. Voluntary or forced international migrant workers become a group which is vulnerable to human right violation and they become a trading “commodity”. This has been going on for a long time and demanding a commensurate policy to avoid hardship suffered by international migrant workers. In general context of international migration, trends in some countries implementing “anti-migrant” policy also emerge a separated problem. This mainly refers to migration policies applied by the United States and some countries in Europe. An important question in this context is; where is the role of the states, in both sending and receiving countries? Addition to that, technological progress should provide opportunities for the government to develop protection policies for international migrant workers.

Third, the lack of social protection aimed to minimise population problems previously explained. The increasing number of elderly people, for example, needs to be accompanied by adequate health services for the elderly and a better and comprehensive policy scheme. All formal and informal workers, local or international migrants, should also have a social protection scheme which protects them from illnesses and accidents at work. Moreover, the problem of poverty as an unfinished agenda demands rethinking of all applied policies.

The three issues above are getting complex after major changes occur, those are marked by developments of information and globalization technology, which cause a very fast change or “disrupted world”. Almost every line of our lives, both in private and public spheres, changes to be digital, online, connected to each other. Not only is it without problems, in industrial relations for example, the existence of an all-digital system actually also contributes serious employment issues.

The conference taking place at University Club Hotel, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta is able to generate various critical questions on the issues. The conference presents resource persons whose reputations in their fields, they are Dr. Lothar Smith (Human Geography, Institute for Management Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands), Prof. Dr. Ben White (International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands), Prof. Maria Fasli, Ph.D., NTF, FHEA (UNESCO Chair of Analytics and Data Science), and Prof. Rebecca Surender, Ph.D., (Department of Social Policy, Oxford University, the United Kingdom). Minister of National Development Planning/National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS), Prof. Dr. Bambang P.S. Brodjonegoro is scheduled to attend, at last he will be represented by Director for Planning, Population and Social Security of BAPPENAS, Maliki, ST, MSIE, Ph.D., to deliver keynote speech.

Summer Course

The activity series of Summer Course activities taking the title: “International Labour Migration in the Shifting World: New Insights and Policy Challenges” will be carried out for ten days, from 7 to 17 August 2018. This activity combines discussion activities in class, study field, report writing, and presentation sessions.

The Summer Course will be participated by 35 participants from Indonesia and overseas. Foreign participants are coming from Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, India, New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan, Syria and the Philippines. In the field activities, participants of the summer course will make visits to three Villages of Migrant Workers (Desbumi) in Wonosobo District, those are Kuripan Village, Rogojati Village, and Lipursari Village. The only goal is the participants of the summer course will be able to recognize one of local initiatives with all problems and challenges. []

*Open this link to download the press release (pdf version):

Siaran Pers ICSC UGM 2018 (Ind)

Press Release ICSC UGM 2018 (Eng)

Yogyakarta, PSKK UGM – Poverty is a very dynamic issue, depending on the challenges at the time. Each period of Indonesian government has its own focus and character in poverty alleviation efforts.

In the early independence, the government faced challenges of military aggression that the colonial nation intensified again so that the state political and security situation was not yet stable.

Today’s era is broadly called religious revival era. Religion, which is originally predicted by many social scientists, will be in ‘bankruptcy’ along with the development of modernization and industrialization. In fact, it appears to be the most important element. Religion—symbols, concepts, institutions—exists and permeates all aspects of life among society in the 21^st century.

In fact, millennial people who are most exposed to information and digital communication is nowadays the main agents that bring up religious narratives in public sphere. A very senior Muslim activist said that college students are more solemn in their prayers than the activists in the past. Sabyan—one of Gambus music group which consists of very young artists—is very fluent in singing Deen Assalam that echoes everywhere, food stalls, malls, and cafes. Also, Dodi Hidayatullah who was very nicely changed the lyrics of Despacito—that is considered moral-less and banned in Malaysia for this reason—had rearranged the song to be a song full of symbolism and Islamic messages. In a more extreme form, young groups are giving birth to a wave of ISIS followers in Europe. They secretly organize and succeed crossing the country’s territorial boundaries to join the ISIS military force.

It has become a sign of the times that the Islamic country—also Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism—is increasing. The widespread of the awareness on being a kaffah Muslim or a complete Muslim among Muslims has also increased. Among professionals, they decided not to use conventional banks and switch to sharia banks in order to be fully Muslim. Among educated young people, many of them consciously decide to change their life to trading. This type of work, in their view, is the work that the Prophet Muhammad SAW liked best. Many of them decide to ‘emigrate’ out of government institutions, as civil servants, or private employees to achieve a ‘more blessing’ life. Therefore, the label ‘Halal’ is today’s main reference for the Muslim community to buy products. It is not only applied to food products, beverages, and cosmetics, but also other products such as refrigerators and headscarves.

The passion of Muslims to become a kaffah Muslim is also shown by a large wave of Umrah and Hajj travel. One of the businesses that are currently popular is the Hajj and Umrah travel agencies since the demand is always high, especially in certain seasons such as Ramadan and Islamic New Year. The First Travel and Ash Tour scandal does not seem to affect this business. Travel agencies compete to attract the pilgrims, either by offering cheap ticket or cooperation with some celebrity artists or celebrity priests (ustadz).

Covering aurat has become commonplace and too mainstream among Muslim women. Therefore, the hijrah process to become a kaffah Muslimah continues to move to the right through the hijabers community, even it has been developing to niqobers. If the initial niqobers had never uploaded photos or selfies on social media, today’s niqobers has been more exposed with photo uploads, niqob modifications while sharing tausiah.

Unfortunately, a strong eagerness to be a kaffah Muslim often clashes with the necessity of being a kaffah Indonesian. In an extreme degree, being a kaffah Muslim is marked by the eagerness to implement the Laws of Allah. Meanwhile, the laws other than God’s laws are considered heretics. The power other than Allah is thaghut.

Indonesian Muslims today are faced with a serious problem reuniting the spirit of Islam and Indonesia. The question is, can we be a kaffah Muslim and a kaffah Indonesian citizen at the same time with the good, the Pancasilais one?

Each generation has its challenges. Our generation is no exception. The challenges of today’s generation are no easier than the previous ones. However, it is also no more difficult than the previous ones.

If we, indeed, understand Islam and any kinds of Islamic expression in various forms of understanding doctrines, verses and texts, and Islamic practices, then we will find the fact that Islam is not a single entity. It is presented and expressed in a variety of interpretations of religious understanding, texts and doctrines, even daily practices that vary among communities, societies, nations, and even periods.

Since the earliest era of Islamic history, there has been a split in religious understanding of kalam text and science. This gave rise to differences in theological groups, for example between As’ariay and Mu’tazilah, Qodariyah and Jabariyah, and Maturudiyah. Moroover, in kalam sciences or monotheism debate, there was a debate if Al-Qur’an is kholiq or makhluq? These historical facts present us that in fundamental and theological terms, Islam is not one. There are many different theological views.

If in theological matters Islam is not a single entity, then it also matters in worship and mu ‘amalah. In the case of prayer, for example, we understand that there are diverse things starting from the reading of prayers between “wajjahtu wajhiya” and “allahumma baa’id baini”, “hand clasping”, and others. The procedure for ablution also varies among the past Islamic initiators (mazhab).

In short, from the five pillars of Islam, the one and the fix one are to say the phrase “laa ilaha illallah, muhammadur rasulullah” and the rest has its differences.

Islam is present in various forms of expression in worship, especially in matters of mu’amalah.

We can distinguish it from the hijab, or Muslim headscarves among Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. In fact, the robes worn by female Muslim can be distinguished between the Medina’s and the Yemen’s.

Which one belongs to Islam and which one that does not? or, which one that is more Islamic than others? We find a rich of Islamic tradition in diversity. However, it can be disastrous if there is a claim that one is more Islamic than the others.

The next question is “are there universal Islamic religious traditions or practices?” The answer is yes. That is in terms of saying ‘monotheism sentence or called tauhid’, the number of compulsory prayers or called rakaat, fasting in the month of Ramadan, and Hajj in the month of Hajj. However, there are differences in the implementation of prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage (Hajj).

Based the description above, we can now draw the conclusions; being a Muslim who is kaffah cannot make us free or apart from the particularities of religious practices. Being a kaffah Muslim means practicing Islam seriously and consistently in a particular Islamic methodology that is still particular. Being a kaffah Muslim means to be a kaffah in a certain methodological version and does not mean that one is more Islamic than other methodological versions.

Why is the first conclusion difficult to accept, especially among some Muslims? The answer is because in the mindset of Indonesian Muslims and even in the world, the diversity of religious practices is not present in a vacuum, but is constructed in power relations. Certain religious practices are associated with certain group entities. Slametan is commonly associated with Javanese or Malay community practices. Haflah tasyakuran is associated with Arab societies. Meanwhile, Gamelan is identical to Java and Gambus is identical to the Middle East.

In the power relations, Slametan cannot be equated with the thanksgiving or called haflah tasyakuran. Gamelan is not the same as Gambus becauseJavanese and Malay are not equal to Arabic and Middle East. The power relation presupposes a community entity or group that has more power, more noble, and respectable than other community or group entities. The construction took place in a long span of history and was carried out by parties who were ‘more powerful’ or authoritative. The construction was built in a colonial relationship.

It has been so long that the world was divided into two poles, Eastern and Western. This division was needed by the authorities—the colonials—to build an identity construction that the West (the ruler or colonial) was more powerful, noble, honorable, and civilized. Therefore, Edwar said that the construction of Eastern and Western is not only a matter of world division but also an instrument of colonialism at the same time. The Eastern and Western are regarded as identity constructions that perpetuate colonialism. At the very least, the construction is to construct the ‘power’ difference.

The imbalance of power relations does not only globally occur in the construction of Eastern and Western, but it also happened in sorting the world of Islam. Arab and Middle East are “advanced and respectable Western” representation and non-Arabs (including Malay, Bangladeshi, Indian Muslims, Chinese Muslims, etc.) are “Eastern in the second class and less Islamic” representations. In this imbalance of power relations, the “Eastern (non-Arabic)” strives to become “the Western (Arabic)” in various religious and cultural expressions. In fact, many Easterners (non-Arabs) behave more than Westerners (Arabs). Therefore, the use of robes, turban, and Arabic terms, including Arabic songs has now sneak to the peak.

Therefore, the second conclusion is that the preference for certain religious symbolism and practices which seems to be more primary, noble, and honorable is the result of the effects of colonial way in seeing the world in unequal power relations. An ontological and epistemological practice and cultural expression is not more noble than the others.

The prophetic spirit of Muhammad SAW wants to destroy the colonial perspectives. The Arabic tribes, including Quraysh, felt more noble than others, and the perspective was then revolutionarily destroyed by the Prophet Muhammad SAW by saying “Laa Fadla Li Arabiyin‘ ala ‘Ajamiyin, wa laa kinnal fadhla bittaqwa.”

From the two arguments above, that (1) being a kaffah Muslim does not mean free from the particularity of Islamic religious understanding and practices, and (2) the unequal influence of power relations makes a practice and symbolism more important and noble, and (3) the spirit of prophethood which broke down racism and materialistic chauvinism, then we can build an argument that (4) there is no gap between Islam and Indonesia.

The last, I would like to elaborate the formulation of Al-Quran, which is also the theological basis for bringing together or marrying between Islam and Indonesian-ness.

Allah SWT says in Surah Ibrahim 24-26.

It means: “Have you not noticed how Allah has made good parable words like a good tree is the tree whose roots are strong and its branches soar up to the sky.”

The sentence “toyyibah” in the verse explained by the scholars is a sentence of monotheism or an appeal to the faith in Allah SWT. However, in general, thoyyibah means good sentences, that is, all forms of invitation to goodness.

The verse gives the criteria for thayyibah, which is rooted in the social life of the community that have sociological, structural and cultural context awareness in which the sentence “toyyibah” is conveyed. In this case, understanding the context (sociological/present, and historical/time span) is very important.

There are many examples, ‘itibar’ from Al-Qur’an and Sirah Nabawiyah which emphasizes the importance of contextual (sociological-historical) awareness. There were no obstacles for Allah to directly carry out the Prophet Muhammad to guide to sidratul muntaha, for example. However, since the trip is not an individual journey but it contains a mission for humanity, the Prophet Muhammad was carried out in Israel to Baitul Maqdis to be tested for truth in human reason. There were no obstacles to Allah in making the Prophet Muhammad from any tribe, but since there was tribal stratification in the Arab tradition at that time, it would be easier and more acceptable for the prophets to come from the respectable Quraysh tribe. In fact, the Prophet Muhammad had to bleed in battle, his teeth were broken because the legitimacy of his leadership became stronger back then. Besides, Sayyidina Ali ultimately lost the battle against Mu’awiyah, not because Ali’s faith was lacking, or inferior to Muawiyah. It also does not mean that Allah’s good pleasure for Mu’awiyah is greater than Ali. The defeat was due to the fact and social reality that Mu’awiyah came from a much larger tribe, with much more followers than the tribe’s and Sayyidina Ali’s.

Sociological awareness is also inherent with historical awareness. The characteristic of sociological thinking is historical awareness, that is, something happens not by itself but a long time span process that results from the struggle of various social elements.

The verse uses the word “syajaroh” which in Bahasa Indonesian is called a tree. However, it can also be translated to “history”. Family history or genealogy is also called “syajaroh” in Arabic. Therefore, the mission of monotheism must fulfill the preconditions of awareness of history, both the history of self, family, community, society, and nation.

By the parable of “syajaroh“, the faith becomes solid then in which its roots are firmly pierced (ashluha tsaabit) and its branches (benefits) and the fruit of the goodness soars high (to heaven).

Conversely, bad words or deeds, which do not have sociological and historical awareness, are like bad trees whose roots are uprooted from the ground (earth surface) and cannot be erected in the slightest.

It is referred to parable of the people who do not have historical-sociological awareness, then has no grip and becomes easily oscillated in the flow of discourse that we do not know where it comes from. When the world speaks for anti-terrorism agenda, then it oscillates in the discourse, meaning that it gets carried away to be part of terrorism OR being haunted by fear in the discourse of terrorism. The same thing also happens to the waves of Anti-Ahmadiyah, Anti-Shia, ISIS, and so on. In conclusion, to prevent this, be like a tree that pierces to the earth that is, being a Muslim who has a sociological and historical awareness.

Happy Pancasila Day.

Keep trying to become a kaffah Muslim, as well as a kaffah Pancasilais-Indonesian people.

[] Hakimul Ikhwan, Ph.D. (Researcher at CPPS UGM and Lecturer in Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences UGM)

*Photo of demonstrators at Pancasila Day/pinterpolitik.com

 

Media Indonesia – Politics does not have to be an allergy trigger. Michael Victor Sianipar is now busy encouraging people whose integrity and concern for Indonesia not to just talk, but to contribute by going into the system.

Jakarta – Majalahcsr. The philanthropic potential is enormous for directing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to become something longer by working with others in an area.

Philanthropic activities with community empowerment will significantly contribute to poverty reduction and improvement of living standards.

Yogyakarta, CPPS UGM – In some developing countries family planning program is still encouraged to regulate the fertility rate of the population.

Yogyakarta, UGM – Tahir Foundation (TF) in collaboration with Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) and Universitas Muhammadiyah is currently developing a philanthropic program for community empowerment.

Yogyakarta, PSKK UGM – The number of poor people in the Special Region of Yogyakarta (DIY) was still the highest in Java, although the trend was declining and slow.