Becoming a Government Partner, Vice President Expects Islamic Boarding Schools to Build Advanced Indonesia

Banjarbaru, wapresri.go.id – Taking part in filling up the nation’s independence can be done with various efforts, ranging from development in all fields to community empowerment. All efforts made have one goal, namely to make Indonesia advance and prosper. Therefore, the contribution to fulfilling Indonesia’s independence is a shared task, including the pesantren (Islamic boarding school) community, so that all Indonesian people can live an advanced and prosperous life.

“It takes cooperation from all parties, one of which is pesantren as a partner of the government to actualize this goal. So actually these tasks are the same as government tasks. The government now wants to build prosperity towards Advanced Indonesia, and eliminate poverty, so there is empowerment, there is social assistance. Therefore, I hope that the pesantren becomes a partner of the government, shadiiqul Hukumah,” said Vice President (VP) K.H. Ma’ruf Amin when opening the One Pesantren One Product South Kalimantan Expo 2022 event at dr. Murjani Banjarbaru, Jalan Comet Raya, North Loktabat, North Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan, Thursday (11/08/2022).

Furthermore, the VP said the concrete role that could be played by pesantren was through community empowerment programs, one of which was One Pesantren One Product (OPOP).

“In the past, we fought against the colonizer, now our task is to build prosperity, to eliminate poverty and also to eliminate disparities in society. I think this is our task today, pesantren. Therefore, the spirit of the fighters as fighters for the homeland is revived through the empowerment of Islamic boarding schools, namely through this OPOP (program),” the VP urged.
Especially at this time, continued the VP, the spirit of building an Advanced Indonesia through OPOP must be shown more and more when the government begins to re-organized the socio-economic life of the community after the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Our farmers actually want to do farming, gardening, but don’t let the results cannot be marketed after that,” explained the VP.
“I think this [distribution] is what I hope for through OPOP,” he added.

Closing his remarks, the VP hoped that pesantren and the surrounding community could take advantage of their potential for the welfare of the people which in the long term would lead to the prosperity of Indonesia.

“Therefore, I and several kiai (Islamic religious leaders) also hope that there will be no land that is unproductive land, not planted, and that there is no idle. Because of what? Indeed, we are ordered by [Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala] to prosper the earth,” the VP urged.

“Especially now after the pandemic, what we echo in the world, is the spirit of ‘Recover Faster, Awaken Stronger’, this is what was echoed at the G20 Indonesia, after being hit by Covid-19, it is estimated that in 2023 the world will face a new possible crisis, namely the energy, food crisis and the financial crisis. We have to foster and be ready,” said he concluded.

Present at this event were the Governor of South Kalimantan Sahbirin Noor and Mrs. Raudatul Sahbirin Noor, Chair of the South Kalimantan Provincial DPRD H. Supian HK, Mayor of Banjarbaru M. Aditya Mufti Ariffin and Mrs. Vivi Mar’i Zubedi Ariffin, Chair of the Indonesian Islamic Boarding School Association of South Kalimantan Province M. Mukri Yunus and the participants of the OPOP South Kalimantan Expo 2022.

Meanwhile, the Vice President was accompanied by Mrs. Hj. Wury Ma’ruf Amin, Head of the Secretariat of the Vice President Ahmad Erani Yustika, Deputy for Human Development Policy Support and Development Equity Suprayoga Hadi, Special Staff for the Vice President Masduki Baidlowi and Muhammad Imam Aziz, also Expert Teams for the Vice President Johan Tedja Surya and Farhat Brachma. (NN/LHS- BPMI, Setwapres)