News and Events
H.E Lech Walesa lectures at President University
11 May 2010
President University welcomed H.E Lech Walesa – the formal President of Poland also welknown as the 1983 Nobel peace prize laureate to give a lecture on “Solidarity Movement in Uniting Society toward Change” on Monday, May 10 2010 in his two-week visit to Indonesia.
The president was accompanied by the ambassador of Poland – H. E Thomaz Lukaszuk. Mr. Sofyan Wanandi – the head of Indonesia Business Association (Apindo), Mr. Muchtar Pakpahan – the head of Indonesia Worker Association, Mr. Rudi Pesik – Director of Indonesia Kebanggaanku, Mr. Y.W Yunarno – President Commisary of PT. Rajawadi Group attended the seminar together with many other honorable guesses from Business World and Education Instituitions.
Mr. S.D Darmono – the founder of President University, Prof. Dr. Ermaya Suradinata – the Rector of President University, Mr. Syonanto Wijaya – President Founder of President University together with lecturers and hundreds of students represented the university to welcome H.E Lech Walesa and attened the seminar.
Lech Walesa, who founded Poland’s first independent labor union movement, the Solidarity (Solidarnosc), and later served as the country’s president (from 1990 to 1995) after fighting to throw off communist rule in the 1980s, spoke to President University students about how to overcome differences in a pluralist society to unite in democracy.
“What should a democracy be?” Walesa asked the students. He answered his own question by explaining that societies had to learn to democratize by overcoming differences before implementing supportive laws and regulations.
“We have to search for and set out a common ground to address diversity in the community,” Walesa said.
He added that people were expected to find a shared common so “that there was a place for everyone”.
He explained that people must first identify the problems in a society related to differences and then find solutions through the common ground of shared values.
“We have to find shared values in a diverse culture,” Walesa said.
He added that bad things happening in the world today occurred because people overlooked shared values.
“The main principles are values, courage and God,” he said, adding that people today misused religion as a justification for hatred.
He explained that all religions were based on the same fundamental premises.
“We can pull religions back to its previous position of teaching good and eliminate the justification of evil, as well as raising public awareness about the need for shared values,” he said.
He added that people had to preserve differences in society and create a sense of solidarity.
He also mentioned that globalization could bring threats as well as opportunities to any diverse and pluralist society.
During the discussion, Walesa also explained the labor union movement helped Poland establish a new economic system.
He said that, “We successfully took over the labor movement in Poland in order to counter balance communism.”
At that time, the primary objective of his Solidarity movement was to secure Polish workers’ rights, including the right to strike and to organize their own independent unions.
Walesa, along with his colleagues and co-workers, organized and led free non-communist labor unions and gained support across Poland.
President University was proud of having the prestigious opportunity to listen to one of the most famous people in the world.- The main part of the article was extracted from the Jakarta Post “Walesa speaks on uniting a diverse society” Tue, 05/11/2010.
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