One of the questions Prof. Dr. Franz Magnis-Suseno raised in his speech on the day four of the incredibly inspiring Frans Seda Foundation Seminar 2017. As an introduction, Dr. Magnis informed us about the topics he would cover and how he would link it with the seminar’s topic Global Citizenship. He elaborated on globalization in general, globalization and radicalization, and how this is experienced in Indonesia.

After discussing world economics and its influences, Dr. Magnis focused on religion and explained the rise of conservatism in Indonesia. Known as a highly open-minded interreligious speaker, Dr. Magnis discussed the different types of Islam that is to be found in Indonesia. He briefly explained the history of Islam in Indonesia and how it shaped the Indonesian state as it is today and how it has been built on the Pancasila philosophy. This was then linked to how Indonesia, not only with differences on religion, but also with the broad diversity of subcultures, from the start managed to represent a proud nation where everyone feels Indonesian.

The interesting speech was concluded with a Q&A session where participants were able to elaborate more on the topics raised by Dr. Magnis and other topics. With the professor’s wisdom we continued. All groups were supposed to further work on their project plan and Dr. Magnis was still present to listen to all of our ideas and provide with input if necessary.

A great lunch was served at the beautiful location and of course some more selfies and wefies could not be missed. Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy so we were unable to see Mount Merapi. Nonetheless we enjoyed the view of paddy fields surrounding us.

With a short group experiment planned by one of the groups we were able to take a short break from our main assignment. All the groups are highly excited to further work on their projects and that what we spend most of the day working on, as well as sharing the improved concept.

All in all, a very inspirational, knowledge consuming, day.