Yogyakarta, October 7th 2021─On Thursday (7/10), the Social Research Center or SOREC which is under the Department of Sociology of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences UGM held another monthly discussion. The Monthly Discussion which was held through the Zoom Meeting platform presented three speakers with different backgrounds to discuss the topics raised, it was “Breaking Boundaries: Solidarity Practices and Wadas Social Advocacy.” Citra Maudy, Alumni of Sociology UGM class of 2016, as moderator, guided the discussion by asking questions to each speaker in turn.
Yatimah, as one of the Wadon Wadas figures who became a speaker in this Monthly Discussion, received many opportunities to tell her struggles with her friends in Wadas Village from the beginning of the movement until now. Citra specifically asked Yatimah related to the background, processes and changes, management, challenges, to the personal reasons behind the struggle that Yatimah carried out for Wadas Village.
Complementing the stories shared by Yatimah, Citra also asked Julian Duwi Prasetia as the Head of LBH’s Advocacy Division to enrich perspectives in the discussion room. Answering the questions asked by Citra, Julian shared a lot about the challenges he and his LBH friends faced in providing assistance to the wadas case. In addition, Julian also shared a lot about tactics and strategies, processes, perceived changes, and his experiences in raising solidarity for the people in Wadas Village.
The answers given by Yatimah and Julian were reaffirmed with the theoretical perspective of A.B. Widiyanta, a lecturer of the Department of Sociology. As the academic representative in this Monthly Discussion, Abe elaborated and responded to the stories of Yatimah and Julian from a social scientific perspective. Not only that, Abe also shared his experiences as a key witness in environmental sociology in the struggle of Wadas Village.
The participants of the Monthly Discussion this time also gave questions to the three speakers in the question-and-answer session. Ending the whole series of activities, Citra asked each speaker to convey statements and closing messages in turn, before finally closing the Monthly Discussion with a group photo session.