Yogyakarta, July 20th 2020—The 5th Papua Strategic Policy Forum event is back with a discussion titled “The Urgency of Creating a Human Rights Court & Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Papua” which was held by UGM Papua Taskforce and The Center for Capacity and Cooperation Building Fisipol UGM. The event was held online through Zoom and live streamed on Youtube. The discussion started with a presentation by Beka Ulung Hapsara, an Education and Counseling Commissioner in the National Committee of Human Rights. He said that the issue of papua is very complex, not just about the inequality but also the law enforcement in Papua. He said that there are only four human rights violations in Papua that are being investigated. Therefore, the Papua Truth and Reconciliation Commission (KKR) needs to investigate now. In the future, KKR will also create a clarification of Papua’s history, establish reconciliation steps, and ensure that there will be no more human rights violations in Papua in the future. read more

Yogyakarta, July 20th 2020—Gadjah Mada University’s Center for Digital Society held the 27th digital discussion. In this episode, CfDS invited Izzati Dwifitriani, a content writer at RWE Digital Agency. The event titled “Content writing: from Hobby to Profession” was held through a Whatsapp Group. As usual, half an hour before the event started, the moderator — Made Agus Bayu Sudharma, CfDS’s Event Assistant — reminded the attendant that the event will start soon. Right at 7 pm, the moderator opened the discussion by introducing himself and telling the attendant the rules. The moderator also gave a chance for the speaker to introduce herself. read more

Yogyakarta, 18 July 2020—Korps Mahasiswa Politik Pemerintahan/KOMAP and Dema Fisipol UGM organized virtual discussion Warung Politik under the theme of Freedom of Press and Disinformation in Papua. The discussion was held through Zoom and aired live via DEMA Fisipol UGM’s Youtube channel. Well-known speakers were invited, namely Veronika Koman (working as a human rights lawyer), Victor Mambor (working as a senior journalist focusing on issues of Papua), and Aprilia Wayar (as a writer and member of AJI Yogyakarta). Bayu Krisna, a student of Government and Political Sciences UGM, acted as the moderator. read more

Yogyakarta, July 17th 2020 – Department of Communication Science Fisipol UGM held another ‘Ngopi’ discussion. This fifth series of Ngopi called ‘The People’s Opinions and Crisis Communication of the Corona Pandemic’. This discussion presented three speakers, they were a researcher of Indonesia Indicator, Nur Imroatus S. Then, an advisor of International Media Support, Denmark, R. Kristiwan. And the last was a lecturer of Department of Communication Science, Wisnu Martha Adiputra. The moderator of this event was a lecturer from Department of Communication Science of Fisipol UGM, Wisnu Prasetyo Utomo.Nur began the discussion by showing the Indonesia Indicator observation result towards the news in the online medias during the period from March, 23rd to July, 2nd 2020. She found at least 70 steps of the central government which were reported by the Indonesian online medias. This report, according to Nur, shown the liveliness of the government to talked about their steps to the media. But, the informations about COVID-19 from the government seemed unplanned. “Public communication between central government and local government was often out of sync,” said this woman who was familiarly called Iím. read more

Yogyakarta, July 17th 2020 – The Youth Studies Centre Fisipol UGM held another online discussion and brought two speakers, a lecturer from Department of Communication Science Fisipol UGM, Gilang Desti Parahita, M.A. and the founder of Cinema Lovers Community (CLC) Purbalingga, Bowo Leksono. The discussion theme was Film and Education: High School Students Can Make Films! This was for the social science high school students from the 11th and 12th grade from all over Special Region of Yogyakarta. What made it interesting was, the discussion which more like a private class was enthusiastically joined by the participation of high school students to understand the basics importance of film literacy and sharing session from Bowo Leksono regarding the process of how film production was done by our students friends in the cinematography extracullicular.Started the discussion, Gilang Desti Parahita talked about comprehensive starting point to explain the importance of film literacy. For Gilang, film literacy could be an effort to understand about something in a film, therefore it could be used as the aspects to connect the contexts of the film and our environment, from the popular culture, cultural symbols, and do not forget that film literacy also being used to understand how our economic and political structures was pictured by the producer. By having an enough understanding about film literacy, Gilang also added that indirectly we will be the active film audiences. Which was not only enjoy the film, but also could question it, discuss it, and analyze the ins and outs of a film.

While explaining the importance of having film literacy, Gilang also mentioned at least four elements of the films that should we know. First, there were dramatic and cinematic structures in a film as the efforts of the producer to make the film more alive and more realistic. Second, relation of the film and audience could pictured how the dramatic and teathrical effects of the film could affect the audience. Third, contexts and consequences which were positioned to explain why this film was produced, distributed, showed, also the effects to the society. Creation became the last element of the film literacy which contained about the process of creative powers were distributed into the production of a film. read more

Yogyakarta, July 17th 2020 – Center for Digital Society Fisipol UGM back with the 28th Digital Future Discussion. In this Difussion, two research assistants of CfDS, Jasmine Noor Andretha Putri and Irnasya Shafira as the speakers talked about the topic ‘Social Justice in the Digital Age’. This topic was brought by the CfDS in commemoration of the International Justice Day which coincided with the day of the event, July 17th. Fajar Cahyono, the other research assistant of CfDS, was moderated this Difussion.Both of the materials from Jasmine and Ines were brought from the commentary rubric of CfDS that they wrote. Jasmine brought the topic about youth movement in social media, especially the TikTok users and K-Popers. In her explanation, Jasmine picked the study cases about prank against Donald Trump and Black Lives Matter campaign by both of those groups.

Before talking about the topics in details, Jasmine began her explanation with the general description of the youth activism in the digital era. The prank against Donald Trump case happened at the same time with Donald Trump’s first campaign after his temporary hiatus because of COVID-19. The reservation of this campaign had reached one million tickets. But, on the D-day, just 6.200 people came to the campaign location. The big gap was due to many ‘fake reservations’ invitation.

Started from TikTok, especially the Alt TikTok sub-genre, this invitations were shared on the Twitter and caused the increasing amount of the mass. The mass movement in the social media also happened with the Black Lives Matter campaign by the K-Popers. They spammed videos on the hashtag which against the Black Lives Matter, temporarily damaged the Dallas Police’s application because of those spammed videos, and fundraised for the BLM campaign that reached millions of dollars. read more

Yogyakarta, July 16th 2020—The Department of Social Development and Welfare (Departemen Pembangunan Sosial dan Kesejahteraan/PSdK) held another Social Development Talks (Sodet) event and brought a theme about women’s agency in vulnerable groups in Jakarta. In this occasion, the discussion was moderated by Milda L. Pinem, Ph.D., a lecturer of the Department of Social and Welfare and the event presented a speaker from Faculty of Law UGM, Sri Wiyanti Eddyono, Ph.D. The discussion was held online on WebEx and live on the YouTube. This discussion was the third of the Sodet Series which have been held since June 2020.

In this occasion, the discussion topic was referred to a book with the title Women’s Empowerment in Indonesia which was written by the speaker. In that book there were seven chapters and for this discussion it focused on the topic of women’s agency. The book was a research publication which was done by the speaker in an informal village in Jakarta, known as Kampung Rawa. In her research, the speaker tried to connected the dots between the concept of the importance of women’s agency in the women’s empowerment. read more

Yogyakarta, 15^th July 2020—The Public Policy Management Family or also known as Gamapi Fisipol UGM held a sharing session with alumni of the department on Wednesday night called Hi Alumni!. The Hi Alumni! Vol. 2 Road to Scholarships: Life After University event was held in Instagram Live. The event had two speakers; Citra Sekartaji, a 2011 alumni who is also a LPDP scholarship awardee for the University of Birmingham and Dimas Wahyudi, a 2015 alumni who works at Fisipol UGM’s CDC. This sharing session was divided into two sessions which includes a session about the LPDP scholarship and a session about how to make an ideal CV. Echa, the host of Hi Alumni! Vol. 2, started the first session at 7 pm and the second session at 8 pm.Cirta Sekartaji, an awardee of the LPDP 2016 scholarship, now works as an assistant researcher in the UGM’s Center for Population and Policy. She also works in the cooperation section of Leadership and Policy Innovation Magistrate and Doctor in UGM’s Postgraduate School. In this first session, Sekar explained her experience when she got the scholarship from LPDP under the Finance Ministry to go to the University of Birmingham. Because the scholarship is given to the Finance Ministry, Citra will have to go back to Indonesia after her study to contribute to the nation.

The LPDP scholarship varies. There is the regular scholarship, scholarship for children who went to religious schools, athletes, dissertations, doctors, and many more. Sekar explained that the LPDP policy now and in 2016 is slightly different in terms of the application to the selection process. Before, we were able to choose one university of our choice, but now that choice is narrowed down to three choices in the list. The selection process also used to not be done through the computer.

Based on Sekar’s experience, the difference between the University of Birmingham and Gadjah Mada University is apparent in it’s academic area. In the University of Birmingham, reading a literature is mandatory before we go to class, unlike many universities in Indonesia where we are free to read or not to read. “The difference that is most apparent is in the academic area. read more

Yogyakarta, July 13^th 2020—Electronic Based Government System usage is rising in many countries in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, including in Indonesia. However, Indonesia is still lagging according to the indicator of the telecommunication infrastructure.That statement was made during a press conference to analyze the United Nations Digital Governance 2020 ‘E-Government Survey 2020’ report by the Center for Digital Society (CfDS) UGM researcher team. In that report, it is found that digital technology has been the go-to for many sectors, especially in the middle of quarantine. In the governance sector, e-government’s existence is meant to increase public service, society’s participation, as well as to increase transparency and accountability.

Based on that report, Indonesia ranks 88^th in the global scale of e-government implementation. Indonesia is one of the country that have a high rate of e-government system implementation, especially in the Online Service Index (OSI) and Human Capital Index (HCI). Aside from that, Indonesia also ranks high in the e-government development index compared to other ASEAN countries.

Despite the promising rankings, there are still several obstacles that need to be overcome in terms of Indonesia’s e-government system implementation. The first is the lack of accessibility. Hopefully, the e-government system implementation is not just centered in Jakarta or the Java island, but also spread all over Indonesia. read more

Yogyakarta, 11 July 2020—Institute of International Studies, part of the Department of International Relations UGM, organized the ninth episode of online serial discussion Beyond the Great Wall under the theme of “China: Issues Amidst the New Normal”.

The discussion, conducted through Google Meet, invited Julian Lilihata–an alumnus of Tsinghua University–speaking on “The Second Wave of Corona in Beijing” and Arrizal Anugerah Jaknanihan, a student in Department of International Relations UGM, delivering his presentation themed “From Beijing to the Streets of Hong Kong: How Student Protests Shape Democratization Movements in Beijing”. Present, also, was Dr. Nur Rachmat Yuliantoro, Head of International Relations Department UGM, acting as the moderator of the discussion. read more