Sejahtera: The context of balancing

 Bismillah,

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Today I want to write a reflection on the speech of Professor Tan Sri Dato Dzulkifli Abdul Razak about Sejahtera. For your information, he is our university rector.

From his speech, I totally agree with what the talked. He said that Sejahtera means prosperity. Since 2001, he introduced 'Kampus Sejahtera' in USM. The aim of the program is to bring the concept of the holistic living in environment which student can learn to live with nature in a balance living and sustainable living.

He emphasizes that to understand the concept of Sejahtera, it is not necessarily through lectures or assignments but through live with it. People actually need to practice the concept of Sejahtera, not only learn it theoretically. To practice it, for surely need a platform. So, that is why this program created.

When we live with nature and also learn about it holistically in a balance way, we can feel the nature around us.

He said that after he introducing 'Kampus Sejahtera', within 6 months, he got more than 30 proposal from student on how to live 'sejahtera' life. One of it is they want to banned polystyrene and styrofoam because these item is non-biodegradable. They didn't know how to dispose it well. Moreover, if using it with food, when heated, the styrofoam releases chemical toxic that can harm our health. That is why they came up with this idea. They said that they willing to pay more on the eco-friendly food container. From this, we need to be willing to pay more in order to save the environment as well as our health.

What more interesting is, this 'banned polystyrene and styrofoam' action received response from other state government. They started to follow USM in disbanding those product. The Japanese also gave them an award for their creativeness in develop healthy cities.

Sejahtera is about balance. But not only on one or two aspects, but for many aspects. They made an acronym for these aspects which is SPICES.

S- Spiritually balance

P- Physically balance

I- Intellectually balance

C- Culture balance

E- Ecology, Ethics and Economy balance

S- Society balance

So, we need to bring back the indigenous knowledge that we have leave behind. Make sure that we understand them well, develop it and make it something that the world can share. Don't depend on another people to do or to start something, but as an educated people, we need to do it and start it as our contribution to the world.