In conversation with
Dr. Martin Roestamy, SH, MH.

"Higher Education Spotlight: What does education mean to you, personally? Dr. H. Martin Roestamy: The purpose of education, in my opinion, is to develop good character and broad understanding. It is the means to having a good life. In my mind there are five types of intelligence that we must develop in people: intellectual intelligence; social intelligence; religious intelligence; emotional intelligence; adversity intelligence. Adversity intelligence is important because life is hard, people need to learn how to cope with challenges. What is the current role and identity of Djuanda, especially in terms of the changes in Indonesia’s higher education sector? How do you identify your main philosophy? Dr. H. Martin Roestamy: I’m of the generation following Djuanda’s founding fathers. They were very concerned with character building. The vision of the foundation is to develop the Indonesian people’s intelligence, to protect them, and promote peace. This resonated with my own personal philosophy. I want to lift people up, especially young Indonesians, to be strong and capable and empowered by the five types of intelligence. Indonesia is the fifth largest country in the world by population, but I saw in my youth that it is very difficult to develop Indonesian people. They are too occupied by the work they need to do to survive. Of the 250 million people in Indonesia there are only a few people with PhDs, master’s degrees, and even undergraduate degrees compared to other similarly sized countries. My vision, and the founding vision of Djuanda, was to increase the number of graduates in the Indonesian population, to reform the concept of education in Indonesia. We follow the paradigm of ‘Tauhid’. For us as Muslims this means surrender your life to Allah. Follow the rules of Allah. If you are Christian, it means follow your Bible. If you are Jewish, follow your Torah. Here, I want to give every individual the chance to follow his own religion and make it part of their life. There are differences between followers of different religions and how they interpret God, but if you follow your religion as closely as possible you will always have guidance in your life. That is Tauhid. How do you combine traditional Islamic values and education in the modern world? Dr. H. Martin Roestamy: Part of Tauhid is how to make people clever. Intelligence gives you understanding. I am a customer of Starbucks, I drink their tea, but many of their products are not Halal. I do not want Starbucks to close, as they are honest about the fact that they are not fully Halal. They give customers the necessary information to choose only Halal products. Eating and drinking Halal is a vital part of Islam, but it is not necessary to declare everything that is non-Halal as Haram. As long as businesses provide the information necessary for individual consumers to eat Halal, there is no problem. This is how one makes Islamic values and the modern world compatible. Our Faculty of Halal Food Sciences focuses on the processing of food products. We cooperate with Majelis Ulama, who give Halal certification. We send our researchers to be auditors of Halal. Halal food is a growing industry, with Malaysia in particular making great progress in developing Halal production and export. How do you think the Halal industry in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world, is currently performing? Dr. H. Martin Roestamy: Ours is the only Faculty of Halal Food Science in the country. As I said, we contribute to Majelis Ulama, the only body able to give Halal certification. Right now the director of the Halal Institution is one of our lecturers who is also the president of the International Halal Institution. I attended International Halal Institution conferences around the world, from USA to Japan. I understand that Malaysia is not included in this institution. Indonesia has a leadership role in the International Halal Institution due to being the most populous Muslim country in the world, as you say. Our parliament makes sure that Majelis Ulama has control over adherence to Halal standards of food and cosmetics. Maybe our role is not so much in exporting Halal products, but our expertise in Halal standards is vital for developing Halal certification standards in other countries. In Indonesia one can often make the assumption that food is Halal, since the market majority demands it, but in countries which might not have Muslim majority populations proper Halal is certification is very important. Do you believe that other institutions will develop Halal programs, or will you continue to be the only one in the country? Dr. H. Martin Roestamy: We are the only one with a Halal food program because we are particularly close to Majelis Ulama. There is another university in Jakarta, UHAMKA, who are concerned with Halal pharmaceuticals. What is the future for Halal internationally? How do you teach non-Muslims about what Halal really is? Dr. H. Martin Roestamy: I visited the Turkish mosque in Tokyo and discussed this with members of the Turkish government there. They told me that Halal moved from an Islamic religious rule to becoming a business. Why? We Muslims see it as an order from God. But my experience in Japan taught me that sometimes businesses do not understand fully the importance and depth of Halal. I went to a restaurant where the meat was Halal, but I was informed by other customers that in fact they did not prepare the meat in the proper Halal way. Halal is not just about the produce, but also preparation. The education sector in Indonesia has been criticised for not being international and not promoting entrepreneurialism. How do you encourage entrepreneurship in your students and faculty? How do you promote the concept of internationalisation? Dr. H. Martin Roestamy: Universities commonly prioritise theory over practice. Research is the heart of a university. Research has many important outcomes for a university. One is to keep teaching current materials - I have set the requirement that teaching materials at Djuanda are revised once a year. The second outcome is using research for community development. It must be applied to the community. Third, research must be published in journals. Fourth, dissemination through the university. We have the young entrepreneurs competition in collaboration with industry. The winning project from this competition is submitted for patenting, the fifth important outcome. Our flagship projects are collaborations with the government, for example research into agriculture, environment, and combating poverty. My own research is in housing for low income individuals. I have advised the Ministry of Housing Affairs on how to give low income people access to housing. Do you believe Indonesia has taken advantage of the opportunities presented by ASEAN? What do you expect Djuanda to be like in 5 years time? Dr. H. Martin Roestamy: Right now we are a research university, but after six years we want to be an entrepreneurial university. We want to be global by 2020, so we want as many of our researchers as possible to submit to international journals this year. People around the world will be able to read their research and, after that, they can join international seminars and research projects. This gives us more opportunity to collaborate with foreign universities. We have already extended invitations to universities in Malaysia, Japan, and Finland to attend our annual international conference and publications for applied and social sciences. People around the world, especially lecturers, experts, researchers and students could visit http://bicss2017.unida.ac.id/ and http://bicas2017.unida.ac.id/ for further information. In 2025 we would like to expand into West Java by merging with another university. There are a lot of people in the region who would study if they had the money, but there is currently no government support and we wish to assist in this regard. "

Higher Education Spotlight: What does education mean to you, personally?

Dr. H. Martin Roestamy: The purpose of education, in my opinion, is to develop good character and broad understanding. It is the means to having a good life.

In my mind there are five types of intelligence that we must develop in people: intellectual intelligence; social intelligence; religious intelligence; emotional intelligence; adversity intelligence. Adversity intelligence is important because life is hard, people need to learn how to cope with challenges.

What is the current role and identity of Djuanda, especially in terms of the changes in Indonesia’s higher education sector? How do you identify your main philosophy?

Dr. H. Martin Roestamy: I’m of the generation following Djuanda’s founding fathers. They were very concerned with character building. The vision of the foundation is to develop the Indonesian people’s intelligence, to protect them, and promote peace. This resonated with my own personal philosophy. I want to lift people up, especially young Indonesians, to be strong and capable and empowered by the five types of intelligence. Indonesia is the fifth largest country in the world by population, but I saw in my youth that it is very difficult to develop Indonesian people. They are too occupied by the work they need to do to survive. Of the 250 million people in Indonesia there are only a few people with PhDs, master’s degrees, and even undergraduate degrees compared to other similarly sized countries. My vision, and the founding vision of Djuanda, was to increase the number of graduates in the Indonesian population, to reform the concept of education in Indonesia.

We follow the paradigm of ‘Tauhid’. For us as Muslims this means surrender your life to Allah. Follow the rules of Allah. If you are Christian, it means follow your Bible. If you are Jewish, follow your Torah. Here, I want to give every individual the chance to follow his own religion and make it part of their life. There are differences between followers of different religions and how they interpret God, but if you follow your religion as closely as possible you will always have guidance in your life. That is Tauhid.

How do you combine traditional Islamic values and education in the modern world?

Dr. H. Martin Roestamy: Part of Tauhid is how to make people clever. Intelligence gives you understanding. I am a customer of Starbucks, I drink their tea, but many of their products are not Halal. I do not want Starbucks to close, as they are honest about the fact that they are not fully Halal. They give customers the necessary information to choose only Halal products. Eating and drinking Halal is a vital part of Islam, but it is not necessary to declare everything that is non-Halal as Haram. As long as businesses provide the information necessary for individual consumers to eat Halal, there is no problem. This is how one makes Islamic values and the modern world compatible.

Our Faculty of Halal Food Sciences focuses on the processing of food products. We cooperate with Majelis Ulama, who give Halal certification. We send our researchers to be auditors of Halal.

Halal food is a growing industry, with Malaysia in particular making great progress in developing Halal production and export. How do you think the Halal industry in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world, is currently performing?

Dr. H. Martin Roestamy: Ours is the only Faculty of Halal Food Science in the country. As I said, we contribute to Majelis Ulama, the only body able to give Halal certification. Right now the director of the Halal Institution is one of our lecturers who is also the president of the International Halal Institution. I attended International Halal Institution conferences around the world, from USA to Japan. I understand that Malaysia is not included in this institution.

Indonesia has a leadership role in the International Halal Institution due to being the most populous Muslim country in the world, as you say. Our parliament makes sure that Majelis Ulama has control over adherence to Halal standards of food and cosmetics. Maybe our role is not so much in exporting Halal products, but our expertise in Halal standards is vital for developing Halal certification standards in other countries. In Indonesia one can often make the assumption that food is Halal, since the market majority demands it, but in countries which might not have Muslim majority populations proper Halal is certification is very important.

Do you believe that other institutions will develop Halal programs, or will you continue to be the only one in the country?

Dr. H. Martin Roestamy: We are the only one with a Halal food program because we are particularly close to Majelis Ulama. There is another university in Jakarta, UHAMKA, who are concerned with Halal pharmaceuticals.

What is the future for Halal internationally? How do you teach non-Muslims about what Halal really is?

Dr. H. Martin Roestamy: I visited the Turkish mosque in Tokyo and discussed this with members of the Turkish government there. They told me that Halal moved from an Islamic religious rule to becoming a business. Why? We Muslims see it as an order from God. But my experience in Japan taught me that sometimes businesses do not understand fully the importance and depth of Halal. I went to a restaurant where the meat was Halal, but I was informed by other customers that in fact they did not prepare the meat in the proper Halal way. Halal is not just about the produce, but also preparation.

The education sector in Indonesia has been criticised for not being international and not promoting entrepreneurialism. How do you encourage entrepreneurship in your students and faculty? How do you promote the concept of internationalisation?

Dr. H. Martin Roestamy: Universities commonly prioritise theory over practice. Research is the heart of a university. Research has many important outcomes for a university. One is to keep teaching current materials – I have set the requirement that teaching materials at Djuanda are revised once a year. The second outcome is using research for community development. It must be applied to the community. Third, research must be published in journals. Fourth, dissemination through the university. We have the young entrepreneurs competition in collaboration with industry. The winning project from this competition is submitted for patenting, the fifth important outcome.

Our flagship projects are collaborations with the government, for example research into agriculture, environment, and combating poverty. My own research is in housing for low income individuals. I have advised the Ministry of Housing Affairs on how to give low income people access to housing.

Do you believe Indonesia has taken advantage of the opportunities presented by ASEAN? What do you expect Djuanda to be like in 5 years time?

Dr. H. Martin Roestamy: Right now we are a research university, but after six years we want to be an entrepreneurial university. We want to be global by 2020, so we want as many of our researchers as possible to submit to international journals this year. People around the world will be able to read their research and, after that, they can join international seminars and research projects. This gives us more opportunity to collaborate with foreign universities. We have already extended invitations to universities in Malaysia, Japan, and Finland to attend our annual international conference and publications for applied and social sciences. People around the world, especially lecturers, experts, researchers and students could visit http://bicss2017.unida.ac.id/ and http://bicas2017.unida.ac.id/ for further information.

In 2025 we would like to expand into West Java by merging with another university. There are a lot of people in the region who would study if they had the money, but there is currently no government support and we wish to assist in this regard.