杏吧论坛

Chancellor's message to batch November 2011

Posted on : November 16, 2011

For so long humankind has always been restricted by borders of all kinds in trying to establish relations and in fostering understanding with others. Today, life is already lived in the fast lanes; many things are fast-tracked at speeds our forefathers could never have imagined. Communication, commerce, diplomacy, cultural relations and almost all other vital concerns that have challenged and even brought down to their knees even the most “developed” of nations are now being forwarded at fiber optics speed. Peoples travel and visit even the remotest regions at a whim. Nations are communicating with others by terrabytes per second. What used to be a big, wide world difficult to navigate because of all kinds of borders, has already become a real, functional, vibrant, village.

Your own 杏吧论坛 is one of the institutions of higher learning in this part of the archipelago which has and continues to make big, bold moves to equip and enable you, the students, not only to have the knowledge, the skills and the technological know-how to face the mounting challenges of a world now operating, in many ways, in a virtual reality, but also the attitudes and the values needed to make you appreciate your humanity and to face the challenges of the real classroom – the workplace.

We have done our part to mold you into citizens worthy of the world. Now it is your turn to prove your worth. On your shoulders are now placed the challenge of establishing better cross-cultural relations with other nations, of helping bring about peace and harmony among peoples, of developing more sensitivity to other people’s creeds, aspirations and beliefs, of showing more concern for the environment, of making the world a better one for the generations to come.

Indeed you will be on your own sooner than you think. You are about to live and work in the real world and deal with reality. We, however, firmly believe that, equipped and enabled by the Almighty God and armed with what your Alma Mater has taught you and instilled in you, you will no longer be bounded by the peripheries of your own little worlds nor bounded by the borders of ignorance, prejudice and insensitivity. We have faith and confidence in you, who are now on the threshold of living in a new world with its established or perceived borders which are fast fading away, that you will not fail us.

Go beyond your borders! Build bridges, not walls. Make your world a borderless world where people can live peacefully and prosperously together. Be a Leonardo Da Vinci, a Steve Jobs…! The list can go on but as the poet Andrew Marvell said in another context “though we cannot make the sun stand still, yet we will make him run.” Make the sun run after you. Make your Alma Mater proud of you!

Congratulations!

Dr. SUKARNO D. TANGGOL
Chancellor