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Official Opening Ceremony PPIE: Proud to be Indonesian

Indonesian Student Association Enschede which is also known as Persatuan Pelajar Indonesia Enschede (PPIE) held their opening ceremony 11 October 2008 at Bastille, University of Twente (UT). In the three-and-half hours ceremony, there were some creativity, performed by Indonesian students, like traditional dances, traditional dresses, and accoustic musics. The guests were not only the representatives from Indonesian Embassy and International Office of UT, but also representatives from Chinese and Indian Student Association, Prof. Dr. Nico Schulte Nordholt, Prof. Dr. Brenny van Groesen, and others also from UT.

The ceremony was symbolized with striking tifa (a music percussion from Papua) by Ivan S. Putra, the Chairperson of PPIE, and Karin Paardenkooper, the Head of International Department UT. It means that PPIE is now part of Student Union along with other associations from Turkish, Indian, Chinese, and Pakistani.

Special Guests

During the ceremony, speeches were given by the chairperson of PPIE, guests from UT and Indonesian Embassy. After 15 minutes coffee break, traditional dresses from Aceh, Padang, Yogyakarta, Madura, and Makassar were showed by the students from UT, ITC, and Saxion. PPIE Music Club was performed by Carina Mohede, Rinaldo Herlino, Anggera Bayuwindra, Ivan S. Putra, and Adi Insani. They entertained the audience with several songs, included two arranged traditional songs ‘Butet’ and ‘Walang Keke’. Audience were impressed by two traditional dances ‘Cendrawasih’ from Bali and ‘Saman’ from Aceh. These dances were received great response from the guests. A representative from Indian Students Association were surprised that they are students and can perform very impressive dance like Saman because he had thought that they were professional dancers. He also had an idea that we could have a cultural event together someday.

Prof. Nordholt, in his half-an-hour speech, brought the audience to the history in 1908, where the first nation awakening of Boedi Oetomo, and Sumpah Pemuda 1928. He gave Indonesian students an advice, “You should learn those histories here before you go back to your country!” This advice probably reminded Indonesian students to a sentence by Sukarno, founder of Indonesia, “Jangan sekali-kali melupakan sejarah (Never forget the history).” Also, he noted us to keep the unity of Indonesia, no matter if we are Moslems from NU, Moslems from Muhammadiyah, Christians, Buddhisms, Hinduisms, or whatever our beliefs.

The Saman-ers

In harmony with Prof. Nordholt, Prof. van Groesen told to the Indonesian students to also invite the Dutch students in any events they organize. This is good for improving our relation and togetherness with other students from other nations and cultures in the Netherlands. “If you organize something, please invite Dutch students,” he said.

Speaking about the cooperation between Indonesia and UT, Firdaus Dahlan from Indonesian Embassy said, “University of Twente is one of the most very active university to push cooperation with Indonesia.” He also asked to Indonesian students to prove their existence and Indonesian culture more active and to encourage other students.

The whole event was closed with dinner. The menu were nasi and nasi kuning, sate ayam, ayam kecap, tumis brokoli-tahu, and oseng-oseng tempe. As the dessert, cendol with jackfruit was supplied.

Note: Some pictures can be seen on Gallery at the right menu of this website. Videos are coming soon.

Tags: ceremony, PPI Enschede, traditional dances, universiteit twente