Short Course in Australia

After 8 years, at the end of 2023 I returned to visit Australia, a continent that initially felt very far away, foreign, and even 'not me.' When I was a child on the coast of Tobelo, North Halmahera Regency, North Maluku, I occasionally met foreigners, and began to recognize the words Australia, America, the Netherlands, or Japan. At that time, everything felt far away, but this was Australia--from those countries it felt closer.

This trip was still the same as 8 years ago, namely a short trip of two weeks. If in 2015 I participated in the Muslim Exchange Program (MEP) or later known as the Australia-Indonesia Muslim Exchange Program (AIMEP), this year 2023 I participated in the Short Course Australia Awards themed Foreign Policy: Strategic Equilibrium in the Indo-Pacific at Griffith University.

Australia is the first country I have visited abroad. Allah destined me to 'walk on the face of the earth', seeing people and cultures that may be different from ours. Since leaving my hometown at the age of 11, I have practically lived as a wanderer for 30 years; in that wandering I have met various people, gone through joys and sorrows, and struggled to achieve the best in life.

As an ordinary person, I feel lucky to have been able to go on this journey. For me, a journey is not just a journey but in it there are stories, there are people, and even deeper: there are lessons that we can learn. I like to seek wisdom, or lessons from everything.

When looking at books at one of the think tanks in Canberra, I saw a very good sentence in a logo that if translated reads like this, "...and whoever is given wisdom has received much goodness."

So, this trip to Australia, to Brisbane, Canberra, and Sydney, is a journey seeking 'much goodness' or khairan katsira. As a weak servant, maintaining the determination to learn--from all things--is good. That learning does not stop in the classroom, in fact learning is part of our lives.

When writing this, besides feeling lucky to be able to study in Australia again--in a short course--I also received 'a lot of goodness' when I heard from a friend in Jakarta, that an English book that I was the head of the writing team, received a special award in Saudi Arabia, which was received by our ambassador there.

I remember, in the beginning of compiling the book in Indonesian, my days were full of enthusiasm on how to finish the manuscript well. After it was published, the book was translated into English, distributed to several of our representatives abroad as one of the references to get to know Indonesia better, looking at past history, present, and future plans for Indonesia's glory.

In Canberra, when writing this piece of essay, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my parents who have struggled to educate me from the past until now. Only staying at home for 11 years is goodness, then after traveling for 30 years, it also contains goodness. My father is a man with a very big vision, he wants his children to succeed. When I want to fly abroad, I always remember him. My mother who with her love has formed a fighter character in me, something I am grateful for so that in the future I can give the best to many people.

Not to be left behind, my little family in Depok. My wife who is always there in all seasons, my children, and my brother and sister in Halmahera. My extended family in Maninjau, Bukittinggi, Pekanbaru, Lampung, Jakarta, Makassar, and North Maluku, all give meaning, lessons, and inspiration to achieve the best; learn as best as possible, and in the future give the best.

These stories are made as a reflection of a human being, precisely a traveler who wants to learn from what is seen, heard and felt. In certain things, he chooses to remain silent just to understand something better, brighter, and deeper. And, at other times he tries to share stories, with the hope that there is goodness behind the story.

YANUARDI SYUKUR is an Indonesian writer who is also a lecturer, editor, researcher and speaker at various conferences and expert resource person on several Indonesian television stations and ministries. He has participated in various international programs in Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, the United States, as well as Ukraine. He is an anthropologist at Khairun University who is interested in various global issues. He is currently also active as Vice Chairman of the Islamic and Middle East Research Center (IMERC) of the University of Indonesia and is active in the Commission on Foreign Relations and International Cooperation of the Indonesian Ulama Council. E-mail: yanuardisyukur@gmail.com.