Good Morning Everyone

Thank you for coming

I’d like to deliver my speech under the tiltle :

”Santri’s Country”
Indonesia consists of various tribes, cultures, languages, religions, and customs on a diverse and
variegated archipelago. But we are all the nation of Indonesia. This is the meaning of Indonesia’s motto
“Unity in Diversity”

I stay in a boarding school. As we know, in boarding schools there are so many people who
come from their regions to stay and study with others. We can find many differences among us. When
I arrived, it was stressful for me because I had to make new friendships. I knew I must make friends with
some people who had different languages from mine. I spoke sundanese and some others spoke
javanese, betawi, papua, and gorontalo. And also I found different styles of speaking. There were
students who spoke softly, and there were students who spoke roughtly. So I could not always
understand what the other person was saying. I just stayed with people from my region because we had
the same stories. so, at first I didn’t know all of my classmates. But we can all speak Indonesian and we
continued to introduce ourselves and asked questions to one another. So now, we know about places
that we didn’t know before. And sometimes, we can teach each other our languages although just a few
words and oquire new skills.

In my boarding school, we can also taste traditional foods from all of our regions. If we have a
long vacation, all santri or students in the pesantren have a task to bring back traditional food. And
when we come back, we gather in the hall and try many kinds of traditional foods from others. Like
peuyeum from Bandung, galendo from Ciamis, tofu from Sumedang, mochi from Sukabumi and still
more. Sharing food is one way to know one another.

In Darussalam, the place where I stay, we welcome guests from all over the world. We
appreciate everyone who comes to us. So many people can know our school, and we learn about our
guests, and where they come from. Such as, the guests from Australia we sang the Indonesian National
Anthem and the Australian National Anthem. The guests from Australia came to our class and our
dormitory to observe our activities. And my friends and i asked them questions about teaching methods
at their university, their daily activities, and what they usually do on a long vacation. We have also
welcomed guests from Japan, Egypt, the U.S and other provincies in Indonesia.

Darussalam is also different from other pesantrens. Music is allowed. While some other
pesantrens prohibit music because of their religious beliefes. In our extracurricular, we learn how to play
traditional musical instruments, folk songs and modern music. Music is a little example of Unity in
Diversity. Why do i say that? It is because when we play music, the sounds from all instruments come
together. That teaches us that diversity makes life beautiful, fantastic, elegant, and interesting, right?
 Diversity is an opportunity for us to know each other and advance our civilization. If you are
born in your tribe, and you never know the various cultures, attitudes, styles and lives of the people in
your nation, you will be like a frog in a coconut shell-just jumping in the shell and unable to see the wide
and beautiful world.

Diversity is not a means to terrorize, coerce, or kill.

We can not choose our mother, and what religion and region we are born into, or who our
descendants are. Conflicts often occur because we don’t understand one another. We should be able to
practise tolerance and curiosity. So that we can make Indonesia more peaceful and realize that we are a
rich country.

Thank you very much.

(Annisa Tsania Rizqiyani/MAN Darussalam)