BANDUNG, unpas.ac.id – Experience is a life-time knowledge: this is what Rangga Mochamad Sada Saputra, a student of International Relations Department, Faculty of Social and Political Science (FISIP) Universitas Pasundan, feels about.
To improve foreign language proficiency skill and add more experiences, Rangga, a final-year student has attended the Model United Nations (MUN) program or United Nations’ (UN) conference simulation several times. In the simulation program, participants will represent their country and be placed at a council in the United Nations.
The simulation itself is carried out exactly like the UN session. Each delegation will discuss topics based on the chosen council, debate, negotiate and come up with a solution. For this reason, critical thinking skills are importantly needed.
Last 2021, Rangga participated in the 11th Indonesian MUN (IMUN) held by Universitas Indonesia. He chose United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and discussed on the topic entitled “Tackling the Protracted War in Afghanistan and Pakistan”.
As what has been known worldwide, conflicts in Afghanistan in fighting against the Taliban and other Islamic group are still ongoing. Peace efforts to defuse the conflicts have also not been successful yet, so it results in an increasing number of civilian casualties and instability in the region itself.
“I myself become Afghanistan delegation and take role as an observer whose tasks are to supervise the council,” he said on Thursday, 27 January 2022.
Rangga stated that issues faced still revolved around the ambition of Taliban to overthrow Ashraf Ghani’s government and take control of Afghanistan. As Afghan delegation, Rangga focused more on the situation before the Taliban took control of Kabul (the capital of Afghanistan), where each had different principles.
“Ashraf Ghani wants international involvement, especially the United States, to be a negotiator or a third party in reconciling the Taliban and Afghanistan. However, Taliban insists that the conflict is purely domestic and refuses to involve foreign interests,” he explained.
Asked about the benefits of representing a certain country, Rangga said that each country has a national interest to get the maximum benefit in a bargaining position. This position allows the country to gain prestige or image in the international system.
“In the case of the Taliban and Afghanistan, from a general point of view, the US delegation certainly has more benefits because it is a superpower. The US can democratize an authoritarian country. After the 9/11 incident, the US tried to become the world’s police officer to fight terrorists, including securing Afghanistan, although many parties were skeptical of US interests,” he said.
Improve Critical Thinking and English Proficiency Skills
According to Rangga, besides having a proficient formal English skill, the other important aspect which is needed to be paid attention to in this competition is that he should play a role as a country’s representative, not himself. Through MUN, he learned not to be selfish and improved his critical thinking.
“In diplomacy practice, there are three things to work. First, each delegation should be able to ‘act out and speak spontaneously’. Second, put aside the ego and personal point of view and focus on to be a country’s delegation. Third, sort and choose the state’s interest to achieve political goals,” he explained.
For International Relations student like Rangga, diplomacy practice is really a familiar thing, so he did not do much special preparation.
“I did not study too hard. Most of the homework is to make a position paper which will be discussed by the UN council. What takes time, I think, is the research, then reinterpreting the research results to be presented into a position paper,” explained Rangga.
For last year’s UNSC, Rangga did most of his research on the Afghan government’s website, because his political law base and domestic policy legal basis were more credible. In addition, he also collected material from journal articles, scientific books, research books, and news sites as supporting references.
Rangga admitted that he participated in the MUN event to practice his foreign language skills and increase relationships. In the near future, he has no plans to participate in a similar event because he is currently focusing on compiling his final project while improving his Japanese, English, and Mandarin skills.
“I thank my colleague, Abdullah Alwi, a student of UIN Bandung who is willing to be a partner on the UNSC council. Also for the Unpas International Relations Department and my parents who always support me,” he concluded. (Reta)*