Dr. H. Arief Rahman

Dr. Arief Rahman

Dr. Arief Rahman is a not just an ordinary teacher. He was a headmaster in SMU Labschool Jakarta [senior high school]. He is also an Executive Chairman of the Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO. As a teacher, he's close to his students. He always spares some time to run with us every Friday morning [our school activity] and to come visit his students in class, just to say hi. His favourite words are, "Student, put some pictures in the back of your classroom..." and "Have a nice study."

He also encourages us to be friendly, like for example to shake hands with one another every morning, to just say "assalammualaikum" or good morning to one another or at least smile at other people. Simple, but meaningful.

Dr. Arief Rahman is so friendly. He shows respect to others and appreciates others. But most of all, why I like him is because he always encourages the choir group at my school, La Voix de Ciel, to keep on singing. He has always supported us and put his trust in us. It's because of him that the choir, La Voix de Ciel, remains in existence after we nearly gave up when facing other people's criticism.

A little side story about Dr. Arief Rahman -- He is a nationalist, especially in education. As I mentioned above, he is a member of UNESCO for Indonesian education. He [as I heard] is quitting his job as the head of Universitas Negeri Jakarta (UNJ) to fulfill his duty at UNESCO.

My grandmother once told me that Dr. Arief Rahman was held in jail because of uttering something about human rights (I don't know exactly what it was...), but unfortunately, Soeharto, who was the President of Indonesia, didn't like that and put Dr. Arief Rahman in jail. Well, I think that is one brave act for Dr. Arief Rahman to speak his mind freely without hesitation because of what other people might think.

The way he respects others, the way he speaks his mind and the way he encourages us, makes him an inspiration for us all.