Our world has been greatly traumatized by war. The history of modernity has begun since the post-medieval era marked by colonialism and imperialism. Modernization of the concept of war itself was evident during the world war in the early 20th century, till the cold war in the year 1960. The word “war” becomes a specter that terrifies and concerns for it to not reoccur. Unfortunately, the rise of numbers of developed countries comes together with the production of nuclear weapons. With the purpose in maintaining security and sovereignty of their country, nuclear is seen as a solid ford to intimidate their counterpart. The matter that is becoming an alarming issue is the fact that nuclear testing program is taking place in countries beyond the territory of the country that created it, thus bringing upon immense damage towards the people within the host country of the testing program.
Realizing the debates upon nuclear issues will never reach an end, Centre for Southeast Asian Social Studies (CESSAS) Universitas Gadjah Mada carried out a seminar titled “Aspiring for Nuclear-Weapon-Free-World: Global Activism in Comparative Perspective” at the Ruang Seminar 2nd Floor Univesitas Gadjah Mada main library (3/11/2017). The seminar presented Prof. Dr. David Robie from Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand and Muhadi Sugiono, M.A. from Universitas Gadjah Mada. Both speakers are experts within this particular area. Prof. David is an academic, journalist and activist of human rights while Pak Muhadi is a coordinator at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapon (ICAN) Indonesia. Acting as moderator is Yunizar Adiputra from the Institute of International Studies, UGM. The event was opened by the Director of CESASS UGM, Dr.phil. Hermin Indah Wahyuni that took place for about 2 hours and attended by at least 150 participants from people of academic and students. This seminar is part of the series of events from the World Class Professor (WCP) program Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education of the Republic of Indonesia.
In the seminar, the speakers compared campaigning models for the anti-nuclear campaign from two different perspectives. As a living witness, Prof. David discussed on the activist movement of anti-nuclear within the Rainbow Warrior case in the year 1980s. Rainbow Warrior is a ship owed by Greenpeace that was sunken by the French intelligence as they were conducting protest towards the nuclear testing in Moruroa in the Pacific. On the other hand, Pak Muhadi focused on the movement of ICAN in todays world. In the year 2017, ICAN achieved the Nobel Peace Prize for the anti-nuclear weapons movement. Within the anti-nuclear movement, Prof. David emphasised an active participation of the civil society and government within the strategy formulation towards this issue. Pak Muhadi added that through international agreements and strong attachment amongst international communities can be a simple practice of preventing the issue of nuclear weapon testing. Ultimately, the main point is to increase public awareness that nuclear is a collective issue which concerns not only one community, but the entire relation amongst nations. Nuclear weapon testing not only brings side-effect towards humans but will effects the environment as well. (MLK/Dipka)