Alumni of IPB Won the Ramon Magsaysay Award 2017
Ir. Abdon Nababan, the alumni of Faculty of Animal Husbandry (Fapet), Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), 19th batch, won the Asian prestigious award. The man, who was active in the Lawalata activity (the nature lover) when he was in his study, won the Ramon Magsaysay Award 2017 for the category of the Community Leadership from all over Asia.
Ramon Magsaysay Foundation was a tribute to the leadership that inspired and brought changes. Some of the names that had received this award were 14th Dalai Lama in 1959, Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) in 1993, and Syafi’i Ma’arif (PP Muhammadiyah) in 2008.
According to the Ramon Magsaysay Award, Abdon was a leader who brought changes. His courage and advocacy became the voice and face for the indigenous people in Indonesia.
Abdon was the leader of the Indigenous People’s struggle in Nusantara (AMAN) even before the reform era. The five annual event of the Congress of Indigenous People of Nusantara appointed as the Secretary General of AMAN, in two consecutive periods, namely 2007-2012 and 2012-2017. Now Abdon sat on the National AMAN Council 2017-2022 representing the Region of Sumatra.
In the period of his leadership, the work of AMAN had contributed positively to the struggle of the rights of the indegenous people in this country. Some of them were the Decision of the Constitutional Court No. 35/PUU-X/2012 about Indigeous Forest, the Inclusion of the Indigenous Area Map as the Thematic Map by the Geospatial Information Agency, and the National Inquiry by the National Commission on Human Rights about the violations of the rights of the indigenous people in the forest area. AMAN also actively encouraged and facilitated the Draft Law of the Indigenous People (RUU MA). This Draft Law was now in the National Legislation Program of DPR of RI for 2017.
Still in his leadership period, AMAN ensured the inclusion of six points related to the indigenous people in the vision and mission of President Joko Widodo (known as NAWACITA). The most obvious result was the submission of the Decision Letter of the Recognition of Indigenous Forest to nine indigenous people by President Joko Widodo at the State Palance at the end of December 2016.
This annual award was given by the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation, based in the Philippines. This year’s delivery ceremony was scheduled for 31 August in Manila. The Asian Nobel Prize was officially announced on Thursday, 27 July 2017.(www.aman.or.id/Zul)
