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House Speaker Puan Maharani. (ANTARA/HO-DPR RI/pri/my) - 

House Speaker Puan Maharani believes that building national character did not mean that one must reject foreign cultures.

In her message at a webinar titled "Youth Actualization in COVID-19 Prevention and National Economic Recovery" on Saturday, Maharani also encouraged Karang Taruna, as a youth organization, to foster the spirit of youngsters in building the nation's character.

"Karang Taruna needs to play its role actively in building the nation and character. I need to remind (everyone) that having character in the (context of) Indonesian culture does not mean that we are against foreign culture," she noted on Saturday.

She opined that when it came to building the nation's character, Indonesia could not isolate itself from foreign cultures. By having a strong character, Indonesia could instead absorb and filter cultures from overseas and coalesce them with the existing culture.

"National character does not (mean it) eliminates the regional cultural identity. Karang Taruna, as a part of Indonesian youth, should be the source of new ideas and innovations on how to embrace the younger generation," she remarked.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Maharani urged Karang Taruna to foster the spirit of collaboration that could be initiated from the smallest of things.

"During the COVID-19 pandemic, we urgently need all elements of the nation to apply Indonesian national values, such as cooperation, and when we fuse it, then it will become a large-scale mutual cooperation," she affirmed.

She also expects the youth to maintain the great legacy of the nation's founders, coming in the form of national values originating from Pancasila, the Republic of Indonesia, the 1945 Constitution, and Bhinneka Tunggal Ika.

The young Indonesian generation must also be able to mitigate and take precautionary measures against the negative impacts of the developments in information technology, as they could disorient the viewpoints of Indonesian citizens.

"Do not allow the future generations of our nation to veer away from the cultural roots of the nation, both in terms of national ethics and morals, and drown in the turbulent vortex of disruption from advancements in communication and information technology," Maharani concluded//ANT