Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Vice President Jusuf Kalla has appealed to all members of the Alumni Corps of Islamic Students Association (KAHMI) to not become divided over different political preferences during next year`s parliamentary and presidential elections.

To this end, KAHMI should not be dragged into an agenda for discussing who should be voted in April 2019, Vice President Kalla informed attendants of the opening ceremony of the organization`s national working meeting in Jambi on Saturday.

"Do not discuss who will be voted in April 2019. This issue cannot be discussed here because we are going to get divided if we do that at KAHMI," he noted.

Instead, Vice President Kalla called on those participating in the organization`s national working meeting to pay serious attention to issues related to Indonesia`s requirements to enable it to become well-developed in various sectors.

KAHMI should be driven to support the country`s progress in mastering technology, building good education, and improving prosperity of its people.

Hence, it is expected to boost technological innovation to enable Indonesia to compete with other nations at the global level, particularly in economy, he noted.

"I suggest that at the next national working meeting, we include issues of technology, sciences, and economy in the meeting agenda. We need to discuss matters concerning our people to move forward," Vice President Kalla remarked.

Rapid developments in sciences and technology are so indispensable and unavoidable. The Indonesian people would be left behind other nations if they failed to master technological developments, he stated.

"By not mastering sciences, what we are going to suffer from is regression," Kalla pointed out, adding that KAHMI could not be used as the public`s power tools, as its members had differences in terms of political sources and positions.

This year`s national working meeting was expected to produce useful innovations for the lives of Indonesians and to maintain unity in diversity, he stated.

The members of KAHMI exist in bureaucracies and non-governmental institutions. They spread from Aceh Province in the northernmost tip of Sumatra Island to Papua Province.

Many of them are active in various political parties, whose legislative candidates are competing in the 2019 Parliamentary Elections.

They may also engage in the camps of the Joko Widodo-Ma`ruf Amin and Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno pairs who attempt to win the 2019 Presidential Elections.

Reporting by Fransiska Ninditya, Rahmad Nasution
Editing by Rahmad Nasution

Reporter: Antara
Editor: Yosep Hariyadi
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