An actor and rights activist underlined Saturday the importance of developing social skills and networking to help prevent national tragedies from recurring.
Through the development of such social skills and networking, people could be reminded about the need to maintain calm in everything in life.
"We must educate the public on the notion that we as human beings are formed by our past, which includes our past mistakes," actor Nicholas Saputra said at a discussion.
"There is a need for us to study from our past, especially to prevent the same mistakes from recurring. This goes for every level."
Nicholas added he used his popularity to encourage people to take a positive attitude toward resolving problems in life.
The 25-year-old, already wildly popular as teen heartthrob, rose higher in the national profile a few years ago after starring in the film Gie, in which he played the role of the title character, the late student activist So Hok Gie.
Recently, Nicholas was appointed an ambassador for the human-loves-human program initiated by several human right organizations.
Organized as part of a four-day art exhibition featuring dozens of posters decrying human rights violations, the discussion was aimed at sharing opinions between youths and rights activists over various rights violations that had occurred in the past, some of them believed to have been politically motivated.
Indonesia has lived through a litany of rights violations. The May 1998 riots saw thousands of people killed when they were trapped inside malls that were set on fire throughout the capital. Before that, the brazen abduction of activists was commonplace, with no legal resolution to date.
The list also includes the Sambas massacre in West Kalimantan, which grew out of a seemingly trivial brawl. The Talang Sari case in Lampung, in which dozens of people died, allegedly after being attacked by soldiers, is also a blight on the nation's past.
Atnike Nova Sigiro, a rights activist who also spoke at the discussion, said massive campaigns were needed on the importance of not forgetting past rights violations and encouraging legal resolutions against violators.
"The message is that we are not forgetting the rights violations and we are able to learn something from those tragedies," he said.
