T

/span>The day after Easter, a young man named Rifky arrived back in Yogyakarta, thrilled to be home and to see his mother, Rukmo Brotodjojo, and his girlfriend.

He was bubbling over with inspiration. His father, Nur Iswanto, was away on business in Kalimantan.

Although Rifky had just gotten off a 32-hour marathon flight, via London, and has university examinations looming in the immediate future, nothing could suppress his youthful enthusiasm. It is exciting to be young, brilliant and enthralled by the joy of learning.

Muhammad Rifky Wicaksono was returning from the US, where he and five others from Gadjah Mada University’s Faculty of Law were the Indonesian team in what Rifky called “the Olympic Games for Law Students” — The Phillip Jessup World Moot Court Competition, held in Washington, DC and a program of the International Court of Justice. Teams from 120 universities in 86 countries were competing — some of the brightest young people in the world.

The Indonesian team consisted of Rifky and Ibrahim Hanif as the two oralists; Bily Esratian and Aditya Percaya as researchers; Thomas Peter Wijaya, the manager for travel arrangements; and Dirgantara Adi, their coach.

Rifky said Gadjah Mada University had been “the underdogs” in the competition for about six years, and that he and his colleagues, junior students of international law, came up against seniors from other leading universities around Indonesia, but still managed to win the Indonesian competition.

The winners of the world competition were the Russian team, who argued brilliantly against the team from New York-based Columbia University. Rifky’s team won three out of four of their “rounds”. To move forward in the competition, they needed to win four rounds. However, just to be competing there, with their peers, was a great honor.

While preparing for the competition and traveling overseas for three weeks, Rifky missed a lot of lectures. But, he abided by a promise he made to his parents to keep up with coursework via a helpful friend who supplied him with lecture notes.

Nineteen-year-old Rifky said two of his dreams have now come true.

Dream number one was that he would be part of the team to represent Indonesia in the international competition.

Dream number two has also been achieved; he has received an Erasmus Mundus Lotus scholarship that will enable him to study for six months at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (known as Sciences Po) in Paris later this year. It is reputed to be one of the best educational institutions in France.

Dream number three has to do with a law degree from Harvard University in Boston, or perhaps a master’s from the Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts University. His ultimate direction has not yet been determined.

During Rifky’s formative years, he spent a total of five and a half years living and attending school in Australia (in Sydney and Brisbane), while his parents were completing their own professional studies.

Both his parents have doctorates and Rifky’s dream number four is that he hopes to eventually get a PhD in England, at either Oxford or Cambridge. He believes British universities teach the fundamentals of philosophy, which he considers to be important for an understanding of philosophy and legal ethics. He said that at Harvard, they teach you how to win cases.

Rifky said, “The education I received in Australia has contributed immensely to my success in debating because the system there accentuates critical thinking. It is not an understatement to say that if I had not studied in Australia, I would not be where I am today. Training in critical thinking and English proficiency are the result of about one-third of my education in Australia. It also made me have a thirst for knowledge. When I first returned to study at an Indonesian high school, I was shocked to find a different education system, where the accent was more just learning all the information so as to pass the examinations, but not necessarily actually gaining understanding.”

During his high school years, Rifky was chosen as a Youth Ambassador for Indonesia and went to Melbourne, Australia, in a Foreign Affairs Ministry program.

In 2009, Rifky and his high school debate team won the English-language debate competition at the Asian Championships in Manila, the Philippines, and then later in 2010 they traveled to Doha, Qatar, as Indonesian representatives at the World High School English-language debate championships. In all these international events, he was chosen as team captain.

Rifky is concerned, and in fact gets quite angry, about the preference given to math, science and technology studies in Indonesia, and what he sees as a lack of respect for the humanities like philosophy, which he considers to be very important.

“It is like saying that apples are better than oranges,” he said. “For me, all knowledge is equal. Can you imagine a society without law? It would be chaos. But the attitude is widespread, even among teachers and parents who encourage their children in business, Internet technology, math and sciences, even if the student’s interests and talents are in other subjects.”

Rifky’s future certainly looks bright, as he already has offers of internships from five of the leading law firms in Indonesia, and one from a leading firm in Singapore — and he’s still only in his second year at university.