UNS — The Rector of Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta, Prof. Jamal Wiwoho, received Jasa Bakti Koperasi award for public figure category. The award was granted by the Ministry of Cooperative and Small and Medium Enterprise (Kemenkop UKM) RI at the commemoration of 74th Cooperative Day held through the Zoom Cloud Meeting, Monday (12/7/2021).
Prof. Jamal became the only Rector from Central Java who received this award. He is among nine other public figures who also received the award, including the Regent of Karanganyar, Juliyatmono. After receiving the award, Prof. Jamal shared his thanks and gratitude for the hard works of all UNS academic members who have paid attention to Cooperative and SMEs.
“In the 74th Cooperative Day, I felt grateful because as a leader, UNS could run our cooperative activities well,” Prof. Jamal stated. As an educational institution, he added that UNS also has a focus and care to provide ease and advocation for cooperatives and SMEs to build strong collaboration between the two sectors and support the Indonesian economy. “Long live Indonesian Cooperative, happy 74th Anniversary. Through Cooperative Indonesian economy could be developed in the future,” he concluded.
Initiating Healthcare Cooperative
In the 74th Anniversary of Cooperative Day, Prof. Jamal, in his opinion titled “Initiating Healthcare Cooperative,” published in Jawa Pos Newspaper, Monday (12/7/2021), delivered his idea on the cooperative transformation amid the pandemic. This idea encourages cooperatives to be focused on benefit-oriented in social activities, including healthcare, instead of chasing profit or applying a profit-oriented view. The Rector considers that Indonesian cooperatives have not touched the social sectors. “It is different from other countries; cooperatives run their business in social sectors, such as healthcare, education, and other social services,” Prof. Jamal stated.
Prof. Jamal added that during the Covid-19 pandemic, the cooperative could provide services from, by, and for its members with support from doctors, healthcare workers, and its members as benefit recipients. Healthcare cooperatives could have a clinic or hospital build through member’s collections. Therefore, it is an implementation of cooperative as a social and economic institution. The Rector considers the healthcare cooperative a vital instrument for members to build social life that is in line with sustainable development objectives.
“Healthcare cooperative is an implementation of collective work that could ensure justice and the implementation of governance that will maintain healthcare quality,” he stated.
Prof. Jamal explained. Prof. Jamal gave examples of healthcare cooperatives worldwide, such as The Health Partners Cooperative in the US, HeW Coop Japan, SaludCoop in Columbia, and The Office des Pharmacies Cooperatives de Belgique (OPHACO) in Belgium. Prof. Jamal also discusses one of these cooperatives further. The Health Partners Cooperative provides clinics, health insurance, pharmacy, laboratory, fitness center, pregnancy classes, and cancer patient classes. “This Cooperative is an example of a cooperative that adopts the creative economy concept. Its business activities are not limited to healthcare, but also various supporting business services related to healthcare,” Prof. Jamal added.
Therefore, on the 74th Anniversary of Cooperative Day, Prof. Jamal encourages the government to provide room for cooperatives to work in the healthcare sector. The Kemenkop UKM RI, Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) RI, and concerned authorities could work together and coordinate in empowering cooperatives in healthcare services.
“Kemenkes could take a role in preparing program and technical assistance on healthcare services. Kemenkop UKM RI could take a role in facilitating the establishment of cooperating and providing cooperative capital,” he added. Humas UNS
Reporter: Yefta Christopherus AS
Editor: Dwi Hastuti