A concept of rurality without normative use of contemporary technology does not translate as backwardness. On the contrary, each region possesses their unique individual backgrounds, whose developments are impossible to generalize alongside the more dynamic megacities.

Singgih Susilo (DP’86), in the General Lecture KU4078 Studium Generale ITB, introduced this concept termed Cyral-Spiriterial. Cyral being a portmanteau of city and rural, while spiriterial being composed of spiritual and material. Presently, the global aspect as the single assessor of a civilization’s development is no longer adequate. It is from a contextual aspect, relating with a continuity of the spiritual and material, that speaks on the spiriterial graph.

“We can take middle age Europe as an example when the church’s influence, or in other words the spiritual aspect, to be enormously strong. This actually stagnated the civilization’s development. With the passage of time, the dominance shifted to the materialistic aspect in present Europeans, far leaving the spiritual. Both imbalances according to the spiriterial concept are grave threats toward a civilization’s harmony,” he explained.

The example is a stark contrast to Indonesia, who from time to time maintains this harmony. An illustration is evident during harvest seasons, where some villages still celebrate certain rituals. Simply speaking, a sacred commemoration never alienates local customs. The Indonesian spiriterial concept has actually been realized for ages past, which other developed countries still strive to achieve. However, a few conditions in Indonesia tend to follow a materialistic-based civilization development trend, in line with some developed countries.

The role of villages in Indonesia is crucial. To re-emphasize, the spiriterial concept relates to the past and present of a region, thus their development cannot be evaluated from the same lenses. This is where the cyral concept will synergize the values of the rural and the city. The values include socent (social-enterprise) based working style, active gommunity (government-community) collaboration, humture (human centered-culture) proceeding, and cohelp (compete-help) culture.

According to Singgih, the new rural or cyral concept must hold on to the principles of SLOC (small, local, opened, and connected). Indonesia as it must become, preserved a strong root and longstanding history. Unfortunately, the people must improve their ability to spot opportunities.

Luckily, the current generation is not content with mere economic success, but also wish to thread life-meaningful careers that will create impact on their environment.

On the other hand, according to Singgih, the world requires a contextual education. Contextual means that the education must be able to resolve issues at the taught rural environments. For example, a coastal village will benefit further from nautical related education, in contrast with enforcing the national curriculum which will not necessarily be applicable.

Hopefully, ITB graduates can implement their knowledge wholeheartedly through developing their rural soils, in line with their own potential — not unlike Singgih, whose village-originated works elevated him on the global stage.

Reporter: Lukman Ali (Mechanical Engineering, 2020)
Translator: Firzana Aisya (Bioengineering, 2021)