MUHAMMADIYAH.OR.ID, MAGELANG – Muhammadiyah President Haedar Nashir said Muhammadiyah doctors must cultivate strong character and ethical culture, grounded in faith and moral integrity, as the foundation of their professional lives.
Speaking on Thursday (08/01) at the launch of the Medical and Medical Profession Program at the Muhammadiyah University of Magelang (UNIMMA), Haedar emphasized that religious belief and noble conduct should be expressed not only in personal piety, but also in public ethics, including the way doctors serve society.
Haedar urged Muhammadiyah’s medical institutions to develop a humanistic approach to medicine, rather than one focused solely on academic credentials or technical skill. Health care, he said, must place humanity and empathy at its center.
“Do not think in elitist terms,” he said. Caring for public health, especially for middle and lower income communities, is not an easy task, he added, because it requires doctors to confront complex social realities alongside medical challenges.
According to him, serving vulnerable communities demands patience, humility, and a strong ethical compass. Therefore, doctors must be prepared not only intellectually, but also morally and socially.
Haedar also stressed that Indonesia needs citizens with strong character. He said values rooted in the nation’s cultural and historical experience should become a living culture, not merely a nostalgic reference to the past.
“We must not remain in the past tense,” he said. “History is a treasure, but we have to leap forward.”
In this context, he argued, universities play a strategic role in shaping progressive and future oriented mindsets. Higher education, he said, should go beyond purely textual or theoretical reasoning. For more than 113 years, Muhammadiyah has remained committed to education. That commitment, Haedar said, is inseparable from the goal of producing graduates who are both competent and principled.
Building character and culture, he concluded, cannot happen instantly. It requires a long process rooted in faith, morality, ethics, and enduring values.
“A nation that grows strong is always a nation that stands on sound values,” Haedar concluded. (Janu) (Bintang Adrian)
