Edu Asia New,Humas UPNVJ – The Rector of Universitas Pembangunan Nasional Veteran Jakarta (UPNVJ), Prof. Dr. Anter Venus, M.A., Comm., emphasized the importance of non-military state defense in safeguarding national sovereignty in the era of information disruption. This was conveyed during the National Symposium themed “Strengthening Non-Military State Defense for Golden Indonesia 2045” (20 December 2025).
Prof. Venus outlined non-physical threats such as hoaxes and hate speech that endanger national cohesion. He explained that the state is a social construct that is vulnerable to the domination of narratives. In the post-truth era, objective facts are often overshadowed by emotional opinions, making information disruption a primary weapon used to divide society.
He distinguished military state defense, which focuses on physical protection through weaponry, from non-military state defense, which relies on reason, civility, and a progressive mindset to combat ignorance, poverty, radicalism, intolerance, historical distortion, and cyberattacks.
According to him, every individual now holds power over information through social media; however, this also creates openings for competing ideologies. “Information is not merely data, but an entity capable of transforming civilization and serving as a pillar of the state,” Prof. Venus stated in his presentation.
To address these challenges, he proposed strategic measures such as critical and ethical digital literacy, narrative interventions to rectify historical distortions in cyberspace, strengthening public participation as contributive citizens, and enhancing government and institutional control over the digital public sphere.(www.upnvj.ac.id)
