VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The ancestors of Indonesia were excellent sailors. Not surprisingly, Indonesia is the largest archipelagic country with the second longest coastline in the world. It is a maritime country or a country surrounded by oceans. Approximately, two-third (2/3) of Indonesia's territory is sea. With such a large and wide coverage, of course Indonesia's sea deposits biodiversity of marine natural resources both biological and non-biological resources with high value. In addition, the Indonesian sea also has much potential that can be utilized. Take for example; there are marine tourism and renewable and non-renewable sources, such as oil and gas, rare minerals and the sea can also be used as an inter-island transportation that is very economical. Historically, Indonesian nation is characterized by maritime history that starts from the western region to the central and eastern archipelago. Long before independence, Indonesia was already known to the world as a nation that has advanced in maritime civilization. The history records that Indonesian seafarers have sailed away by the outrigger ships. By using a simple navigational tool, they were able to sail north, then west to cut the Indian Ocean up to Madagascar and continue east to Easter Island. But the maritime spirit became faded when Indonesia experienced colonization by the Dutch colonial government. Lifestyle and orientation of the nation were "changed" from maritime to agrarian orientation. To revive Indonesia's maritime culture, Indonesian National Navy -TNI AL from 4 to 9 May 2018 held ‘Multilateral Naval Exercise Komodo’ -MNEK 2018 in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara -NTB. This multilateral exercise has been held for the third time, and it was followed by 36 Navies from different parts of the world. The navy exercise featured 15 sophisticated warships from the participating countries along with Indonesia’s 36 Naval Warships, 11 transports and combat aircraft. This exercise was also followed by more than 5,500 troops. As a country with large sea territory, Indonesia should also have a powerful navy with capable and strong personnel and its main weapon system equipment -Alutsista is sophisticated. This multilateral naval exercise is expected to improve the strength of Indonesian Navy. In addition, it is also expected to revive Indonesia's maritime culture y showing to the world that Indonesia was once a maritime country to be reckoned.