VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The 2022 Archipelago Manuscript Preservation Expose activity - 

The head of the National Library of Indonesia (NLI), Muhammad Syarif Bando, said that ancient manuscripts were the result of the thoughts of the ancestors in building the nation's civilization for the better.

"Knowledge contained in ancient manuscripts is very important and can be used to win life," he said in the 2022 Archipelago Manuscript Preservation Expose activity which was held in a hybrid manner, Monday (19/9/2022).

The Head of National Library added that as a civilizational institution that is a symbol of the state, the library has the task of explaining to the international world about various teachings regarding the social order of people's lives.

"Our main task is how to promote the wisdom values ​​contained in the manuscripts," he explained.

The Director of Religion, Education and Culture, Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas, Amich Alhumami, explained that ancient manuscripts are a reflection of the high achievement of a nation's cognitive work. He added that ancient manuscripts are part of the knowledge artifacts collected in cultural documents.

"The collection of ancient manuscripts contains very rich knowledge and is very valid if it is said, that this is actually part of the achievements of a nation's high knowledge," said Amich.

Ancient manuscripts, he said, have the same important portion as other development issues. This is because ancient manuscripts are a very central part of the scope of cultural development.

On the other hand, Professor of Philologist FAH UIN Jakarta, Oman Fathurahman, said that there are seven aspects in the ecosystem of the archipelago, namely regulations and policies, manuscript owners, publication and advocacy media, conservation, restoration, and digitization, global networks, big data-based databases. , as well as qualified human resources. These seven aspects must go hand in hand so that the preservation of the manuscript can run well and maximally.

“So don't expect the preservation of the manuscript to be successful if one link doesn't work. Because what is called an ecosystem is a link in a chain, if one is paralyzed, it will not work,” he explained.

He added that preservation consisted of physical preservation of the manuscript and preservation of the text/content. According to him, the community can play a role in preserving the manuscript. "The success of the community's role in preserving manuscripts is determined by the extent to which the community is involved as a stakeholder in the government's manuscript preservation program," he added.

Meanwhile, the main expert librarian, National Library of Indonesia, Ahmad Masykuri, explained that as the builder of the library, his party had made efforts to preserve ancient manuscripts. In addition, the National Library of Indonesia has carried out the function of preserving ancient manuscripts to improve the intelligence and culture of the nation.

According to a release received by Voice of Indonesia on Monday, the National Library of Indonesia has made a manual/NSPK/technical guide on the preservation of ancient manuscripts which can be accessed on the National Library Material Preservation Center page. These books can be applied or applied by all library organizers in the region.

“So how to do conservation can be seen here. In addition to books, we also make tutorials in the form of videos, for example the process of lamination, patching books and so on,” he said.

He explained that his party was doing the preservation of regional manuscripts. It was recorded that until 2022, the preservation of ancient manuscripts originating from external National Library which spread in various regions in Indonesia amounted to 5,261 manuscripts.

Meanwhile, the results of the preservation of ancient manuscripts in the National Library of Indonesia total a total of 8,634 manuscripts, including the transfer of ancient manuscripts (manuscripts) to digital form as many as 3,886, preventive conservation with manuscript boxes there are 4,200, conservative curative paper manuscripts are 273, and conservative curative papyrus manuscripts are 275.

In addition, the National Library of Indonesia also preserves information (content) of recorded works, namely digital curation, replication of CD collections, conversion from SWF to Pdf format, conversion from microfilm to digital, and conversion of audio cassette media//VOI

The Maldives hopes to see the United States open a first embassy in the country at the end of the year, or early next, and the Indian Ocean state hopes to reopen its embassy in Washington by the end of this year, the Maldivian foreign minister said on Sunday.

U.S. diplomatic dealings with the Maldives are currently handled through the U.S. embassy in politically troubled Sri Lanka, while the Maldives is represented in the United States via its mission to the United Nations.

Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid told an event in New York hosted by a U.S. think tank that he believes relations between the Maldives and Washington "have never been this strong."

He said the Maldives was looking for property to house an embassy in Washington and added: "It is our target that we will have our embassy up and running by the end of the year."

"Hopefully by the end of this year, or early next year, we will have the United States embassy up and running in the Maldives, which is historic," he said.

Shahid said the Maldives had an embassy in Washington after independence in 1965 but this had to be closed due to budgetary reasons. He said he reopened the embassy in 2007 in his previous stint as foreign minister, but it was closed again after a change of government in 2008.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the plan to open a U.S. embassy in the Maldives during a visit to the country in 2020, saying the nation had increasingly important role in the Indo-Pacific, where the United States is vying for influence with China.

In July, U.S. President Joe Biden announced his intention to nominate a career foreign service officer, Hugo Yue-Ho Yon, to be ambassador to the Maldives. (Reuters)

Crisis-hit Sri Lanka will make a presentation to its international creditors on Friday, laying out the full extent of its economic troubles and plans for a debt restructuring and multi-billion dollar International Monetary Fund bailout.

Years of economic mismanagement combined with the COVID-19 pandemic have left Sri Lanka in its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948, causing it to default on its sovereign debt. 

The country's Ministry of Finance said in a statement via legal firm Clifford Chance that an online call on Sept. 23 would be open to all its external creditors and be "an interactive session" in which participants can ask questions.

Sri Lanka's woes came to a head in July when then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country and resigned after violent public protests.

His replacement Ranil Wickremesinghe has managed to reach a preliminary deal with the IMF that if formalised would provide the country $2.9 billion in loans over four years.

"Authorities intend to update their external creditors on the most recent macroeconomic developments, the main objectives of the reform package agreed with the IMF ... and the next steps of the debt restructuring process," the statement dated Sept. 17 said.

Debt crisis veterans cite uniquely difficult elements in Sri Lanka.

The impoverished population that forced Rajapaksa to flee still needs to accept Wickremesinghe, seen by many as of the same political ilk, and who faces a bristling opposition.

The country's borrowings are so complex that estimates of the total range from $85 billion to well over $100 billion. Perhaps most challenging of all, competing regional powers China, India and Japan must also find common ground on how to reduce debt they are owed by Colombo. (Reuters)

Typhoon Nanmadol, one of the biggest storms to hit Japan in years, killed at least two people and brought ferocious winds and record rainfall to the west of the country on Monday, causing transport disruptions and forcing manufacturers to suspend operations.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delayed his departure to New York for the U.N. General Assembly this week to assess the damage from Japan's 14th typhoon of the season.

"I postponed my scheduled departure from today to take stock of the damage caused by the typhoon and to take all possible measures for recovery," Kishida told reporters on Monday evening, adding that he would leave on Tuesday morning if conditions permit.

Nanmadol made landfall near Kagoshima city late on Sunday before battering the western island of Kyushu and roaring onto the main island of Honshu on Monday morning.

A river in Kyushu's Miyazaki prefecture overflowed, flooding fields and roads, footage from public broadcaster NHK showed. Other video showed a riverside house half hanging over a torrent, the tin roof ripped off a gas station, and a toppled billboard leaning over a street from the top of a building.

"We need to remain highly vigilant for heavy rains, gales, high waves and storm surges," a Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) official told a news conference.

Local media said one man was found dead inside his car, which was submerged up to its roof in the middle of a field, while another man died after being caught in a landslide.

One other person remains missing, and at least 115 people have been injured, NHK said.

About 286,000 households were without electricity on Monday afternoon, down from some 340,000 households earlier on the day, the trade ministry said.

Kyushu Railway Co (9142.T) said it had halted operations of both high-speed and regular trains, while Japan Airline Co Ltd (9201.T) and ANA Holdings (9202.T) cancelled about 800 flights, NHK reported.

The storm made landfall again in Shimane prefecture in western Honshu after tracking the coastline earlier on Monday, and was heading east at about 35 km per hour (22 miles per hour), the JMA said.

Up to 300 mm (11.8 inches) of rain was expected in central Japan's Tokai region, the nation's industrial heartland, over the 24-hour-period to Tuesday evening, it said.

Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) has suspended night shifts on 24 lines at 12 of its domestic plants on Monday, a company spokesperson said, adding that the company planned to make up for the lost production with overtime and operations on holidays.

Intermittent bouts of heavy rain lashed Tokyo but businesses in the capital were largely operating as normal.

Most schools were closed on Monday anyway for a public holiday. (Reuters)