VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOInews, Jakarta: Voice of Indonesia, the Overseas Broadcast Station of Radio Republic Indonesia successfully held a Diplomatic Forum entitled ‘Cultural Diplomacy Binds Nations’ on March 27, 2024, in Medan, North Sumatra. The forum presented the Malaysian Consul General in Medan, the Dutch Consul Honorary, Ony Hindra Kusuma, and the Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of North Sumatra, Rober Sibarani as speakers.

Consul General of Malaysia in Medan, Shahril Nizam Abdul Malek talks about Malaysian experience in presenting culture amidst its multiracial communities as a unifying factor of the nation.

“Let me share with you two interesting points. It may be joke to some, but there is only in Malaysia that you can combine four languages and it will make perfect sense. The Sentence is like “Wei macha, you want to makan here or tapau?” so, it is a mix of bahasa Chinese, English, Malay and also Indian. Wei macha is a salutation call for Indian cha. You want to makan here or tapau?, tapau is Chinese (means takeaway). And it makes perfect sense. So that one fact that you can make one sentence that can combine all the main four langugaes in Malaysia.” Said Shahril Nizam Abdul Malek.

Malaysian Consul General in Medan also shared his view about Malaysia who has 50 holidays that symbolize tolerance and the joy of celebrating cultural diversity.

“The second cultural diversity which I believe I can share with you is that Malaysia is perhaps one of the countries that have the most public holiday in the world. Why? Because we have so many multiracial communities and ethnic, so, we have to celebrate all the cultural diversity, so, I think we have more than about fifty public holidays per year, just to show the cultural diversity in Malaysia” Shahril Nizam Abdul Malek added. (Daniel)

VOInews, Jakarta: Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi's visit to Algeria in December 2023 brought an agreement concerning energy cooperation, one of which was the signing of a collaboration between Sonatrach, the Algerian National Oil Company and Pertamina. The Indonesian Ambassador to Algeria, Chalief Akbar Tjandraningrat, in an interview with Voice of Indonesia which was broadcast on Wednesday (27/03/2024) gave an update on the potential and achievements of this collaboration.

Ambassador Chalief Akbar Tjandraningrat said that Algeria has abundant oil and gas reserves that open up opportunities for cooperation.

“Algeria has very high oil reserves, and is probably number 15 in the world, and even higher gas reserves at number 11 in the world. From this aspect alone, we can actually increase Pertamina's investment here, that's why, when signing the MOU, and extending the contract license, it also has the potential for us to take gas, because previously we couldn't take gas, now we can take gas to bring to Indonesia .” Said Ambassador Chalief Akbar Tjandraningrat.

Ambassador Chalief Akbar further explained the division of the oil and gas business into upstream, downstream and mixstream sectors.

"For oil, there is a division of business between upstream, then downstream, and in the middle there is mixstream. If we talk about upstream, it could be Pertamina or we can go in for exploration, both onshore and offshore, and then if we talk about downstream, we can go in or sell and introduce Pertamina products for use in Algeria. " continued Ambassador Chalief Akbar.

Regarding the mixstream sector, Ambassador Chalief Akbar sees big opportunities in this sector. "Mixstream is in the middle of storage, there are storage facilities, there are shipping facilities, so we can play there," explained Ambassador Chalief Akbar.

Chalief Akbar also said that Sonatrach invited Pertamina to invest together in third countries.

"Apart from that, Sonatra also offered Pertamina to work in third countries, for example in this case Libya, they could enter together." Explained Ambassador Chalief Akbar.

Ambassador Chalief Akbar saw Pertamina's opportunity to maximize Algeria's strategic position for penetration of European and American markets through the giant oil and gas companies in Algeria.

“Algeria is now the main supplier, the main player for gas and oil supplies to Europe. Many large European and American oil companies have entered here. For example, Pertamina uses drilling fluid for drilling. "That's their own product and that's one example of how we can sell our products to the giant NOCs in Algeria," concluded Ambassador Chalief Akbar. (Daniel)

VOInews, Jakarta: To enliven the celebration of 70 Years of Bilateral Relations between Indonesia and Austria, the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia (KBRI) in Vienna presented a Keroncong Jam Session through Zugabe Band’s show at the World Museum (Weltmuseum). Indonesian Ambassador to Austria, Slovenia, the UN, and International Organizations in Vienna Damos Dumoli Agusman said that Austria and Indonesia have similarities in cultural interests such as music.

"Entering the 70th year of their bilateral relations, Austria and Indonesia have many similarities, including a love of music as an expression of the rich culture of the two countries' civilizations. "Austria has classical music, while one of the riches of Indonesian traditional music which has Western elements is the Keroncong genre," said Damos in an official statement received on Thursday (21/3) in Jakarta.

The Indonesian Embassy in Vienna said that the performance in the spectacular area of the Columned Hall in one of the famous ethnographic museums in the city of Vienna was attended by around 200 invited participants from diplomatic circles from ASEAN countries, the Austrian government, as well as friendly countries and partners.

Damos believes that the reason the Indonesian Embassy in Vienna presented a keroncong music performance was that keroncong music is a combination of traditional Eastern music which contains western music elements.

“Why Keroncong music? Because it is one of Indonesia's musical heritages which combines elements of traditional Eastern music such as Arabic, Indian, and Indonesian music, along with Western music elements, especially European such as Portuguese and Spanish. "Over time, Keroncong has also evolved with various music genres from pop to dangdut," he said.

Meanwhile, one of the visitors, a Viennese citizen, Htun Aung, admitted that he was amazed and did not expect that the person performing Keroncong music was an Indonesian diplomat because he put on a very good performance.

“A Spectacular performance by the Zugabe Band. The quality of the musicians' playing and vocals doubts that they are Indonesian diplomats. "The full support of all the staff of the Indonesian Embassy/PTRI in Vienna and the entire Indonesian community shows the intrinsic strength of Indonesia," said Htun Aung, a resident of Myanmar in the city of Vienna who was also present to enjoy the Keroncong performance. (Ranov)

VOI, Qatar - The Indonesian Embassy in Doha, in collaboration with the Special Branch of the Nahdlatul Ulama (PCINU) in Qatar, held the 2nd Indonesian Ramadan Festival at the Indonesian Embassy in Doha on Saturday 16 March 2024. The event was initiated to strengthen the brotherhood of the Indonesian Diaspora and to promote the richness of Indonesian culture and Ramadan traditions to the international community, especially to Qatari citizens.

The Ramadan Festival is enlivened with various educational activities and cultural themes, such as a Calligraphy Colouring Competition aimed at children, Story Telling for Teens which provides space for teenagers to share thoughts about Ramadan, a Culinary Bazaar which displays the richness of Indonesian culinary delights and a Book Review. "This Ramadhan Festival is a vehicle to share joy with everyone, especially children," said Ali Musthofa, Rais Syuriah PCINU Qatar.

The Indonesian Ambassador to Qatar, Ridwan Hassan welcomed this activity. "Apart from being a place for friendship, this activity is also a tool to pass on the values of good religious life to children." said Ambassador Ridwan Hassan.

Festival activities were attended by at least 300 people. Activities are supported by various parties such as the Unpad Alumni Association in Qatar, the Indonesian Community Association in Qatar (Permiqa), Bank Central Asia representing Qatar and Indonesian restaurants in Qatar. (Daniel)