VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Voice of Indonesia presents “Let’s Speak Bahasa Indonesia,” a lesson in the Indonesian language on the radio. We introduce new Indonesian vocabulary and tips on how to use it in a conversation. This segment is a joint initiative of Voice of Indonesia and the Language and Book Development Agency of the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture.  Today’s topic is  Waktu or  ‘Time’.

Today’s lesson is all aboutWaktu or ‘Time’. Listen to this conversation between Kevin and Pak Imran. They are talking in the car on the way to a hotel.

Kevin   : Sekarang pukul berapa, Pak?

Imran   : Pukul tiga sore, Mas.

Kevin   : Oh, terima kasih. 

Imran   : Kalau di Darwin waktunya lebih cepat atau lebih lambat?

Kevin   : Darwin lebih cepat tiga jam daripada Jakarta.

Now I am going to introduce some vocabularies and expressions related to the topic today. I will say each word slowly and twice, you can follow after me.

In the conversation, Kevin askspak Imran about time. He said: Sekarang pukul berapa, Pak? To respond or mention about time, you can use the word pukul followed by the time. Let’s listen to an example:

Kevin: Besok kita pergi pukul berapa? (at what time we go tomorrow?)

Imran:Pukul 08.15 (delapan lebih lima belas menit), ya.(at fifteen minutes pass eight) , ok.

In Indonesian language, to mention the time we usually use the words lebih and kurang. The word lebih is used to show the time between 1 to 30 minutes.

For example:

-pukul 08.10 (pukul delapan lebih sepuluh menit) in English ‘eight pass ten’.

-pukul 10.20 (pukul sepuluh lebih dua puluh menit) in English ‘ten pass twenty’

The word kurang is used when the time is more than 30 minutes.

For example:

-pukul 08.55 (pukul sembilan kurang lima menit) in English ‘five to nine’

-pukul 08.50 (pukul sembilan kurang sepuluh menit) in English ‘ten to nine’

That was “Let’s Speak Bhs Indonesia”, a lesson in bahasa Indonesia  or the Indonesian language on the radio. Hopefully, this edition can be useful for those who want to know more about Bahasa Indonesia.  

President Joko Widodo visited Labuan Bajo in East Nusa Tenggara between 19 and 21 of January 2020. The Indonesian government had included Labuan Bajo as one of the five super priority destinations.

On the first day of his working visit on Monday, President Joko Widodo held a limited cabinet meeting with Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Wishnutama, Public Works and People Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono, Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi, Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar, State-owned Enterprise Minister Erick Thohir, National Disaster Mitigation Agency Head Lt Gen Doni Monardo, National Search and Rescue Agency Head Vice Admiral Bagus Puruhito, East Nusa Tenggara Governor Viktor Laiskodata and West Manggarai Regent Agustinus Ch. Dula.

After the meeting, the President conveyed his intention to prepare Labuan Bajo for G20 Summit in 2023. Another international event to be held in Labuan Bajo will be the ASEAN Summit. The President said, the biggest obstacle in preparing Labuan Bajo as an international event host is infrastructure, landscape, waste, and raw water deficiency. Therefore, the preparation must begin this year.

About raw water, President Joko Widodo asked Minister Basuki to increase raw water capacity to around 100 milliliters per second. On waste, he wanted the Public Works and People Housing Ministry to prepare integrated waste management infrastructure, both for land and sea waste. For land waste, President wants the Ministry to build an incinerator and landfill. While for sea waste, he wants ships to be responsible for the cleaning. These activities are expected to begin in February 2020. President affirmed that the most important part is people’s education about waste management. He hoped there will be no garbage in Labuan Bajo.

The Head of State has also instructed Forestry and Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar to make green areas by planting seeds. The target is to produce five million to seven million trees every year.

In infrastructure, President Joko Widodo pushed for the development of Komodo Airport and the tourism area. Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said, he will expand the runway at Komodo Airport. With the expansion, the runway can be used for big aircrafts such as Airbus 300.

The simultaneous General Elections of the President and the Legislature took place just eight months ago, in April 2019. While the next General Election is still four years away, the excitement in the political arena has already begun.
The discourse of an increase in the parliamentary threshold from 4 percent to 5 percent is circulating among political parties in the Indonesian House of Representatives.

The discussions have developed since the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) held its first National Working Meeting in 2020 between January 10-12.

It produced nine recommendations, one of which was that the parliamentary threshold was to be increased to 5 percent. The PDI-P proposal received both positive and negative responses from a number of political parties in the DPR.

Some parties appreciate it for it may help improve the quality of democracy in Indonesia. However, there were also some parties that objected to the proposed increase in parliamentary threshold.

According to those who support this discourse, an increase in the parliamentary threshold will help reduce the number of political parties. But those who did not get a large number of votes in the 2019 elections, the proposed increase would not be effective enough to simplify the number of political parties. Instead, it will only make the votes won by parties that do not qualify be wasted.

Indeed, the increase in parliamentary thresholds has happened several times in the electoral system in Indonesia. Since 2009 until now the number has continued to increase from 2.5 percent to 3 percent, and then to 4 percent.

It should be noted that in the 2014 elections, there were only 12 national parties and three local parties in Aceh that participated in the election. While in the 2019 elections, with a threshold of 4 percent, the number of parties participating in the contestation actually increased to 16 national parties and four parties in Aceh. This shows that an increase in parliamentary threshold is not very effective in reducing the number of political parties participating in elections. It only made the votes casted for parties which fell below the threshold become wasted.

An increase in the parliamentary threshold from 4 percent to 5 percent might improve the quality of democracy in Indonesia. However, the reality on the ground also needs to be considered.

Three students of Sebelas Maret University (UNS) Solo, Central Java created a prototype of robot that can be used to search victims of natural disasters. The three students are from Electrical Engineering Study Program, Faculty of Engineering. They are Nada Syadza Azizah, SyaifullahFilard Latifah and Taufik Widyastama. According to Syaifullah, they named the robot as  Unmounted Ground Vehicle (UGV). The advantages are able to reach zones that are not reachable by humans. For example, volcanic areas that are still active, zones affected by forest fires and zones that are exposed to radioactivity.

Syaifullah explained, they only need three months to make the robot. It is made because Indonesia is located in a disaster-prone area. According to him, every time a natural disaster occurs there are still many victims who cannot be evacuated due to terrain conditions that are difficult to reach by human. Syaifullah added that Rescue UGV is equipped with a camera and infrared so it can detect human body temperature. Humans will look red-yellow when detected using infrared. Infrared camera is used to detect body temperature. Thus it can be known whether it is human or not, still alive or has died. Then, this robot is controlled by an internet network.

This tool will continue to be developed so that its ability can increase. In the future, portable transmitters will be used so that they can be used widely. Since it is still a prototype, it still uses the Wi-Fi network of mobile phones or routers so it can only run as far as 10 meters. The robot wheels are designed like tanks and this prototype is still in small size. Later, the robot will be made bigger so it is more stable when crossing difficult terrain, such as during a landslide or in a ravine. In the future, the robot will be designed so that it can be used to communicate both ways. Currently, new robots can transmit sound from the field.