VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

President Joko Widodo said there is a new promising agriculture commodity to improve the national economy as well as farmers' welfare. The new commodity is porang (elephant foot yam).

The president during the 2021 Inflation Control National Coordination Meeting at the State Palace, Jakarta Wednesday (25/8) said porang is very promising and has a great market. He therefore hoped porang commodity can be encouraged into finished goods such as cosmetics or food ingredients.

President Joko Widodo recently visited a porang processing facility in East Java. Porang (elephant foot yam) is a type of tuber that contains glucomannan carbohydrate or a substance in the form of complex sugar. Porang is usually processed as shirataki; a mixed ingredient in cake, bread, ice cream, candy, jelly, jam; and as a thickening agent for syrups. Other than food, porang can be made into cosmetics.

According to the president, Indonesia must seriously work on this commodity. Not only to increase farmer's exchange value and welfare, but also to create a milestone so that agriculture can give greater contribution to the economy. He then asked for preparedness from the upstream to the downstream.

Jokowi affirmed the farmers' cluster model institution also needs strengthening. The farmers-owned business in the form of cooperatives and village-owned enterprises (BUMDes) also need to be developed so that the post-harvest added-value can keep increasing.

The other effort to be done, said the president, is expanding market access by means of partnership with the industries. Financial access alo needs to be made easier and simpler. In funding, the government will keep accelerating the supermicro loan (KUR). The agriculture KUR in 2021 was 70 trillion rupiahs of the total KUR, namely 253 trillion rupiahs. The KUR distribution scheme will keep being perfected so that it is suitable to the business characteristics in the agriculture sector.

President Joko Widodo also asked the ministers, heads of institutions, and regional heads to strengthen assistance for the farmers. He also asked all to use the technology, including digital platforms to increase farmers' productivity and cut short the lengthy marketing chain for the micro, small, medium businesses in the food sector.

August 31, 2021, which is the deadline for foreign troops withdrawal from Afghanistan, is only a matter of days. Many people worry about the future of Afghanistan after the country is controlled by the hardline Islamist group, the Taliban.

Last Sunday, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation or OIC held an Executive Committee level extraordinary meeting at its  headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, specifically to discuss the current situation in Afghanistan.

As  results of the meeting, the OIC called for Afghanistan not to become a refuge for terrorists. It  also encourages inclusive dialogue to address the Afghanistan crisis.

Not only the OIC, concerns about the future of Afghanistan were also stated  by a number of international organizations such as the United Nations security council, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) up to the G7.

They question is,  will Al-Qaeda seize  the momentum   to consolidate itself with  the potential to become a global terror threat? Because it is known that when the Taliban came to power in 1996 to 2001, Al-Qaeda got a breath of fresh air and became a threat to many parties.

As the Associated Press noted, the OIC's concerns are not without reason. The terrorist group operating in Afghanistan is not only Al-Qaeda, but there is also the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). This group is known not  really in line with the Taliban.  However, their  acts of terror in the past have shocked the world.

So it is natural that at this time the international community is not fully confident in the ability of the Taliban to guarantee and ensure that Afghanistan will be clean of the world's terrorist groups and seeds.

The OIC's call for Afghanistan not to become a base for terrorist organizations is very appropriate. Considering that the OIC was born from a collection of Islamic countries that are committed to helping Muslim communities around the world, including in Afghanistan, achieve peace, security, stability, and development.

Lawang Sekepeng Tradition is one of the traditional ceremonies in the wedding stage of the Ngaju Dayak tribe, Central Kalimantan to welcome the groom's entourage and his family. The tradition has been performed since past times. In Ngaju Dayak language, Lawang means door or gate, while Sakepeng means one piece. So, Lawang Sakepeng means "One-Piece Door.”  Lawang Sekepeng is like a sturdy gate made of wood. The wood is approximately 1.5 meters wide and about 2.3 meters high.  Moreover, above the gate, it is usually placed carvings of vines and decorations of hornbills. On the side of the gate, it is decorated with coconut leaves or young coconut leaves. Some Talawang (Dayak shields) are also often used as decorations on the right and left of Lawang Sakepeng. In the middle of the gate, three threads are spread that have been decorated with colorful flowers, and it becomes a symbol of obstacles for the groom to enter the bride's house.

The attraction of Lawang Sakepeng is the performance of self-defense when welcoming and respecting guests who attend a traditional ceremony. Both the groom and the bride will send their Silator martial arts masters to face each other. When Garantung (a typical Dayak Ngaju gong) and Katambung (a typical Ngaju Dayak drum) are played, these martial arts masters, both male and female, will fight each other until the three threads that block the groom's entrance are cut off. By the breaking of the three threads, the Lawang Sakepeng ritual ends. The Lawang Sakepng tradition has a deep meaning related to the new life of the bride and groom. The three threads that hinder or become the boundary between the bride and groom have their own meaning. The first thread becomes a symbol of distress that is often present in personal and family life. The second one represents a symbol of a bad relationship when the bride and groom start their family life. Finally, there is a symbol of something related to death. The breaking of these three threads means that all dangers, disasters, and bad relationships that prevent the bride and groom from starting a new life as a family will disappear.

Allegedly,  it is said that for the Lawang Sakepeng silat style, the ancestors of the Dayak tribe at that time adopted animal movements and behaviors, for example, by imitating ferocious animals or endemic invaders that are widely inhabited in the forests of Borneo. They include Bears, Beruks (Bangkui moves) and other moves that are oriented towards attacking or predatory creatures. Traditional clothes in the Lawang sakepeng attraction usually use Ngaju Dayak traditional clothes, which is a vest made of bark called Sangkarut. The pants are loincloths with the front covered by a rectangular sheet of Nyamu cloth called Ewah. Currently, the vest has been made of light brown cloth like the original color of the wood. The head uses a headband (salutup hatue) for men and (salutup bawi) for women, and uses earrings (suwang), necklaces, bracelets and tattoos on certain body parts.

Qatar University -QU, one of the best universities in Qatar and the Middle East has expressed its interest in opening a branch in Indonesia. The Indonesian Embassy in Doha in its statement received in Jakarta on Monday (23/8) stated that President of QU, Hassan Rashid Al Derham during a meeting with Indonesian Ambassador to Qatar, Ridwan Hassan stated his readiness to open the branch as long as regulations in Indonesia allow it.

During the meeting, Ambassador Ridwan expressed his appreciation to QU for facilitating Indonesian university students to study at the university. Currently, there are at least 25 Indonesian university students from various levels who study at QU.

Ambassador Ridwan hopes that there will be more Indonesian university students who study in Qatar in the future and vice-versa and there will be more students and teachers from Qatar who will study and teach in Indonesia. President Hassan Rashid Al Derham expressed his interest in collaborating with universities in Indonesia. He said that Indonesia is a country with extraordinary potential.

Based on the request of the Indonesian Ambassador, President Hassan Rashid also expressed his readiness to facilitate the activities of Indonesian university students at QU, including establishing an association or student club to introduce Indonesian language and culture. According to data from the Ministry of Higher Education of Qatar, there are about 2,059 Indonesian students currently studying in Qatar. They are in various levels of education from elementary school to higher education. Most of them are Indonesian diaspora’s children who were born and grown up in Qatar.