VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Welcome to the Rhythm of the Indonesian Archipelago, a weekly segment introducing you to Indonesian traditional music and musical instrument from across Indonesia. This week, we’ll invite you to know more about a traditional instrument from West Java. Indonesia is rich of some traditional instruments. Angklung is one of the traditional instruments from West Java which is popular in the world. West Java has not only Angklung or Calung which is made from bamboo, but also various kinds of instruments which are not widely known to the public. Tarawangsa is one of them. This instrument can give magical impression to the soul when being played. There is no definite proof about since when Tarawangsa  instrument has appeared in Sundanese land. According to story of Rancakalong people, West Java, Tarawangsa art has existed since the 8th or 9th century. At that time, the glory of ancient Mataram kingdom or Medang was still triumphant. The word of Tarawangsa is called in a number of ancient Sundanese scripts such as Jatiraga or Jatiniskala. In these scripts, it is mentioned that Tarawangsa is musical instrument which is heard in heaven. 

The team of Voice of Indonesia –VOI when going to Tasikmalaya some time ago met with Bapak Aseng, a leader of Tarawangsa studio at Cibalong village, Tasikmalaya. 

"If I am not mistaken, in the historical book, Tarawangsa has existed at Galuh kingdom, Ciamis or maybe Tasik also entered in  Galuh kingdom. So, having wife who created Tarawangsa is an art that is usually played for traditional ceremony. But now, according to the elder, it is for entertainment. If they want to harvest, they are entertained by Tarawangsa; putting the rice into the house is also entertained with Tarawangsa. Thanksgiving to the Almighty because abundant rice, a lot of people call Tarawangsa to entertain.” The Culturist of Tarwangsa Bapak Aseng said. 

Tarawangsa is wooden instrument which is played by being plucked and swiped jointly. The instrument consists of sectional stem like guitar and part of fiddle like fiddle of violin. Its string has two strings, the closest string with position of fiddle is played by swiping. Meanwhile, another string is played by being plucked with forefinger. The wood which is used for making the instrument is from tree of Dadap, candleberry, Jengkol, and Kenanga.

The thing, which makes Tarawangsa more unique, is friction tool which uses horse hair. People say, the horse hair produces magical power of Tarawangsa. The tone played in Tarawangsa instrument is usually Laras Pelog in which every octave consists of five, six, or seven tones with different scale. It is accordance with characteristic of Jentreng tone of pelog; with tones da-mi-na-ti-la.

According to pak Aseng, “…The original tone is Lindu. Lindu is basic tones which exist on madenda, degung, pelog, so the basic tone is Lindu.” 

Rhythm, which is from Tarawangsa, certainly has its own attraction for people who listen to it.  That’s why, most West Java people still consider that Tarawangsa is a holy instrument which is made to entertain Gods in heaven. It causes Tourism Office of Tasikmalaya, West Java to preserve and to introduce Tarawangsa instrument to the public. Dadang, Head Section of Tourism Office of Tasikmalaya explained the Tarawangsa conservation effort. 

“…Firstly, it is to coordinate to the artists to attend Tarawangsa conservation because Tarawangsa artist if it is not organized, maybe they will go anywhere. So, there is coordination with related side, especially with tourism office which organizes cultural events in the society and how the way out in order they are also getting spirit in preserving it.”  Pak Aseng added. 

All efforts are held in order our generation to be able to enjoy amazing Tarawangsa instrument. Hopefully, the efforts will produce the good result for traditional instrument conservation. That was a glimpse of traditional instrument from West Java. 

Welcome in our segment of Miscellany. Today, we will inform about the Ministry of Communication and Informatics and Metranet Determine to Create Safe Internet. 

The safe and healthy Internet usage has become one of the focuses of the Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Kominfo). The safe and healthy Internet also means the eradication of negative content on the internet such as pornography, gambling, violence, radicalism and racial intolerance. The Ministry ensuresthat censorship machine for pornographic content will start operating in January 2018 after the handover process on December 29, 2017, as quoted from Antara some time ago. The censorship machine with"crawling" system will speed up the handling of pornographic content and be operated by a team consisting of 58 people. Director General of Aptika at the Ministry of Communications and Informatics (Kemkominfo), Semuel Abrijanin said that crawling searching for content based on a particular search input differs from monitoring. His side claimsthat they have not been able to and will not lead to monitoring as has been done by China with  the cost worth$15 billion dollars. The system may be used by other agencies in accordance with their respective fields and authorities, such as the National Narcotics Board -BNN forseeking drug content or the Food and Drug Administration (BPOM) for seeking unregistered drugs and foods sold to the public. The censorship machine was auctioned by the Ministry, which was worth toRp 211 billion on August 30, 2017, and won by PT Inti which gave the offer price worth Rp 198 billion and the corrected price Rp 194 billion. The machine is targeted to be able to block negative content on the internet more quickly and precisely. The government predicts 50 percent of negative content can be directly blocked when the machine is operated later. Semuel added that negative content reporting through Positive Trust sites has been being processed manually. Incoming reports are numerous but only a few are processed. If done with the machine, all the reported-contents can be opened and read at once in an easier way. In addition to the Ministry, PT Metra-Net (Metranet) as a subsidiary of Telkom Indonesia which is focusing on Digital Services also made efforts to create safe Internet usage for Indonesia people. Metranet officially launched a browser named USearch. This browser comes as a safe surfing solution on the internet because it can block negative content. USearch was first introduced by Telkom Group at DigiSummit event in Jakarta on 22-23 November 2017. Indonesia is one of the countries with the largest number of internet users in the world. Data of wearesocial.org in 2017 showed as many as 132.7 million active internet users in Indonesia. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Communications and Informatics (Kominfo) has blocked about 6,000 sites and accounts with negative content until July 2017. Metranet CEO, Widi Nugroho said that his side was concerned about the number of negative contents on the internet that are very accessible. Therefore, his side presents USearch as a safe surfing solution because it has a high level of security that can block based on keywords sought, not based on the domain. USearch offers a high level of security and privacy because it can filter out negative content on the internet and safe for children and families. USearch can filter and reduce negative search subjects like pornography, gambling and racial intolerance. He said that in the future, it will cooperate with the government, especially the Ministy of Communication and Informatics and the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemdikbud). So, USearch can be used in schools. In addition, it also requires the support of all stakeholders to provide information if there is content or subject that needs to be filtered and cared for. The communities can report online through the menu in the Usearch Browser application or through web usearch.id.