VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Presidential Palace again held a flag raising ceremony to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of Indonesia's independence, at the courtyard of the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Friday (08/17/2018). The ceremony started at 10 a.m. Local Time. President Joko Widodo as the ceremony inspector wore Acehnese traditional dress. He had greeted a number of people who were present before heading to the ceremonial pulpit. Not only Jokowi, the cabinet ministers and the officials also wore traditional clothes from various regions. There are 6,250 guests invited to the palace. 35 percent of them are state officials, while 65 percent are the community. The ceremony began with cannon fire, then continued with the reading of the text of the proclamation by the Chair of the House of Representatives (DPR) Bambang Soesatyo. President Joko Widodo as the ceremony inspector then invited all the audience for solemn silence to respect the founding fathers and heroes who died while fighting for Indonesia’s independence. The event was then continued with a prayer reading by the Minister of Education and Culture Muhadjir Effendy. After that, the ceremony continued with the raising of the red and white flag by the Flag RaisingTroop (paskibraka) in the courtyard of the Merdeka Palace. (TRANS/KOMPAS)