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)