VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia hosts the 8th Meeting of ASEAN Ministers Responsible for Culture & Arts –AMCA which was preceded by the 14th ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting for the Culture & Art and Related Meeting - SOMCA. In addition, the meeting is also attended by 3 ministers of ASEAN partner countries, namely China, Korea and Japan. This biennial event is held in Yogyakarta on 21 October to 26 October 2018. This meeting carries the theme "Embracing the Culture of Prevention to Enrich ASEAN Identity". The Indonesian Minister of Education and Culture, Muhadjir Effendy in his speech at the opening of this meeting on Wednesday, October 24 in Yogyakarta said the diversity of Indonesian culture was an Indonesian national identity. There are more than 300 ethnic groups in Indonesia with different sets of rules and cultural objects. According to Minister Muhadjir, diversity is a valuable asset. For this reason he hopes that this meeting can promote the unity of civilization in ASEAN.

"Initiation of the theme "Embracing the ASEAN Culture of Prevention to Enrich ASEAN Identity" and "Yogyakarta Declaration", Indonesia sees that this forum is the right place to promote a unity civilization on a large scale. If ASEAN members can implement it, I believe that other countries will follow," said Muhadjir.

Minister Muhadjir further explained, Indonesia has a "Four Pillars of Nationality" which is a unifying nation. The pillars are Pancasila the Five Principles and the state ideology, the 1945 Constitution, the Unitary Republic of Indonesia and the motto of Unity in Diversity. According to him, Pancasila creates unity in a pluralistic society as formulated in the slogan "Unity in Diversity". In addition, the Indonesian Minister of Education and Culture said that Indonesia was ready to actively participate in the implementation of the ASEAN Declaration of Culture Prevention. This Declaration aims to create peace, openness, awakening, health and a harmonious society. The declaration was the result of the 31st ASEAN Summit in November 2017. (VOI/SEKAR/AHM)