President Joko Widodo has called for ASEAN member states to help address the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar`s western state of Rakhine.

"I believe ASEAN is ready to help the Myanmar government create conducive situation in Rakhine state where freedom of movement is respected without discrimination and development is realized inclusively," the president or Jokowi as he popularly known said at the plenary session of the 33rd ASEAN Summit held at the Suntec Convention and Exhibition Center in Singapore on Tuesday night.

ASEAN is currently facing different challenges and that it needs commitments from all of its member states to maintain peace and welfare, he said.

The head of state noted that the Rohingya crisis has aroused anxiety and created declining global confidence.

He expressed hope that ASEAN would be able to take a forward step to settle the humanitarian crisis.

ASEAN needs to get involved in settling the question of the Rakhine state, he said adding if the crisis goes unheeded it will have a detrimental impact on Myanmar in particular and ASEAN in general.

For more than 50 years, ASEAN has enjoyed security and peace, he said.

"In 1967 when the rest of the world fell apart and was trapped in power struggle between two super powers, ASEAN leaders agreed to stand united and create a peaceful and prosperous region," he said.

He further lauded the results of talks between ASEAN foreign ministers to help settle the crisis.

The ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance (AHA Centre) is expected to help settle the crisis. (ANTARA)

President Joko Widodo likened national life as having to build and respect one another as well as remain in harmony as in a choir.

"Soprano voice, tenor voice, bass voice, all must respect each other. There is no way for one to seek dominance all the time," Jokowi stated in a gathering with winners and organizer of Voice of Church (Pesparani) 2018 at the Bogor Presidential Palace, on Monday.

According to him, each element of the choir must take care of each other and reduce the ego to get a unified, harmonious, and beautiful voice.

He also added that in the choir, everyone could learn about tolerance.

"In a choir, we learn a lot about tolerance, and we learn a lot about respecting others and building mutual tolerance," he noted.

The president remarked that at this time, Indonesian people needed unity and brotherhood the most.

On that occasion, the president conveyed messages of harmony, brotherhood, and unity which he always echoed to the people, the community, and the people of Indonesia.

He believes that currently many people in the country forget the fact that Indonesia is a very diverse country, with differences in religion, ethnicity, customs, regional languages, and traditions.

"And that requires a lot of understanding, so that the nation`s greatest assets, which are unity, harmony, and brotherhood, can really be infused by the community and can be understood fundamentally by the community," he stated.

He wanted the existing differences not to lead to intolerance and extremism and develop a feeling that the righteous one is pervasive everywhere. This will eventually lead to an unharmonious situation, and not getting along well will be very dangerous, "he explained.

Jokowi met the Pesparani 2018 winners and organizer at the Bogor Palace, West Java, on Monday.

The Head of State said that the choir could also teach about the philosophy of harmony that the Indonesian people needed.

According to him, the choir is able to harmonize diverse vocal characters into a complete and beautiful unit.

Also present with the president were Minister of Religion Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko, Head of the Creative Economy Agency Triawan Munaf, and Chair of the Indonesian Bishops` Conference (KWI) Mgr Ignatius Suharyo. (ANTARA)

The Ministry of Education and Culture will hold the 2018 Cultural Congress at the Ministry of Education and Culture, Senayan in Jakarta on 7 to 9 December. Director General of Culture at the Ministry of Education and Culture, Hilmar Farid said that the congress is a historical congress because it coincides with 100 years after the first cultural congress in 1918. During the launch of the 2018 Cultural Congress in Jakarta, Friday (November 9), Hilmar Farid stated that the aim of holding Indonesian Cultural Congress is to formulate a cultural strategy which is the direction of President Joko Widodo. For the first time in the history of the Indonesian nation, the formulation of this cultural strategy comes from the grassroots. This cultural strategy is not only the decision of experts, humanists, or academics, but also collective intelligence. This cultural strategy will be determined by President Joko Widodo on December 9.

“The cultural strategy is certainly general, making outlines about the promotion of culture for 20 years. He is a conceptual foundation that must be translated into operational steps. These operational steps will be contained in the master plan for promoting culture according to the mandate of article 14 of Law No. 5/2017. All of this is the main reference. In the future, we’ll make policies in the field of culture.” said Hilmar Farid.

Hilmar Farid further emphasized that the process of promoting culture does not stop at the cultural strategy stage. The next stage will be the main reference in the preparation of the Medium and Long Term Development Plan. This is important, because the Medium and Long Term Development Plan is a reference for government programs / work plans every year. In other words, the contribution of the promotion of culture to the people’s progress is to make culture as direction of Indonesian development. He added that the final vision in advancing culture is quite simple, namely towards an independent, sovereign, just and prosperous Indonesia. (Skr)