VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The House speaker, Bambang Soesatyo, has urged the government, military, and national police to increase the scale of relief operations after the earthquake and tsunami that hit Central Sulawesi province.

Soesatyo made the remarks here on Sunday, adding that the leadership of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) was very concerned because the residents of Donggala, Sigi, and Palu, who were affected by the disaster, until Saturday (Sept 29) night, had to sleep on the side of the road and on the open air.

The Golkar Party politician further said, many patients were forced to be treated in open spaces, and residents, who were still traumatized and worried about aftershocks, were afraid to return home.

Most likely, he said, the people in affected areas will continue to be outside the houses for the next few days, so they really need tents and blankets especially at night.

"The relief team should immediately try to provide this need," he pointed out.

According him, many things must be dealt with in the aftermath of the disaster in Central Sulawesi, especially the people who need a lot of help such as to establish a temporary hospital, as well as to provide decent space to accommodate children.

"Another urgent job is a funeral for hundreds of people, who died," he revealed.

Earlier, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said the government is doing its best to mitigate the impact of the earthquake that hit Donggala District and Palu city of Central Sulawesi on Friday.

"This is an emergency situation as many roads were cut off and airport was damaged. Electricity and fuel supplies are also disturbed. Roads are closed," the President said when observing the Blora National Housing Complex in Palu, Central Sulawesi, on Sunday.

The area is one of the regions worst affected by the earthquake. The president who talked to the local residents hoped that all heavy and emergency equipment can arrive soon.

Regarding the supply of fuel oil (BBM), the President estimated that in two days to come it will reach the location. Heavy equipment from Mamuju, Gorontalo according to him also has moved towards the disaster site.

"We pray that the heavy equipment will arrive smoothly tonight," said the President in a statement released by Deputy Protocol, Press and Media of the Presidential Secretariat Bey Machmudin.

Food and mineral water assistance was also hampered due to the condition of the airport which was not 100 percent ready to be used for landing by aircraft, the said.

"I hope the people would be patient, I know many problems that must be resolved in the near future, including relating to communication," Jokowi added.

An earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter Scale occurred in Donggala District which caused a tsunami.

The disaster has damaged the flight traffic control tower at Mutiara Sis Al Jufri Airport, Palu City. (ANTARA)

Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin has sent a message of condolence to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) for the earthquake and tsunami that hit certain parts of Central Sulawesi Province on Friday.

"Russia shares sadness with the Indonesian people," Putin stated in a release sent by the Russian Embassy in Jakarta to ANTARA in Jakarta on Sunday.

President Putin expressed his sympathy and support for the families and relatives of the victims, and hoped that the catastrophic situation can be well recovered as soon as possible.

The 7.4-magnitude earthquake with a center at a depth of 10 kilometers at 27 kilometers northeast of Donggala, Central Sulawesi, occurred on Friday (Sept 28) at 05.02 p.m. local time.

This earthquake triggered a tsunami with 0.5 to six meters high on the west coast of Central Sulawesi Province.

These disasters resulted in hundreds of deaths and injuries, and severe damage in Palu, the provonce`s capital city, and Donggala District.

Until Sunday afternoon, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) recorded that the death toll had reached 832, while the number of injured victims reached 540 people.

The earthquake and tsunami also caused thousands of people to take refuge to safe locations, and tens of thousands of houses got damaged.

Besides Russia, expressions of condolences had also been conveyed by the South African government in a written statement received by Antara.

"Our prayers for the people of Indonesia who are facing this difficult situation, especially for families who have lost their loved ones," the South African Embassy stated. (ANTARA)

Indonesian Minister of Industry  Airlangga Hartarto pushes the US industry’s players to newly expand and invest in Indonesia. So far, the investment from the USA has been in extractive industry sector. One of efforts to be pushed is expansion and investment in digital economic sector. After becoming a key  speaker at US-Indonesia Investment Summit to Media in Jakarta recently, Minister Airlangga said that the US has Google, Apple and many based-digital companies or Silicon Valley, a based company that dominates the world economy in industry revolution era 4.0. Therefore, his side will keep trying to create ecosystem in order the companies can invest in Indonesia.

“The USA has mostly invested at extractive industry. Of course, secondly the USA will encourage its investment  for 4.0 economy, digital economy. Therefore, we must be able to create ecosystem so that the digital economy can enter to Indonesia. In the past time, the US second revolution company was Ford as the champion. But current economy champions are Google, Apple, and Silicon Valley as based companies,” said Airlangga.

Minister Airlangga is optimistic that the formation of digital economy can be solution to grow start-ups business up to small-and-medium industry sector in Indonesia. He said  that one of the examples is that Apple has materialized its commitment to invest by building Apple Developer Academy in Tangerang City as innovation center in Indonesia. (Rezha/ Trans by AF)

The era of social media brings about other challenges to the world of media, such as the emergence of hoaxes or false news that uses the hidden space for freedom and democracy. This was stated by President Joko Widodo when officially opening the 24th Congress of the Indonesian Journalists Association -PWI in Solo, Central Java on Friday (28/9). This condition, according to President Joko Widodo, is experienced not only by Indonesia, but also by many friendly countries whose leaders complain about similar issue.

“Another challenge in the midst of the rise of social media is the emergence of hoaxes or false news, which uses the freedom and democracy available. This occurs not only in our country, but also in other countries. I went to Singapore complaining about the same thing; PM Lee; Malaysian former Prime Minister also complained about the same thing. To the Middle East, some Shyekhs and Emirs also complained about the same things that had never happened before. The dissemination of hoaxes is done through informal media that is unregistered; it is unclear who accounts for, and where the address is unclear. Hoaxes are circulated through social media to influence perception,” said Presiden Joko Widodo.

 Furthermore, President Joko Widodo explained that there are certain interests, especially the very strong political interests behind the spread of hoaxes. He views that this is done to influence public perceptions so that they are in line with the purpose of these interests. Thus, the President remarked that it’s important for PWI and the media to provide correct information. President Joko Widodo added that the emergence of hoaxes is an opportunity for PWI and the main media to show their major role in a bid to provide correct information that is in accordance with the principles of journalism and comes from credible and quality information. (Rezha/Trans by R)