VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOInews, Jakarta: Special Staff of the Chairman of the Governing Board of the Pancasila Ideology Development Agency (BPIP) Antonius Benny Susetyo conveyed a number of challenges to national unity and integrity ahead of the 2024 general elections.

"Our challenge is to create a peaceful election where ideas are what is debated, not identity, SARA issues, or memories of the 'golden' era of the past," he said at an event themed "Grounding Pancasila for Peaceful and Dignified Elections" and the Declaration of Peaceful and Dignified Elections", which was held online at the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia in Frankfurt, Germany, Saturday (10/06/2023).

As reported by Antara in Jakarta, Sunday (11/06/2023), Benny continued, if people have divine values, they fear God, they love God so they will not destroy other human dignity.

"So, those who practice the values of Pancasila will not demonize people, consider other people beneath them, consider other people to be oppressed, and not divide the unity of Indonesia," he said.

Closing his presentation, Benny conveyed several points on how Pancasila democracy can be maintained during the 2024 election year.

"One, political elites prioritize Pancasila, as a public ethic and unifying tool. They should not talk about leaving Pancasila. Second, political parties control success and social teams that spread hoaxes and hatred. Third, political parties prioritize the value of consensus. Fourth, social media activists become word-breakers not word-makers, become critical to analyze information; you must be a fair referee so that social media is not a destroyer but maintains Indonesian unity. Fifth, public participation is needed to maintain morale and educate smart voters," he explained. (VOI/Agus)

VOINews, Jakarta - Indonesia's National Narcotics Agency  (BNN) has called on young people from diverse faiths to join the war on drugs by providing information on modes of distribution and smuggling of the illicit goods.

The call for joining the war on drugs was made by organizing an interfaith youth dialogue entitled "United Youth Realizing Drug-free Indonesia" at the Immanuel Western Indonesian Protestant Church in Central Jakarta on Saturday (June 10).

According to a written statement received here Sunday, the event ended with an anti-drug joint declaration

"I would like to convey a message to our youths that our duty is to save them (from drugs). The most important thing is that we can see their eagerness to partake in our efforts to suppress narcotics distribution in our beloved country," BNN Head Petrus R. Golose remarked.

During the dialogue, Golose reiterated that drug smuggling constitutes one of the cross-border crimes and is constantly adopted in various intergovernmental agendas.

He also informed that the drugs distributed to Indonesia mostly originated from the transnational drug rings known as Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle that encompasses Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos.

Golose highlighted the fact that the sea lane is commonly used by international drug trafficking syndicates for smuggling crystal methamphetamine into Indonesia. "For that reason, BNN routinely conducts sea, land, and air patrols to anticipate the drug smuggling operations."

Furthermore, the agency is also working along with various levels of the society to promote the drug abuse prevention movement.

The interfaith youth dialogue, Golose said, constitutes a part of the agency's soft approach strategy that aims to draw support for its prevention programs.

"The most essential point is the value of God, as we all admit that we have God. We also uphold the value of unity that brings us here to face a common enemy: narcotics," he added. (antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - The Bangka Belitung Islands Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) informed here Sunday that it continues to stay alert for the possible recurrence of wildfires in Bangka Barat District during the dry season.

Despite the BPBD's ability to handle the land fires in Bangka Barat, it must remain vigilant because the practices of slash-and-burn agriculture remain found in the district, the agency's head, Mikron Antariksa, said.

A joint team of personnel from the BPBD and district/city governments had taken preventive measures by launching public awareness campaigns to make locals understand the dangers of slash-and-burn farming methods, he said.

Besides the public awareness campaigns, the BPBD has also formed a wildfire task force, he said, adding that the slash-and-burn practices for preparing fields for planting can trigger uncontrollable wildfires.

Therefore, he calls on locals, especially farmers, to stop practicing the slash-and-burn agriculture owing to the tremendous impact it may cause from the wildfires on the people at large.

"Several hotspots have been detected. So, we hope locals will not practice the slash-and-burn agriculture to prevent the recurrence of greater land and forest fires," he said.

The agency has strengthened its wildfire-related prevention efforts after the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), and the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) issued early warnings on drought in June as a result of a hotter El-Nino climate pattern.

"Over this past week, Bangka Barat District has experienced several land fires but they can immediately be extinguished. The affected farming areas do not exceed five hectares," he said.

ANTARA has earlier reported that several parts of Indonesia have repeatedly experienced wildfires as a result of the slash-and-burn agricultural practices.

The smog produced by land and forest fires poses a problem for neighboring countries because it potentially threatens people's health and aviation activities.

ANTARA noted that in 2019, for instance, the forest fires had ravaged almost 16 thousand square kilometers of land, mostly on the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan.

In 2015, the fires blazed through 26 thousand kilometers of land, thereby resulting in one of the worst haze episodes in the country’s history. (antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - Indonesia's Ministry of Industry facilitates seven local information and communication technology (ICT) companies to showcase their latest technologies at the 2023 CommunicAsia exhibition in Singapore.

The ministry's Director General of Metal, Machinery, Transportation Equipment, and Electronics Industries Taufiek Bawazier said in a statement received here Sunday that the ministry continues to support domestic ICT companies in their efforts to become more competitive at the global market, in line with the Making Indonesia 4.0 Program.

"The companies' participation in the CommunicAsia exhibition aims not only at introducing national industry products, services, and technologies to the international markets, but also at strengthening global business networks and exploring business, investment, and cooperation opportunities," he noted.

The seven participating ICT companies are PT Nicola IOT Solution, PT Dwi Tunggal Putra, PT Solusi Hijau Indonesia, PT Dimata Sora Jayate, PT Integrasia Utama, PT Bahawan Integrasi Nusantara, and PT Qwords Company International.

Their participation, he said, constitutes the ministry's concrete step to implement its program that aims to support the realization of one of the national targets laid in the Presidential Regulation No. 18 of 2020 regarding the 2020-2024 National Mid Term Development Plan (RPJMN).

The target pushes the country to achieve 13 percent of high-tech industrial products export contribution to the country's overall exports by 2024.

"The strategy to boost the exports of manufacturing industry goods and services will be supported by the processing industry revitalization that is expected to diversify non-commodity export products, especially high-tech manufacture products," Bawazier stated.

To that end, he emphasized that innovative steps are needed to boost exports.  Efforts to improve products' added value are necessarily made by diverting the prioritized export commodities from co-manufacturing products to high technology products.

The efforts can be made by optimizing ICT products that are produced using high technology and have undergone intensive research and development processes, he added.

The 2023 CommunicAsia is considered as Asia's most mature and relevant information and communication technologies exhibition, where participants from around the world display their latest technologies in the fields of 5G, broadband, FTTx, connected services, and satellite communication.

During the exhibition, the Indonesian companies showcased the national industry's capability of producing and providing IoT (Internet of Things) products as well as AI (artificial intelligence)-powered data centers.

The two technologies constitute the most essential aspects of the digitization process, and there has been an increase in demands for them at both domestic and international levels.

The support from the two technologies are crucial for Indonesia since it is one of the Southeast Asian countries that wields the biggest access to marketplaces. (Antaranews)