VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Seoul, South Korea has been ready to implement Presidential Election to be held in 2019. The South Korean Election Committee has been formed and has signed the Integrity Pact at the Embassy Hall in Seoul recently. Indonesia's Ambassador to South Korea, Umar Hadi told RRI World Service -Voice of Indonesia in Jakarta on Thursday (April 5) that based on previous elections, there are two challenges faced in holding elections in South Korea. The first challenge is related to the distribution of information to voters and updating of voters’ data. The second one is how Indonesian citizens -WNI in South Korea can have the opportunity to cast their voting rights. Thus, the Embassy launched Seoul's Whatsapp Center and will deploy voting booths -TPS in strategic areas.

“We have developed a new system using Whatsapp. We update the data of the voters of our migrant workers scattering everywhere in Korea. They do not need to come to the Embassy, they just need WA. With the technology, we can confirm the data and their existence. Secondly, on Election Day, there will be a method of voting by mail so that they do not also have to take a day off to vote. Later, we will map, so that we spread the TPS in a strategic location to enable as many as possible our citizens to cast their voting rights,” Umar Hadi said.

Ambassador Umar Hadi further explained that Indonesian people living in South Korea today are mostly migrant workers. There are at least 40,000 Indonesian citizens. More than 30,000 have complete data and have the rights to vote in the 2019 Presidential Election. He also said that based on 2014 election data, only 10 % of Indonesian citizens in South Korea can use legislative voting rights and 30% presidential voting rights. Therefore, Indonesian Embassy is always improving efforts to facilitate Indonesian citizens in casting their voting rights. Currently, the Embassy in Seoul is starting to update data and it has collected around 30 thousand of Indonesian citizens in South Korea. (VOI/Skr/RHM)

President Joko Widodo emphasized that infrastructure development across Indonesia, which is currently being promoted by the government, is an effort intended not only to build the economy but also to maintain unity. In his meeting with a number of cultural activists at the State Palace in Jakarta, the President gave an example when he traveled to Papua. At that time, he found a price disparity of fuels when compared with prices in Java. President Joko Widodo views that the inequality may bring about an impact on possible disintegration of the nation, if not addressed by infrastructure development.

"Infrastructure is not only about economic aspect. In my understanding, it is not like that. This infrastructure will unite us. If the inequality as I said before, we cannot be united. Unifying means that I used to carry out and experienced; I flew from Aceh in Banda Aceh, and directly flew to Wamena. It took 9 hours 15 minutes. What does it mean? Yes, this makes us be aware that this nation is a great nation. If we fly from London 9 hours it reaches Istanbul in Turkey. It has already passed how many countries; maybe 6, 7 or 8 countries. Yes, this is our country. But if we do not prepare it whether the airport, the seaport or the road, the occurrence of inequality among regions will be getting bigger," the President said.

Furthermore, President Joko Widodo also disclosed that after completing the stage of infrastructure development as the first stage of nation building, the government will continue the second major development stage by investing in human resource development. He perceived that this is done because of the high value of Indonesian culture in supporting the development of the Indonesian nation. The President added that the development of working ethos, productivity and integrity will be the backbone and foundation of Indonesia's future development. (Ndy-VOI/Trans by Rhm)

Indonesian state owned bus operator, Perum Damri plans to expand its business to Timor Leste to operate the bus-based passenger service in the country. President Director of Perum Damri, Setia Milatia on Thursday, April 5, 2018 in Jakarta said, Perum Damri has been serving the needs of transportation on the East Timor border with Indonesia. However, it wants the service to be expanded to the country. Therefore in the near future it will hold a special meeting in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara to discuss it with Timor Leste.

“It is still being discussed, later if I’m not mistaken,  we will discuss it next week in Labuan Bajo. Actually, we have existed, but only served around the border. So, the operators from Timor Leste will transfer the passanger to the country. We will disscus it more deeply. So, we can get to the other side or the country, not just on the border,” President Director of Perum Damri, Setia Milatia said.

Furthermore, Setia Milatia still can not specify the number of buses that will be operated in the country. This will depend on the number of requests from East Timorese and Indonesian people who need the services. In addition to operational expansion, Perum Damri also plans to revitalize a number of buses serving the public in Indonesia. Revitalization aims to encourage the improvement of services to the community. Recently Perum Damri has stated that by 2018 it will add 55 new buses with a budget of 90 billion rupiah to strengthen the existing fleet which consist of 2,200 buses throughout Indonesia. (VOI/REZHA/AHM)

Safe Travel application that will be launched by Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs  in the near future not only provides benefits namely to increase services and protection for Indonesian citizens who travel abroad, but also offers advantages such as to exchange certain points with various interesting offers in the homeland.

“This app also introduces batches system of points system. So,  you will get points if  doing many activity in this app. Later,  when you have landed, we have cooperated with several restaurants and so on. So, you can check the number of your points. More activities you’ve done in the application will create more points,” the Director of Protection of Indonesian Citizens and Legal Entity of Indonesia, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal in his press conference on Thursday, April 5th, 2018 in Jakarta said.

Lalu Muhammad Iqbal added in addition to the point system, the application of Safe Travel also provides reciprocity in the form of batches or rank to each user who reaches a certain number of points. According to Lalu Muhamad Iqbal, the higher rank achieved, the more profits gained by the users. One of the examples described by Lalu Muhammad Iqbal is, the opportunity to get a special invitation from Indonsian Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, Retno Marsudi along with other users who have high rank. Safe Travel application will be officially launched on 14 April, but now the application can be downloaded for Android-based smart phones through Google Play Store. As for the IOS-based smart phone, the applications can only be downloaded after it is officially launched. (VOI/Rezha/AHM)