VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

 Myanmar's future remains uncertain. The fighting between military junta soldiers and the resistance forces made people of the country live in fear. The military junta is reported to have launched air strikes on the southwest region in the third weekend of September following a battle between the two sides. Predictions about the impending civil war in the country, have begun to materialize. Now, the question that arises is, how and when will this problem be solved?

In this regard, at least two things can be put forward. First from the internal side of Myanmar, and secondly, the role of outsiders in the turmoil in the country.

 As for the case at home, there is still no common ground between the military junta and its opponents consisting of the Shadow Government of Myanmar-NUG and civilian resistance forces. The NUG, which consists of parliamentary figures who were ousted after the military coup, views the military junta government as illegitimate. Meanwhile the military junta held on to its position in power by promising there would be elections. On the other hand, opponents of the junta outside the NUG have also formed the People's Defense Forces-PDF, to fight against the junta. From this condition, the facts show that the internal settlement is still deadlocked.

From the external or  foreign side, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations- ASEAN, an organization  where Myanmar is a  member, has not been able to play a real role in encouraging conflict resolution. Indonesian Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi at the UN General Assembly in New York, Saturday, September 25, stated that ASEAN's role was still very insignificant. Retno Marsudi stated that from the political aspect the ASEAN special envoy has not been able to carry out his duties because he has not been able to meet with the parties to the dispute. Access is still needed to facilitate meetings with the military authorities, the NUG and other resistance groups. It seems NUG will object when the ASEAN special envoy meets the junta, and vice versa.

 In fact, it takes a joint commitment from Myanmar's internal parties to resolve the conflict that has led to a civil war. Indonesia, which has been active in taking the initiative, can actually play a greater role in seeking peace in Myanmar.

Indonesian state-owned train company, PT Industri Kereta Api or PT INKA along with the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime and Investment developed the reefer container to maintain the freshness and quality of fish. An endurance test for the reefer container was held at Tamperan Seaport in East Java last Thursday (22/9).

President Director of PT INKA, Budi Noviantoro in a statement has said recently that there was a difficulty in shipping marine commodities. It needed a reefer container with an advanced technology system. He hopes the reefer container prototype is working.

The marine commodity was moved into the container with a hybrid system in the prototype. The power supply uses a solar panel, battery, and generator. The body uses polyurethane foam with a stainless steel frame that can keep the temperature up to 22 Celcius.

There are five reefer container prototypes to be developed by PT INKA and Brawijaya University. They are mini reefer containers with various capacities according to international shipping needs. The standardization and certification test for the product is targeted to finish by December 2021. So, it can be mass-produced in January 2022.

The Ministry's Deputy Assistant of Maritime Resources Downstreaming, Amalyos Chan affirmed the reefer container prototype will have Indonesian National Standard and local content rate is processed. This aims to support national products to compete with foreign products. Therefore, Indonesia will not depend on foreign products anymore.

Indonesia will exhibit its typical jewelry crafts from several provinces at the Singapore International Jewelry Expo 2021 (SiJE 2021) on 2-5 December 2021. Indonesian Ambassador to Singapore, Suryo Pratomo mentioned that Indonesia has many unique jewelry crafts made by talented and creative jewelry designers. The Indonesian Embassy in its press statement on Friday (9/24)  noted that Indonesia has valuable gemstone resources. Indonesia will be a partner country for the first international jewelry exhibition in the "endemic new normal" era in Singapore.

Moreover, Ambassador Suryo Pratomo stated that Indonesia has precious gemstone resources. One of the precious stone resources is Martapura, the capital of Banjar Regency where it shares a border with the capital of  Banjarmasin,  South Kalimantan Province. This city is also famous and often visited by tourists because it is the hub of diamond sales transactions and the main diamond polishing place in Kalimantan and it  provides many precious gemstones souvenirs.

Ambassador Suryo further explained that literally, Martapura is a shiny city  because it is known as a producer of lots of  precious gemstones. Martapura is also a diamond processing center as well as a diamond transaction center in Kalimantan. It is known as one of the regions producing the best quality valuable gemstones in the world.

For lovers of jewelry and accessories, such as necklaces, bracelets, rings and brooches, particularly those made of pure diamonds, gold, silver, and various other gemstones, Martapura is an appropriate place to hunt for these jewelry. Ambassador Suryo in his opening remarks also showcased pearls from Lombok,West Nusa Tenggara. The sea water of Lombok and freshwater shellfish are able to produce large and shiny pearls. Moreover, being combined with gold, silver, and rhodium, the jewelry can boost the price up to tens of millions rupiah.

Voice of Indonesia presents Let’s Speak Indonesian, a program that introduces the Indonesian vocabulary and guides you to speak in the language. Mari Berbahasa Indonesia or Let’s Speak Indonesian is a joint initiative of Voice of Indonesia and the Language Development Agency of the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture.  Today’s topic is about ““Layanan Pesan Antar” which means“Delivery Service”.

Here is the conversation entitled “Bayar di Tempat” which means“Pay on the Spot”. This dialog happens when Kevin is calling a restaurant. He orders fried chicken. He asks about the paying method. Let’s read to the conversation.

After reading to the conversation, now I am going to introduce some vocabulary and expressions related to the topic of the day.

In the dialog, you hear a question Apakah bisa bayar di tempat (2X) which means Can I pay on the spot? In the question, you hear a phrase bayar di tempat (2X) which means pay on the spot.  You may hear the phrase in atransaction of purchase and sale goods delivered to customers. It means that you pay cash when your ordered items are delivered to your place. So, if you want to know if the payment can be done cash on arrival, you can ask Apakah bisa bayar di tempat? (2X) which means Can I pay on the spot?

Other examples:

Let’s read to the other examples of expressions to ask payment method.

- Apakah bisa bayar di tempat? (2X) which means Can I pay
- Tidak bisa, Pak (2X) which means No, you can’t, Sir

- Boleh bayar di tempat? (2X) which means Can I pay

- Boleh, Pak (2X) which means Yes, you can, Sir

In the dialog, you also hear a phrase Mohon siapkan uang pas (2X) which means Please prepare the right money. It means that Kevin has to prepare the exact amount of money, neither more nor less than the purchasing amount.

That was “Let’s Speak Indonesian” for today. Hopefully, this edition can be useful for those of you who want to know more about Indonesian language.