February 2021 turns out to be the month for a planned coup in Myanmar. The country's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was detained by the Myanmar military. The detention was based on allegations that Aung San Suu Kyi had illegally purchased radio communications which was discovered by the military during a search of Aung San Suu Kyi's house. Some democracy activists in Myanmar argue that the military coup that took place on Monday (1/2) is one of the strategies of the top military leader, General Min Aung Hlaing, so that he can remain in power after retiring from military service in July 2021.

Khin Ohmar, a veteran democracy and human rights activist in Myanmar, at a press conference with the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, Tuesday (2/2) perceived that the military coup was carried out not because of general election fraud in the November 8, 2020. According to Khin Ohmar, General Min Aung Hlaing's reason for a coup against a democratically elected government in Myanmar is that he wants to maintain his position in the military. This is to secure business networks within the military that involve the families of high-ranking officers and their business partners. Interestingly, although the majority of the community disagrees with this coup, Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar see it as something grateful. Suu Kyi is considered to have ignored the torture experienced by the Rohingya Muslim community. She is considered to have tolerated and taken side with what they call genocide against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

Meanwhile, the US and a number of Western countries reacted by pressing the Myanmar military (Tatmadaw) to release a number of government officials, including de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi. White House spokesman, Jen Psaki, said that the US urged the military and all other parties to comply with democratic norms and rule of law, and release those detained.

The international community, including Indonesia and Singapore, have criticized what happened in Myanmar and hoped that all parties would exercise restraint. So far, the location whereabout Suu Kyi is detained has not been officially published by the Myanmar military. But in fact, after Suu Kyi's detention, there was a massive cabinet reshuffle by the new ruler, and 24 ministerial seats were replaced.

Seeing what Suu Kyi experienced and the pace of democratization efforts in Myanmar is like seeing a thick fog that is difficult to predict. In 2015, Suu Kyi became the de facto leader, a position that made her unable to touch and control the Myanmar Military which eventually became her rivals in her leadership. In 2015, there was a shift in global perceptions of Suu Kyi, who had previously become an icon of democracy and human rights. The military's crackdown and brutality against the Rohingya minority in Rakhine State has been criticized by many countries. About one million Rohingyas have been forced to flee from the military by taking refuge in Bangladesh or other countries, including in Indonesia, without adequate provisions. Unfortunately, Suu Kyi defended the military action as part of a counter-terrorism operation and asked the court to drop the case. 

Although there are many international parties that condemn the coup action in Myanmar at this time, it seems that support for Suu Kyi is not the same as before. Still, of course all parties hope that democracy in Myanmar can continue to develop and Suu Kyi will receive protection and justice.

Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to the Republic of Colombia, Priyo Iswanto was awarded Doctorate Honoris Causa (DR. HC) in Social Sciences from the University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM), with real work consideration in increasing cooperation between Indonesia and Colombia by issuing palm oil as an important factor in achieving the Development Goals Sustainability (SDGs Plus). Ambassador Priyo has succeeded in convincing Colombia to become the first member of the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC) outside its founders, namely Indonesia and Malaysia.

Based on the SDGs Plus of economic, social, environmental, and moral approaches in his scientific oration, Ambassador Priyo affirmed the importance of the palm oil industry in achieving SDGs no. 1 (no poverty); SDGs 2 (no hunger); SDGs 7 (clean and affordable energy), and SDGs 8 (decent work and economic development). Moreover, he also explained that the negative campaign against palm oil is immoral because in reality, palm oil has various advantages, including being more environmentally friendly compared with other vegetable oils because palm trees require more efficient land, water and fertilizers. He also proposed the importance of strengthening the CPOPC by expanding membership by other palm oil producing countries and also the need to integrate the dynamics of the palm oil industry among three regions of inter- continents, namely Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Indonesian Foreign Affairs Mahendra Siregar representing the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in his remarks stated that palm oil is a strategic commodity for Indonesia and Colombia and industry. It has contributed to the implementation success of a peace agreement in Colombia.

With the experience of seeing the processing of shrimp shell waste, Universitas Airlangga (Unair) students have innovated  hand sanitizer products from shrimp shell waste. One of the team members, Arief Rubiana, explained that the idea for innovation came from his experience during the Fieldwork Practices in Thailand. At that time, he took the topic of “Research on Chitosan from shrimp shell waste.

By utilizing shrimp shell waste, this product is claimed to be more environmentally friendly. In addition, chitosan is organic, and it does not contain proteins that can cause allergies. Chitosan is a derived biopolymer compound that is organic in nature. Derivative compounds, that come from three stages, are deproteinization, demineralization, and deacetylation of chitin, which are found in marine animals such as shrimp and crabs.

Because the work on the innovation concept is carried out online, Arief admits that the innovation still needs further development to explore its effectiveness and packaging that must be eco-friendly. The innovation has made the second winner at the National Level in the Product Innovation Competition Category for the 2020 Student Creativity and Innovation Festival, Khairun Ternate University.

Voice of Indonesia presents Let’s Speak Indonesian, a program that introduces the Indonesianvocabulary 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“Suara Terbanyak”which means “Majority Vote”.

Read to this conversation about “Suara Terbanyak”which means “Majority Vote”.

Kevin and Rama are walking on the sidewalk.

Having listened to the conversation, now I am going to introduce some vocabularies and expressions related to the topic today, namely “Suara Terbanyak”which means “Majority Vote”.

Comparative is used to compare two objects or people. In the dialog, Kevin asks the result of the general elections especially about which party that gets more votes. Then Rama answers Partai berbendera putih mendapat lebih banyak suara daripada partai berbendera hitam (2x) which means The white-flagged party got more votes than the black-flagged party. This sentence can be expressed in another way, which is Partai berbendera hitam mendapat lebih sedikit suara daripada partai berbendera putih (2x) which means The black-flagged party got less votes than the white-flagged party.

Here are other examples of comparative:

1. Haris lebih tinggi daripada Kevin (2x) which means Haris is taller than Kevin

2. Cabai rawit kurang pedas daripada cabai jalapeno (2x) which means Bird’s eye chili is less spicier than jalapeno

3. Lapangan sepakbola lebih luas daripada lapangan basket (2x) Football field is larger than basketball court

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.