VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Miscellany in today’s edition presents information about ”Indonesian Author receives Prince Claus Award 2018”. 

Indonesian literary world has just collected a prideful achievement. Indonesian author, Eka Kurniawan received the Prince Claus Award 2018 for the literary category on 6^th of December in the Netherlands. The annual award is presented to individuals, groups, or organizations engaging in cultural affair. Their literary works have contributed to developing the society in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Caribbean Islands. Eka Kurniawan is chosen as the winner because of his ability in narrating imaginative stories through the beauty of prose as well as the universality of the themes of his works.

213 people were listed as the nominations of the Prince Claus Award 2018. 85 of them were accepted and reselected by the Prince Clause Award Board. Those who were selected were invited to attend the formal awarding ceremony in Royal Palace, Amsterdam, before the royal family of Kingdom of the Netherlands and guests coming from all around the world. The award would also be given to respective country of the winner followed by a ceremony led by Dutch Ambassador. Besides Eka Kurniawan, the other winners of Prince Claus Award 2018 include Adong Judith from Uganda for theatrical category, Marwa al-Sabouni from Syria for Architecture and Urbanism Category, Kidlat Tahimik from the Philippines for Visual Arts and Film Category, and O Menelick Ato from Brazil for Media and Journalistic Category. Meanwhile, Market Photo Workshop from South Africa won the Principal Prince Claus Award 2018 for photographic category. Dada Masilo who also comes from South Africa won the Next Generation Award 2018 for Dance Category.

Eka Kurniawa is an Indonesian author who was born on 28th of November 1975. His works counter all discriminative political treatments. Eka attempts to communicate social issues through his interactive works so that they can be delivered easily to the public and build better perception about their country. The writer who pursued his study at Gadjah Mada University is thought to be able to sharpen people’s understanding about history so that people will have better perception about their country. He is also able to promote local culture by incorporating local mythology in his stories, which has probably been abandoned in Indonesian literary tradition. The author of Cantik dan Luka or in English Beautiful and Wound, uses the power of literature to deliver crucial topics, especially in the period when the freedom of expressing opinion was restricted.

Today’s Mosaic of Archipelago presents the following information:

South Bangka held Batin Tikal Festival. Regional government of South Bangka, Bangka Belitung province held Batin Tikal Festival to manifest new tourism destination in the region.

Regent of South Bangka, Justiar Noer said in Toboali, on Tuesday (11/12) that the festival is to remember a struggling figure of Batin Tikal that until now still becomes controversy who he is actually, where he comes from, and what his contribution is. All of these will be verified. The Regent added that in future, the festival will be decided to be one of series events of Toboali City on Fire where the event has entered as tourism agenda by Indonesian Tourism Ministry.

The next information is that Adventure Tour becomes favorite of tourist to Purwakarta. Youth, Sports, Tourism and Culture Office of Purwakarta regency said during 2018, the number of tourists  who visit to the region reaches 2.3 million people. From the number, two percent is foreign tourist. Head of the office, Heri Anwar said if it is viewed from the target of the visit, it is not appropriate with the target. But he was grateful because currently,  Purwakarta has become one of destinations of foreign tourists. One of destinations of the foreign tourists is adventure tourism object. One of them is hiking at Mt. Parang, Tegalwaru district.

The last information is that Emping Melinjo cracker of Lebak, Banten province succeeded to penetrate Singaporean market. It is conducted through company service of exporter from Jakarta. Hardi, craft-man from Banjarsari on Tuesday (11/12) said that all cracker products are supplied by export market. Market demand of neighboring countries is quite high because Emping Melinjo cracker product of Lebak has organic quality. In addition, the product is produced traditionally and without preservatives. Head of Cooperative and Small Medium Enterprises of Lebak regency, Babay Imroni said that the existence of Emping Melinjo cracker can encourage people’s economic growth and also overcome poverty and unemployment.

Every December 13, Indonesia commemorates Nusantara Day, the archipelago day. This commemoration is to commemorate the service of former Prime Minister, Djoeanda Kartawidjaja who bravely declared on 13 December 1957 that the Indonesian sea was included in the surrounding sea, between and within the Indonesian archipelago to become a unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia -NKRI. Nusantara Day was officially stipulatedby the 5th President of the Republic of Indonesia, Megawati Soekarnoputri through Presidential Decree No.126 / 2001.

The present generation deserves to be grateful, because without the Djoeanda Declaration, Indonesia's sea territory only covers the sea three miles from the coastline that surrounds the islands in Indonesia. Thus, among the Indonesian islands there is a free international sea, which separates one island from another and this means a threat to the NKRI. In addition, without the Djoeanda Declaration, Indonesia's marine wealth potential is only around 1/3 of its current potential.

Chairperson of the Indonesian Farmers and Fishermen Movement, Prof. Rokhmin Dahuri said that Indonesia has a huge economic potential in the marine sector. If the economic potential of the marine sector is managed optimally, these economic potentials can reach US$1.2 trillion dollars per year and are estimated to be able to employ 40 million people.

Based on the theme of the Archipelago Day 2018 commemoration, "The Realization of the Whole Unity of the Archipelago through the Juanda Declaration", the commemoration of the Nusantara Day is very important for the present generation to unite the feeling of being Indonesian citizens, considering the threat of national disintegration and separatism is still a threat to the NKRI.

 In addition, the commemoration of the Archipelago Day is very important to remind all components of the Indonesian nation that maritime power is a source of Indonesian nation's strength. Indonesian sea not only unites, connects islands to islands, but also has a large source of wealth. Indonesia still has to work hard to enhance the economic potential of the marine sector so that it can become a source of people's welfare.

Today in History over RRI World Service -Voice of Indonesia. We start from an event on December 13, 1945 when blood tragedy occurred in Tebing Tinggi city.

On December 13, 1945, massive massacre on Tebing Tinggi civilians occurred. This was conducted by Japanese military. The massacre killed around 2.000 people. Until now, Tebing Tinggi civilians commemorate the tragedy as Massacre Day.

The next event is that in 1937, Antara was established.

Public company of Antara News Agency is State-owned Entreprise that is given duty by the government to disseminate information and carry out coverage which is fast, accurate and important throughout Indonesia and international world. Antara News Agency was established on December 13, 1937 by A.M. Sipahoetar, Mr. Soemanang, Adam Malik and Pandoe Kartawigoena, when spirit of national independence was motivated by the Indonesian youths. As executive director at that time was Mr. Soemanang and Adam Malik was as editor concurrently vice director; Pandoe Kartawigoena was as administrator and also assisted by journalist A.M. Sipahutar. Since 1962, Antara has officially become National News Agency that is directly under president of republic of Indonesia.

And the last event is that in 2003, Saddam Hussein was arrested.

Saddam Hussein was Iraqi president in period July 16, 1979 until April 9, 2003. As leader of Iraq and chairman of Ba'ath party, he took policy of secular pan-Arabism, economic modernization and Arabic socialism. Saddam Hussein was overthrown in invasion of Iraq in 2003, which was led by the United States of America, and arrested by the US forces on December 13, 2003. On November 5, 2006, Chief Judge, Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman sentenced him to death on his crimes to humanity. On December 30, 2006, Saddam was executed in the age of 69 years.