SEMINAR ON INDONESIA PRAHA

PRAGUE METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY HOLDS SEMINAR ON INDONESIA

London, June 9 (ANTARA) - Metropolitan University of Prague (MUP), in cooperation with the Indonesian embassy in Prague held a seminar on "Indonesia in the 2009 Election Years: Domestic Challenges, International Roles" attended by academicians, students, and Prague observers on Indonesia in the Czechoslovak capital city.
MUP Rector, Prof. Michal Klima, opened the seminar, and attended by Indonesian experts from various continents, information officer at the Indonesian embassy here Azis Nurwahyudi told the Antara correspondent in London on Tuesday.
The Rector said in his address that Indonesia is an interesting country as a subject of study from various aspects, such as politics, security, economic and social cultural affairs.

After opening the Asian Studies and International Relations, this private university also paid attention to the development of Indonesia and hoped to establish cooperation with one of the universities in Indonesia.

In the first session of the seminar, Prof. Mrazek of the University of Michigan, USA discussed the election process and the election culture in Indonesia from the beginning in the April 2009 legislative general election until the development of its implementation which he believed have been carried out democratically.

Meanwhile Dr. Daniel Novotny of Monash University, Australia, described the results of the country's 2009 elections, a predominantly Muslim country, 60 percent chose the secular parties, while 30 percent choose Islamic-oriented parties.

In the meantime, Irmawan Rahyadi, ane Indonesian student at Charles University in Prague, talked on how the media, especially TVs, affect the views of prospective voters, and said that big parties are using big media as a campaigning tool.

In the second session of the one-day seminar, Dr Tomas Petru, expert on Indonesia from the MUP, discussed the role of "hoodlums" in the Indonesia's general election, where they were used to mobilize the people to gain votes from certain candidates.

However, Thomas Petru believed in the success of democratic development in Indonesia.

In addition, Nurwahyudi Azis, who represented the Indonesian embassy in Prague, explained the ASEAN (South East Asian Nations) development as a regional organization and the growing role of Indonesia in ASEAN in facing the ASEAN Community in 2015.

ASEAN groups Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.

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(T.SYS/A/B003/B003) 10-06-2009 00:55:50