Monas turns into narrative wall to welcome festivities

akarta | Tue, August 14, 2018 | 04:15 pm

A video mapping project to welcome Independence Day on Aug. 17 and the 2018 Asian
Games has turned the National Monument (Monas) in Central Jakarta into a narrative wall for
artwork and historical photos. (kompas.com/Garry Andrew Lotulung)
The National Monument (Monas) in Central Jakarta came alive on Monday night, as artwork
and historical photos were projected onto it for a 15-minute show to promote the city and the
upcoming Asian Games.
Eye-catching visual animations, thematic music and narration were used to recount the 1962
Asian Games, Jakarta tourist attractions and the 2018 Asian Games.
“The 1962 Asian Games were the fourth Asian Games and were hosted in Jakarta, Indonesia,”
boomed the narrative voice, while a photo of first president Sukarno with a waving Indonesian
flag as the background was projected onto the building.
Rully, coordinator of Tabia — the team of designers behind the display — recalled it took
them four months to plan every technical detail including the icons, sound and color.
“I said from the beginning that we had to capture the soul of the project,” said Rully on
Monday as reported by kompas.com.
Rully added that it took three days just to align the projectors to evenly cover Monas because
of its unusual candle-like structure.
Meanwhile, Monas technical management unit head Munjirin said the complete show would
be 25 minutes long and followed by a laser and water show.
“There will also be performances arranged by the Cultural and Tourism Agency,” he added.
The show will begin on Aug. 17, Indonesia's Independence Day, and will repeat every night
from 7 p.m. onwards, until Sept. 2 — the last day of the Asian Games. (nor)
 Quake damage to Indonesia's Lombok exceeds $342 million as deaths top 400

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia’s holiday island of Lombok suffered damage running into
more than 5 trillion rupiah ($342 million) from last week’s huge earthquake, authorities said
on Monday, as the death toll climbed to more than 430.
Residents pull down an earthquake damaged house in Kayangan, North Lombok, Indonesia
August 12,
More than 350,000 people fled their homes after the 6.9-magnitude quake to shelter in
government-provided tents or makeshift structures in open fields. Authorities say aid is slow
in getting to some of the hardest-hit areas as they are remote.
“The damage and losses are huge,” Sutopo Nugroho, the spokesman of Indonesia’s National
Disaster Mitigation Agency, said in a statement.
“It will take trillions of rupiah...and a lot of time to heal the lives of the people and the
economy of Nusa Tenggara Barat,” he said, referring to the province home to Lombok.
Residential homes and public infrastructure suffered the bulk of the damage, he added.
On Monday, President Joko Widodo visited the island, which lies just east of Bali, the
southeast Asian country’s most famous tourist destination, for the second time since a slightly
smaller quake on July 29.
He has called for search operations and relief efforts to be stepped up.
“I have ordered that the evacuation of victims who have not yet been found be made a
priority,” Widodo said in a statement at the weekend.
($1=14,600.0000 rupiah)
Reporting by Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Clarence Fernandez
 Death toll from Indonesia quake climbs over 320
PEMANANG, Indonesia (Reuters) - The death toll from a huge 6.9 magnitude earthquake in
Indonesia’s Lombok island has climbed to more than 320, officials said on Friday, even as
relief efforts picked up pace.

The national disaster mitigation agency said it had verified 321 deaths and that over 270,000
people had been forced to flee their homes because of a series of tremors over the past two
weeks.
On Thursday, the death toll from Sunday’s quake jumped to 259.
Sponsored
A fresh 5.9 magnitude aftershock prompted fresh panic in the north of the popular holiday
destination on Thursday.
Nearly 75 percent of residential structures have been destroyed in northern Lombok because
of poor construction unable to withstand strong tremors, the agency said in a statement.
“Aid is being distributed as quickly as possible upon arrival,” Sutopo Nugroho, spokesman for
the agency said in a statement, adding that hundreds of volunteers were assisting the efforts.
Mobile kitchens have started distributing much-needed food and water to thousands of
evacuees in the worst-hit areas, he said, after several days’ delay due to poor access and
communications.
President Joko Widodo on Friday said he was delaying plans to visit Lombok until next week,
citing concerns over continuing aftershocks.
“After the emergency period is over, the government will undertake rehabilitation,
reconstruction, repairs to residential areas and public facilities,” the cabinet secretariat website
quoted Widodo as saying.
Widodo visited the island after a 6.4 magnitude quake on July 29 killed 17 people and injured
dozens more.
The quakes have prompted tourists to flee during what is otherwise the peak season for the
island destination famous for its beaches.
 Indonesian president highlights nationalism, religiosity amid VP pick concerns

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, brandished his nationalist and
religious credentials on Friday amid reports he had come under pressure from Islamic party
allies to accept a conservative cleric as running mate in next year’s election.
In a last-minute decision, Widodo announced on Thursday Ma’ruf Amin, who heads the board
of advisers of the country’s biggest mass Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), would
be his vice presidential candidate for April’s poll.
The duo will be challenged by the former general Prabowo Subianto and the private equity
tycoon and Jakarta deputy governor Sandiaga Uno.
Wearing a crisp white shirt emblazoned with the slogan “Clean. With the people. Real work.”,
Widodo told supporters on Friday he would “safeguard national resources”.
He cited as evidence recent policy decisions to nationalize oil and gas assets and seize
majority ownership of the huge Grasberg gold and copper mine from the U.S. based Freeport-
McMoran.
“It is proof that we are sovereign,” he said.
Amin later led the crowd in prayer, asking God to “give us the capability and spirit to
safeguard us against forces that try to destroy, to weaken us and our country.”
The pair left the stage as Islamic singing, rendered in Arabic, played.
The cleric then delivered a sermon at Friday prayers at Jakarta’s biggest mosque.
Prabowo and Uno were to have gone to the mosque before formally registering as candidates
at the election commission but changed their plans and prayed at a nearby mosque instead.
'From high season to absolutely nothing': Indonesian quake devastates tourism
SENGGIGI, Indonesia/JAKARTA (Reuters) - Days after a powerful earthquake rocked
Indonesia’s resort island of Lombok, killing more than 130 people and sending thousands of
tourists fleeing, its beach strip stands eerily empty, with shops and hotels shuttered.

Any hotels still open are refusing guests out of safety concerns, while nearby restaurants and
dive shops lie vacant in what is usually one of their busiest months of the year, reeling from
the devastation of tourism caused by the quake.
“It went from high season just a few days ago to absolutely nothing now,” lamented Howard
Singleton, who owns a beachside restaurant in the west coast town of Senggigi, ravished by
striking sunset views of a volcano on neighboring Bali.
Authorities are still tallying up earthquake losses, but the value of assets destroyed and other
damage could easily top 1 trillion rupiah ($69 million), said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the
spokesman of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.
Foreign and domestic tourists fled after Sunday’s earthquake of magnitude 6.9 destroyed
homes and displaced tens of thousands of people, adding to the havoc from an earlier quake
on July 29, although of smaller magnitude, at 6.4.
“We’ve had light earthquakes in the past, but never anything like this,” said Marcel De Rijk,
owner of Lombok boutique hotel chain Puri Mas Resort, whose beachside hotel and villas will
stay closed until September for repairs.
“We’ve lost a lot of bookings and future guests are in wait-and-see mode,” he added. “I don’t
think people will choose Lombok anymore this summer.”
Cancellations of tour bookings for Lombok, Indonesia’s second-biggest tourism destination
after Bali, have surged, the Association of Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies told
Reuters.
“I imagine things will be pretty desperate and I don’t expect things to improve before next
year,” said Singleton.
Both experts and tourist businesses say Lombok will recover, but the next few months will be
tough.
“I don’t foresee any long-term tourism impact for Indonesia,” said Matt Gebbie, Asia-Pacific
director at tourism consultancy Horwarth HTL.
“But the short-term impacts are heartbreaking for local communities. Tourism dollars will go
a long way in helping the communities rebuild.”
 Hunt on for survivors as Indonesia's quake toll climbs to 131

KARANGPANGSOR, Indonesia (Reuters) - The death toll from last weekend’s powerful
earthquake on Indonesia’s Lombok island rose to 131 on Wednesday as rescuers found more
people crushed under collapsed buildings, though some still held out hope of finding
survivors.
“We don’t know for sure how many people are alive under the rubble,” Sutopo Purwo
Nugroho, the spokesman for Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) told reporters in
Jakarta.
“There are reports ... that there are people buried alive, it is a critical time for immediate
evacuation,” he added, without giving details.
BNPB had previously put the number of dead at 105, including two on the western
neighboring island of Bali, which also felt the 6.9 magnitude quake. Sutopo said the figure
would rise still further.
Lombok had already been hit by a 6.4 magnitude earthquake on July 29 that killed 17 people
and briefly stranded several hundred trekkers on the slopes of a volcano.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is regularly hit by earthquakes. In 2004, the
Indian Ocean tsunami killed 226,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 120,000 in
Indonesia.
A woman was pulled alive on Tuesday from under a grocery store that fell apart in the rural
north of the tropical holiday island, near the epicenter of Sunday’s quake.
Rescuers dug through the rubble of a mosque on Wednesday, hoping to reach the aunt of a
sprinter who became a national hero last month at the under-20 world championships in
Finland.
Salama, 52, was at a prayer class in the Karangpangsor village mosque when the quake struck.
She is an aunt by marriage of Lalu Muhammad Zohri, who just over a year ago could barely
afford running shoes and was hardly known outside his village.
The 18-year-old became a household name almost overnight in July, when he won the 100
meters gold at the World Junior Championships in Tampere, Finland. Now he carries the
hopes of Indonesia at the Asian Games that the Southeast Asian nation is preparing to host in
the next few weeks.
 Indonesian president picks cleric as running mate for election

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Thursday he had chosen
75-year-old Islamic cleric Ma’ruf Amin as his running mate in next year’s presidential
election.
The two will be challenged by former general Prabowo Subianto and his vice presidential
candidate pick, the deputy governor of Jakarta, Sandiaga Uno.
Indonesia, the world’s third-largest democracy and biggest Muslim-majority country, goes to
the polls in April.
The contest, at least in terms of the presidential candidates, is shaping up as a repeat of the
2014 election, when political outsider Widodo defeated Prabowo, who has deep ties to
Indonesia’s business and military elite.
Widodo is a popular moderate who has had mixed success with his reform agenda. Prabowo is
a charismatic nationalist with strong links to Islamists who frequently rails against foreigners.
On a dramatic day of political maneuvering and intrigue, Widodo made a surprise decision to
pick Amin, just hours after former chief justice Mahfud MD appeared to confirm he was the
vice presidential choice of Widodo.
Amin is the influential head of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), who issued a statement
condemning Widodo’s political ally, the ethnic Chinese Christian former Jakarta governor
Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, as a blasphemer for insulting the Koran in the middle of a heated
Jakarta election campaign.
Prabowo’s candidate for Jakarta governor won the election, which analysts and rights
advocates condemned for inflaming sectarian sentiment.
Amin had been a presidential adviser and had served in local and national legislatures in the
past.
“Maybe there are questions from the people all over Indonesia why Professor Dr. Ma’ruf
Amin was chosen. Because he is a wise religious figure,” said Widodo.
“I think we complete each other, nationalistic and religious.”
But Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono told Reuters Amin, as head of the
MUI, had overseen a rise in religious intolerance across Indonesia, a pluralist country with
significant minority communities.
 World junior champion Zohri becomes face of Indonesia's Games

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Just over a year ago, Indonesian sprinter Lalu Muhammad Zohri could
barely afford running shoes and was pretty much unknown outside his small village on the
eastern island of Lombok.
That all changed in 10.18 seconds earlier this month when the 18-year-old orphan produced a
blistering finish to beat the cream of the planet’s junior sprinting talent in the 100 metres final
at the under-20 world championships in Finland.
Indonesia had never previously had a finalist at the championships, let alone a world junior
champion, and Zohri has quickly become burdened with the hopes of a nation ahead of their
hosting of the Asian Games.
Zohri’s sudden rise to the status of household name in the southeast Asian nation of some 260
million people is clearly still something of a shock to the quietly spoken teenager.
“It was beyond my imagination to be invited to meet the government, the ministers and the
President,” he told Reuters during a break in his training at Jakarta’s Gelora Bung Karno
Stadium.
“I feel very proud and thankful.”
Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo has praised Zohri as a “collective inspiration to the
nation’s athletes to achieve gold” at the Asian Games and has ordered ministers to renovate
his humble woven bamboo home.
The teenager, though, is not confident about his chances of winning another gold at the Asian
Games, which will take place in Jakarta and Palembang from August 18 to September 2.
“I think (the Asian Games) will be tough because the competition is tight and I’m going
against seniors who are more experienced and can finish the run under 10 seconds,” said
Zohri, adding that his focus would be on preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Zohri lowered his personal best from 10.25 seconds in winning his world title in Tampere,
leaving him only one hundredth of a second off Suryo Agung Wibowo’s Indonesia mark of
10.17.
To win gold in the 100 metres on the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium track next month, however,
he is likely to have to beat Nigerian-born Qatari Femi Ogunade and Chinese sprinters Su
Bingtian and Xie Zhenye, all of whom have run under 10 seconds.
Indonesia Athletics Association chairman Bob Hasan agrees, but is not sure the Asian Games
is the right stage for such a fledgling talent.
Hasan said Zohri, who lost his parents when he was a child, had struggled with the food in
Finland, leading to the Indonesian Ambassador driving two hours a day to bring over rice and
home cooked meals for him.
 Captain of sinking Indonesian ferry sails onto reef; 31 dead

JAKARTA (Reuters) - The captain of a sinking Indonesian ferry managed to steer his ship
onto a reef to enable the evacuation of more than 100 passengers, but 31 people drowned as
the vessel floundered in stormy seas, officials said on Wednesday.
The latest ferry disaster in Indonesia, which happened on Tuesday near Sulawesi island, came
two weeks after an overcrowded ferry sank on Lake Toba in Sumatra, one of the world’s
deepest volcanic lakes, with the death of more than 200 people.
The national search and rescue agency said the boat that ran into trouble near Sulawesi had
been carrying 164 passengers and crew. Three passengers were missing but 130 had been
rescued, a transport ministry official said.
The ferry was also carrying 48 vehicles when it began taking on water in bad weather.
“The captain ran it onto a reef so it wouldn’t sink and to make the evacuation of passengers
easier,” Agus H. Purnomo, the director general of sea transportation, said in a statement.
“The captain and the owner of the ship were the last two people to come down from the
passenger ship,” he added.
Television images showed dozens of passengers hanging on to the keeling vessel or bobbing
in the water wearing life jackets.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago made up of more than 17,000 islands, suffers frequent boat
accidents, with basic safety rules often flouted and vessels overloaded.
After last month’s sinking in Sumatra, one of the deadliest in nearly a decade, a two-week
search and rescue effort found the vessel at a depth of 450 m (1,500 ft) with victims trapped
inside, but technical and logistical challenges forced the recovery to be called off.
 As death toll on Indonesia's Lombok tops 100, thousands wait for aid

KAYANGAN, Indonesia (Reuters) - The death toll from a powerful earthquake that hit
Indonesia’s tourist island of Lombok topped 100 on Tuesday as rescuers found victims under
wrecked buildings, while thousands left homeless in the worst-affected areas waited for aid to
arrive.
A woman was pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed grocery store in the north, near the
epicenter of Sunday’s 6.9 magnitude quake, the second tremor to rock the tropical island in a
week.
That was a rare piece of good news as hopes of finding more survivors faded and a
humanitarian crisis loomed for thousands left homeless by the disaster in the rural area and in
desperate need of clean water, food, medicine and shelter.
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesman of Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) put
the toll at 105, including two on the neighboring island of Bali to the west, where the quake
was also felt - and the figure was expected to rise.
Lombok had already been hit by a 6.4 magnitude earthquake on July 29 that killed 17 people
and briefly stranded several hundred trekkers on the slopes of a volcano.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is regularly hit by earthquakes. In 2004, the
Indian Ocean tsunami killed 226,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 120,000 in
Indonesia.
(For graphic on earthquake in Indonesia's Lombok, click tmsnrt.rs/2OfAvrV)