INDONESIA ESTABLISHED FIRST CHAPTER OF ASEAN BLOGGER COMMUNITY

DIRECTOR General for ASEAN Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Djauhari Oratmangun Tuesday (10/5) inaugurated the establishment of the ASEAN Blogger Community Chapter Indonesia in Jakarta.

The launching of the first ASEAN regional-based blogger community is meant to express the enthusiasm among Indonesian bloggers to support Indonesia’s position as current 2011 chair of ASEAN.

Mr. Djauhari Oratmangun hailed the initiatives of Indonesian bloggers to establish the first kind of blogger society and hoped that similar communities would be established by its sister chapters in all ASEAN member countries. He asked ASEAN Blogger Community Chapter Indonesia to jointly with him in the dissemination of information and messages of ASEAN to Indonesian people.

“ASEAN is in the verge of crucial challenges that this sub-regional cooperative organization cannot survive in the globalization era without strong support from its people. Therefore, the ASEAN Charter has mandated all ASEAN member-countries to do their utmost to make ASEAN relevant, useful, and felt among its people”, he said.

He continued, the participation of bloggers is crucially important since our contemporary world and challenges ahead depends heavily on IT communications, and in particular the social media. Therefore, the task he expects from Indonesian bloggers is to spread all positive direction ASEAN is now pursuing and in speeding up the establishment an ASEAN community-type cooperation in the Southeast Asia sub-regional in 2015.

The inauguration of ASEAN Blogger Community Chapter Indonesia were attended by blogger community representatives, among others, from Jakarta, Bekasi, Surabaya, Jakarta, Medan and Makassar.

The official inauguration was marked by signing of a Declaration, among others by Director General Djauhari Oratmangun, followed by chairman of the event organizer Imam Brotoseno, the founders and respective representatives of blogger communities from those cities.

The Declaration on the Establishment of the ASEAN Blogger Community Chapter Indonesia contains the commitment: (1) to intensify efforts in the making of a people-centered ASEAN integration through strengthened interaction, (2) to put forward ideas and proposals to respective governments in their exercise of strengthening 3 community pillars, i.e. political and security, economic, and social-cultural in line with the national interest of Indonesia and people welfare (3) to bridge communication among bloggers in ASEAN countries and to encourage people participation in the process, (4) to conduct social activities among bloggers and people in establishing a sense of ownership and participation within the ASEAN cooperation framework, and (5) and to establish the ASEAN Blogger Community Chapter Indonesia as contribution from the Indonesia people, and to publish information of its activities of through newly-established website http://aseanblogger.com.

In his introduction remark, Mr. Imam Brotoseno welcomed the support rendered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in particular, for the warm support from Director General Djauhari Oratmangun. He thanked also Ms. Mubarika Darmayanti, representative of IdblogNetwork for her support.

“Through Indonesia’s chapter of the ASEAN Blogger Community, we bloggers wish to contribute to the presence of ASEAN in the midst of Indonesian people, and the Chapter would serves as bridge to communicate Indonesian bloggers with their counterparts from 9 other member countries. We do not intend to apply this social medium just for the sake of forging friendship and common identity, but also in the practical terms to strengthen strategic goals in new economic ventures at the level of society, as well as in the socio-cultural fields”, Imam Brotoseno further said, speaking on behalf of the founders of the group.

He said the presence of ASEAN among people of South East Asia should not only be felt. ASEAN should be owned, driven, and initiated by people. The Summit theme ASEAN of people-centered needs more new ideas and thinking in the concrete and practical terms.

“We wish our step would be followed by other blogger communities in the ASEAN member-countries. We wish to establish cooperation and exchange of views and information with our counterparts”, said Imam Brotoseno.

“Domestically, we would like to appeal to all bloggers in many cities in Indonesia to join us, either individually or through their communities”, he continued.

Mr. Brotoseno, former President of annual Indonesian Blogger Party in 2010 said in the talkshow program held after the inauguration of the ASEAN Blogger Community Chapter Indonesia that he and other colleagues would embark a string of road shows in Surabaya, Makassar, Medan, and finally Jakarta in order to introduce the newly established Indonesian Chapter, where he expected to receive not only enthusiasm but also ideas and proposals from bloggers there.

“We would like to develop vision and mission of our newly-established blogger association, and further action plans”, he added.

According to some of the founders of ASEAN Blogger Community Chapter Indonesia, they will make a report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to the ASEAN Secretary General on the establishment of the Indonesian Chapter.

“We will ask the Foreign Ministry and the ASEAN Secretariat to inform the governments of ASEAN member-countries and offer our readiness to cooperate with our sister counterparts. We intend to organize a meeting of all sister ASEAN Blogger Community Chapters from respective countries in Jakarta during the 44th Anniversary of ASEAN. The meeting would be held to provide exchange of views among all ASEAN member countries and to establish cooperation on how we could contribute in the ASEAN process”, Aris Heru Utomo, chair of the Bekasi Blogger (BeBlog), other founders Amril Taufik Gobel, and Wijaya Kusumah added.