400 foreigners will join youth march
JAKARTA (JP): Some 400 people from 22 countries will take part in the fourth national youth march, known as the Kirab Remaja Nasional, which will be launched nationwide on Monday, the chief organizer said yesterday.
The foreign participants include 24 young people from Portugal, with which Indonesia has no diplomatic ties because of the dispute over East Timor.
Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, who chairs the Tiara Indonesia Foundations which is organizing the march, said that as far as she was concerned there were no problems between Portuguese and Indonesian young people.
The march, which will wind up on Aug. 21, will see a major expansion in the participation of foreigners, compared with the last one, in 1993, in which youths from Australia and Asia took part.
Hardiyanti, who is the eldest daughter of President Soeharto, told a press conference at the ministry of information yesterday that, as of yesterday, more than 300 of the foreign participants had arrived in Indonesia.
Countries sending delegations this year are Australia, Belgium, Britain, Brunei, Egypt, Germany, Hungary, Jordan, South Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Palestine, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.
The organizers have recruited 121,500 Indonesian young people for the occasion. They, together with the foreign youths, will form the core team that will be divided into sub-groups to tour the countryside.
Apart from the core team, the organizers are hoping that millions of other youths will join in when the teams pass through their towns and villages. In 1993, some 45 million people participated in the event.
The National Youth March is no ordinary march.
The participants will stop in villages to do community work and counseling. They will live in villagers' houses.
Siti Hardiyanti said that the event would benefit, not only Indonesia, but also the Indonesian and foreign participants.
She said that a survey of the participants in the 1993 march had yielded the following results: 87 percent of the participants thought the event had strengthened national unity; 82 percent said it had helped the development of the young generation; 82 percent felt it had helped speed up social development; and 67 percent felt that it had helped to reduce juvenile delinquency.
Siti Hardiyanti said that, given the immense benefits, she hoped the event could be held every two years.
The march will reach its climax on Aug. 20, when the sub- groups of the core team will assemble in Jakarta for a rally. On the last day, they will be received by President Soeharto.
The teams will embark on the march from all the capitals of Indonesia's 27 provinces. Their send-off will be attended by the provincial governors. (imn)