Bush's speech broadcast in Indonesia

Bush's speech broadcast in Indonesia

Many Indonesians were able to follow President George W. Bush's
state of the union address on Tuesday morning thanks to a
simultaneous translation into Bahasa Indonesia courtesy of the
U.S. Congress in Washington.

The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta organized a gathering of selected
journalists and scholars to watch the live telecast of the
American president's speech in both English and Indonesian.

Some radio stations and TV stations relayed part the Bahasa
Indonesian version of the speech live.

This is the first time that the state of the union address has
been simultaneously translated into Indonesian.

An embassy spokesperson said the decision to provide the
service was prompted by the growing interest in the president's
speech in Indonesia, and was not a reflection of changing
attitudes in Washington toward Indonesia. -- JP