Yogyakarta-MelayuOnline.com- “Congratulation for the success of the second MelayuOnline work meeting”. MelayuOnline crew, on 8-9 September 2007, have succeeded to hold the second work meeting in Wisma Bumi Putera Kaliurang, Yogyakarta. It was conducted for twofold reason: to evaluate the programmes of the first work meeting, and to formulate new programmes for the upcoming three months. All MelayuOnline crew, including new recruited crew, and some invited guests from Ikatan Pelajar dan Mahasiswa Kabupaten Karimun Kepulauan Riau (Karimun Students Union), faculty of anthropology of Gadjah Mada University, and activists of Himpunan Mahasiswa Riau Sunan Kalijaga-HIMARISKA (Association of Riau Students of Sunan Kalijaga) attended the meeting. Their presence increased the dynamics of discussion nuance in the meeting.    

Mahyudin Al Mudra, S.H, M.M., the head of the Center for Research and Development of Malay Culture and the Director of MelayuOnline.com, commenced the meeting with brief lecture on culture and an introduction to the meeting. He, in the occasion, said “The existence of MelayuOnline is part of Malay‘s attempts to build human civilization”. Malay culture, as he explained, becomes the entry point to build human civilization since the Malay heritages are mostly forgotten and scattered. “To preserve Malay culture, it is needed the endeavors to document it systematically and comprehensively. All cultures, at certain level, will melt in the apex of pyramid of human civilization. Therefore, preserving Malay culture constitutes an attempt to build human civilization” said Mahyudin.  

MelayuOnline.com is oriented to be a leading website internationally that contain the most comprehensive information on Malay heritage. In addition, the website is intended to preserve Malay culture by untraditional ways. In the frame of globalizing the Malay and Malayzing the world, intensive coordination is conducted with pertinent elements such as Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Gadjah Mada University. In this regard, MelayuOnline, together with the Faculty representatives, intended to translate the entire contains into four other international languages: French, Arabic, Spanish, and Italy. Therefore, the seriousness, totality and spirit of all crew, which were shown in the meeting, become of paramount importance. In the meeting, old-good programmes of the first meeting were maintained and some new programmes were formulated.

Unlike the first work meeting whose focus was on unifying the vision and perception among the crew and internal development, the second meeting‘s output, mostly on building networking with external elements and stakeholders nationally and internationally, was step ahead and much more futuristic. Litbang, a new division for research and development created on August 27, 2007, carried out the outputs by setting up possible forms of networking with stakeholders. It was intended to enrich and complete the Malay related data used for writing articles.

Three important plans: short, middle, and long term plan, were reached in the meeting. All of which was oriented to enhance the quality of MelayuOnline and its crew. The meeting was divided into three plenary sessions. In the first plenary, evaluation of the first work meeting, several old programmes that run well was maintained and some solutions for unimplemented programmes was proposed.

Using SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, threat) analysis, the second plenary explored the MelayuOnline‘s potencies that support the development of the website. Indeed, there are some weaknesses and threats such as lack of sustainable financial support and unpopularity of internet usage among Indonesian society. However, appreciation from all elements, especially academics, can be valuable capital for MelayuOnline‘s development.  

In the subsequent session, the third plenary, new proposed programmes of A commission (Research and Development Division, Editorial Staff) and B Commission (web programmer, web designer, marketing division) were scrutinized. In the meeting, several brilliant programmes were formulated by both A and B commissions. One of them is scientific writing competition, proposed by A commission, with main theme “Malay‘s View on Politic”. The competition was aimed at collecting outstanding articles studying the theme from different perspectives. At the end, the selected articles will be published in a book. B commission, at the meantime, prepared new outlook for MelayuOnline‘s website by modifying existing designs, adding more attractive photos, and accelerating the access to the website for the visitors.

Overall, the second work meeting asserted the significant progress, due to the totality of the founder and the crew, achieved by MelayuOnline. Considering the fast development and global vision carried by the website, it is worth being supported morally and financially. Unfortunately, the appreciation coming from others, hitherto, is limited in supporting the website morally. At the meantime, the website lacks financial support that can keep the sustainability of the cultural endeavors to preserve the Malay culture. Nevertheless, all MelayuOnline‘s crew will do their best to envision MelayuOnline.com a leading website internationally that extensively build human civilization.

(HQ/ter/69/9-07)

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