Indonesia-Malaysia EPG to hold first meeting

Jakarta - An "Eminent Persons Group" (EPG) formed by Indonesia and Malaysia to advise the two governments on how to solve sensitive problems arising between the two countries is to hold its first meeting on August 29-30, 2008, a spokesman said.

The EPG`s first meeting would among other things make an overview of the two countries in historical terms and discuss a gap that existed in the perceptions of successive generations in the two countries, joint management of cultural heritages, and formation of the two countries` images in their respective media, Try Sutrisno, an EPG member representing Indonesia, said here over the weekend.

It was hoped, through the informal discussions in the EPG, relations between the Indonesian and Malaysian societies would become closer, and sensitive issues arising between them could be defused through governmental actions based on the EPG`s recommendations, said Sutrisno who once served as vice president in former President Soeharto`s administration.

EPG meetings were expected to yield "people-to-people contact" programs to narrow the existing inter-generation perception gap through dialogs between culture and history experts, student and youth organizations of the two countries.

A program to project the two countries` images in the media would provide for the holding of dialogs between the media of the countries, he said.

The two countries were represented in the EPG by seven persons each.

The Indonesian EPG members are Try Sutrisno, Ali Alatas, Quraish Shihab, Des Alwi, Musni Umar, Pudentia MPSS, and Wahyuni Bahar, and the Malaysian members Tun Musa Hitam, Tan Sri Dato Seri Mohd Zahidi Haji Zainuddin, Tan Sri Khoo Kay Kim, Tan Sri Abdul Halim Ali, Tan Sri Amar Haji Hamid Bugo, Datuk Syed Ali Tawfik Al-Attas and Datuk Seri Panglima Joseph Pairin Kitingan.

The Indonesia-Malaysia EPG was formalized on July 7, 2008 based on an agreement reached at a meeting between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at Putrajaya, Malaysia, on January 11, 2008.

Source: http://www.antara.co.id (August 25, 2008)
Credit Photo: www.presidensby.info

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