KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 (Bernama) — The Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) and the Indonesian news agency, Antara, Thursday launched a television programme entitled ‘Salam Dari Kuala Lumpur’ and ‘Salam Dari Jakarta’ showing the latest developments occurring in both countries.
The program ‘Salam Dari Kuala Lumpur’ carries current issues, news presented in a relaxed manner and the successes achieved by the people of Indonesia in Malaysia produced by BernamaTV and broadcast by Antara TV in Indonesia, while BernamaTV will broadcast ‘Salam Dari Jakarta’ produced by Antara TV.
The 30-minute programme, aimed at helping to raise knowledge and understanding among the people sharing the same root and consequently strengthening bilateral relations, had been broadcast simultaneously since July 5.
Both programmes are aired every Saturday, at 9.30 pm and the repeat shown on Sunday at 11pm.
The programme, ‘Salam Dari Kuala Lumpur’ is shown by about 50 local TV stations in 30 provinces in Indonesia, while the programme ‘Salam Dari Jakarta’ is shown by BernamaTV over channel 502 Astro.
The production of the programme was launched jointly by Bernama Editor-in-Chief Datuk Zulkefli Salleh and the Head of the Antara Bureau in Malaysia, Aulia Badar, witnessed by the Indonesian Deputy Ambassador in Kuala Lumpur, Hermono.
At a media conference later, Zulkefli said besides giving information on the latest issues and sharing interesting places, the programme ‘Salam Dari Kuala Lumpur’ also aimed to discard the negative social perception that Indonesia is nothing more than a nation that provides general labourers to Malaysia.
He said such perception had contributed to the cool relations between the peoples of both countries besides the lack of interaction between the people as was the case during the glorius programme ‘Titian Muhibbah’ which was aired during the 1990’s.
“Through this programme, we have a target that is far ahead which attempts to promote the idea that Indonesia had the capability to become a major power in Asia and if relations between the peoples of the two countries can be strengthened, both countries will derive much benefits,” he said.
For Hermono, the production of the programme hopefully could repel the negative perception raised by the social media which were described as pretty ‘wild’ in sensationalising negative news to sour relations between the peoples who shared to the same roots.
He hoped the producers could handle the challenges by inserting as much information, particularly those that could build up emotion in promoting the spirit of team work among the people of both countries.
“On behalf of the Indonesian government, I hope the programme can give balanced information, balanced information in the social media because we are confident that relations between the two governments is always cordial,” he said.
Meanwhile, Aulia said with the targeted viewership of more than 200 million people through the screening in more than 30 provinces in Indonesia, he was certain that the news and information featured could create a balanced perception on their respective country and people.
Thus, the cooperation in the exchange of television programmes with BernamaTV was another advanced initiative taken in strengthening relations between the communities besides sharing information on interesting things in both countries, he said.
— BERNAMA
