Indonesia marks new year with fire crackers, religious prayers
Jakarta - Indonesians lit fire crackers, held religious ceremonies and musical events to mark the dawn of the New Year as the country’s president urged nations to draw a lesson from past experience to start 2008. Hundreds of thousands of people packed several locations to celebrate the New Year, including the Monas Monument in downtown Jakarta, Ancol beach area in northern Jakarta and the Indonesian Miniature Park in eastern Jakarta, which where highlighted by spectacular fireworks. At a number of mosques in the capital of more than 12 million people, religious groups were holding an all-night vigil, praying for peace and calling on all Muslims in the country to get closer to God following intermittent natural disasters throughout the year. In contrast to the capital, tens of thousands of residents in the country’s densely populated Central Java and East Java provinces celebrated the new year in mourning and misery as days of torrential rains triggered landslides and heavy floodings. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in a New Year’s message called all segments of the Indonesian population to draw a lesson from past experience as an introspection to start the new year, saying that an improvement in past shortcomings should be made while maintaining the good achievements in entering the future. “Thus, we step into 2008 with an optimism and stronger self confidence, and believe that the country’s development is already on the right track,” Yudhoyono said after attending prayer on New Year’s Eve at a mosque at the presidential palace complex. Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who led a prayer function for the victims of 2007 natural disasters at a mosque near his residence, expressed hope that there would be less disasters in 2008, the state-run Antara news agency reported. More than 130 people have died or remain missing and tens of thousands were left homeless after the floods and a series of landslides buried houses in Central Java and East Java last week, while floods waters cut off roads and paralyzed land communications to a number of cities on Indonesia’s crowded island. National police chief General Sutanto said the new year celebration went through peacefully, with no violence or bomb threats reported across the country. In the capital Jakarta, as many as 17,000 police officers were deployed to ensure a safe New Year’s celebration.
Source: http://www.earthtimes.org/
Add comment January 3rd, 2008