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IDUL FITRI (Eid al-Fitr)

7/28/14

Selamat Hari Raya Idul Fitri 1435H, Minal 'Aidin Wal Faidzin, mohon maaf lahir dan batin (translation: Happy Eid Mubarak 1435H, Minal 'Aidin Wal Faidzin, please forgive me for all my wrongdoings in the past)!


After a month of Ramadhan fasting, it's finally the big day! Idul Fitri! Are you excited? Your strong intention and faith to do fasting for the whole month has finally come to this moment! This is a victory for all of you. I hope you all are enjoying this moment with family and friends to cherish this special day :)

And to YOU who have no idea about Idul Fitri at all, keep reading on!
Idul Fitri is a day on where all Muslims are not allowed to do fasting but to celebrate the holiday after a whole month of fasting. In Indonesia, people go back to their hometown to celebrate together with their family (mudik). They wear nice clothes and eat special Lebaran meal, like ketupat, opor ayam, rendang, sambal goreng ati, sayur lodeh dan lemang. Furthermore, they also eat snacks, such as dodol and roasted peanuts, along with fruit syrup beverages. And on this special day, young family will usually visit older family's house, which is known as 'silaturrahmi', to ask for forgiveness. It is also a customs for the older ones to give lebaran money to the younger ones in colorful envelopes. Other than those, it is also a customs for the family to visit the graves of beloved ones several days before Ramadhan.

We hope the explanation satisfy your thirst of knowledge, and we are sorry if there's anything wrong said. Once again, Happy Eid Mubarak!

2014 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

7/22/14

It has been 5 years since Sir Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was chosen as the president of Indonesia for the second time. Thus, it's time for the third presidential election to elect a president for a term of five years! Sir Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono himself, couldn't take part in the 2014 election for the laws prohibit the third period for a president. And since he has been a president for two periods, so he is not allowed to do so anymore. Moving on —the candidates are in pairs. 

The pairs are:
[pic source]
  1. Prabowo Subianto (candidate for president) and Hatta Rajasa (candidate for vice president)
  2. Joko Widodo (candidate for president) and Muhammad Jusuf Kalla (candidate for vice president)
How to know which pair wins the election? In Indonesia, we use votes, and they are done publicly by the people. The people vote by using their pinkie and ink, and so they are free to vote for whoever they want. Hence the presidential election for 2014 was held on July 9, 2014. And today, on July 22, 2014, the result of the votes were finally out! *drumrolls*

Here are the details for each region!
[pic source: JakartaGlobe]
As you can see from the pic slash chart above, the pair who won the election were Joko Widodo and Muhammad Jusuf Kala with 53.17% votes while Prabowo Subianto and Hatta Rajasa got only 46.83%. 
However, surprisingly, Prabowo Subianto, the defeated candidate, declared that he was withdrawing himself from the presidential election on July 22, 2014 with the reason that this election was unfair and that he felt cheated. Moreover, he was clearly against General Elections Commission (KPU). He states in his speech, "We are going to use our constitutional rights and we are rejecting this presidential election, which is legally flawed." Afterwards, Joko Widodo, the elected candidate, responded to Prabowo's actions. It was such a long and complicated story, of which you can read here for the details, if you want. 

Some background about the newly elected president and vice president: 

Joko Widodo, widely known as Jokowi, was born in Surakarta, Central Java on June 21, 1961. He is an Indonesian politician who was once a governor of DKI Jakarta and also a mayor of Surakarta (Solo) from 2005 to 2012. Jokowi's politic career started when he became a mayor and started to be well-known around Indonesia as he successfully turned his hometown, Surakarta, into a successful city. After that, he was chosen as a governor of DKI Jakarta, and thus he was mentioned in a lot of news media. In the end, his popularity and his enthusiast in improving Indonesia resulted in him being one of the candidates for the presidential election. [source]

Muhammad Jusuf Kalla, was born in Watampone, South Sulawesi on May 15, 1942. He was a former vice president for the period of 2004 to 2009 and a chairman of  Golkar Party works in the same period, 2004 to 2009. Jusuf Kalla was once a minister in the administration of Abdurrahman Wahid but was dismissed due to a reason related with corruption. He later became a Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare when Megawati Sukarnoputri was a president. However, he then resigned and became a candidate for vice president, together with Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, as a candidate for president. He was a chairman of the Party of Functional Groups since December 2004 until October 2009. And currently, Jusuf Kalla was elected as the chairman of the Indonesian Red Cross 2009-2014. Futhermore, he was also elected as the chairman of Central Board of Indonesian Mosque Council for the period of 2012-2017. [source]

...So, congratulations to Joko Widodo and Muhammad Jusuf Kalla for winning the 2014 presidential election! The elected pair will be replacing the current pair on October 20, 2014. Please do a great job in improving Indonesia to be better in the future! :) #salamduajari 

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