I love ice-cream. It's great on its own, with fruit, in different flavours, and even with small chopped up bits of bread, as I discovered here in Indonesia.
I've been interning for about a week now at Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah (DPRD) Yogyakarta, which is basically the council/government, serving as the elected local representative body for the province of Yogyakarta. Although I'm still trying to get my head around the mix of Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Jawa (the local dialect of Yogyakarta) used in the office, I've been able to really enjoy experiencing, observing and learning about how the Indonesian government works.
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| Photo credit: DPRD Yogyakarta |
I'm currently interning the the Public Relations Department, and have been reaping the benefits of being able to access all major meetings that happen at DPRD, including scathing off the food left over from parliamentary meetings and perhaps goofing around on the official camera with other fellow staff members.
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| Watching a parliamentary meeting about how to work with high risk communities |
Recently I was able to attend a 'Rapat Paripurna Pendapatan Wakil Gubernur DIY', meaning the Plenary Session to review the Deputy Governor for Yogyakarta for 2012-2017. This session happens every 5 years, so it was kind of a big deal.
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| Plenary session in progress |
The session was attended by 35 members of DPRD, including Heads of Health, Education, Tourism, and Development for Yogyakarta. I was definitely feeling like a little guy in the midst of important company, including the Governor/Sultan/King/All-Round-Cool-Guy of Yogyakarta, Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X.
Quick background lesson: You'll often see the term 'Daerah Istimewa' in front of the word Yogyakarta, which means that Yogyakarta is a 'Special Region' in Indonesia. This is because the region itself is run by a royal family, known as the Kraton family, and they have been in power for 10 generations. The government and the royal family work as separate bodies, however the royal family must be present to witness important events such as this.
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| Photo credit: Indonesia Tourism |
My aim on the night was to try and meet him, but he quickly left the premise after the session was over. The same also goes for the Chair of DPRD. Instead, I was able to meet Pak Arif Noor Hartanto, the Vice Chair of DPRD, who was an extremely nice guy and was happy to take a photo with me.
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| Pak Hartanto and I |
Being a non-Indonesian citizen and interning at the local representative body office is an extremely rewarding experience and one that I know doesn't get received often by other non-Indonesians. Somehow I was able to fake it with my broken 'matur nyuwun' on the night ('thank you' in Javanese) and get my ice cream.
*Sorry but no photo of my ice-cream on the night. Here is instead a photo of the grand amount of food provided after the plenary session*
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| Only way to end a night of speeches - with food |
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