NEWS | May 8, 2008 (Source: )
Tourism Minister, Asean Chief try to play angklung
Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik and ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan sit side by side playing the "angklung" traditional musical bamboo instrument while looking at each other once a while and chuckling when the sound of their music is not in harmony.
Jero Wacik and Surin Pitsuwan tried to play the bamboo musical instrument from West Java in the ASEAN Best Music Show, "The Mosaic Archipelago", at Jakarta Art Building on Tuesday night.
The event was concluded with a segment of an "Angklung Interactive" in which the guests who were ASEAN ambassadors and other foreigners each got an angklung and played together.
From the stage on the occasion, a young woman in traditional "kebaya" - woman`s blouse the front of which is pinned together - asked the the audience to play the angklung and sang the songs Kicir-kicir, I Have a Dream, and Heal the World.
Jero Wacik and Surin Pitsuwan looked chummy and played their angklung to follow the instructor on the stage.
"Let us try to play our angklung," the culture and tourism minister told the ASEAN chief, who that night wore a black suit.
The minister said the ASEAN Best Music Show was the first of its kind in Jakarta and a similar event would also be held in other ASEAN countries in the future.
"The event will become a new history for ASEAN in its effort to strengthen the bond of friendship through a musical show. The diversities and the differences of each ASEAN member country will be the uniting power of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations," Jero Wacik said.
He noted that the ASEAN Best Music Show was designed to introduce and promote the Association`s arts and cultural diversity to the rest of the world.
At least nine traditional dances and musical instruments from Papua, Bali, East Java, Riau, Aceh, East Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara, West Java, and North Sumatra, were played in the event.
GENERAL INFO 
