REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BOGOR -- President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) likened national life as having to build and respect one another as well as remain in harmony as in a choir. According to him, each element of the choir must take care of each other and reduce the ego to get a unified, harmonious, and beautiful voice.

"Soprano voice, tenor voice, bass voice, all must respect each other. There is no way for one to seek dominance all the time," Jokowi stated in a gathering with winners and organizer of Voice of Church (Pesparani) 2018 at the Bogor Presidential Palace, on Monday.

He also added that in the choir, everyone could learn about tolerance.

"In a choir, we learn a lot about tolerance, and we learn a lot about respecting others and building mutual tolerance," he noted.

Jokowi remarked that at this time, Indonesian people needed unity and brotherhood the most. On that occasion, he conveyed messages of harmony, brotherhood, and unity which he always echoed to the people, the community, and the people of Indonesia.

He believes that currently many people in the country forget the fact that Indonesia is a very diverse country, with differences in religion, ethnicity, customs, regional languages, and traditions.

"And that requires a lot of understanding, so that the nation's greatest assets, which are unity, harmony, and brotherhood, can really be infused by the community and can be understood fundamentally by the community," he stated.

He wanted the existing differences not to lead to intolerance and extremism and develop a feeling that the righteous one is pervasive everywhere. This will eventually lead to an unharmonious situation, and not getting along well will be very dangerous, "he explained.

Jokowi met the Pesparani 2018 winners and organizer at the Bogor Palace, West Java, on Monday. He said that the choir could also teach about the philosophy of harmony that the Indonesian people needed. According to him, the choir is able to harmonize diverse vocal characters into a complete and beautiful unit.

Also present with the president were Minister of Religion Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko, Head of the Creative Economy Agency Triawan Munaf, and Chair of the Indonesian Bishops' Conference (KWI) Mgr Ignatius Suharyo.

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