Naming the road over Pasupati Bridge after Mochtar Kusumaatmadja would fulfill other criteria for proposing his name as a national heroBandung, West Java (ANTARA) - The West Java provincial authority has decided to name the road over Pasupati Bridge in Bandung after Mochtar Kusumaatmadja, former minister and initiator of the Indonesian Archipelagic Vision concept.
Pasupati Bridge is a 2.8-kilometer suspension bridge that connects the Pasteur toll gate in the western part of Bandung city to the city center.
"Besides proposing Mochtar Kusumaatmadja as the national hero from West Java, the provincial authority has also decided to designate his name for the road over the Pasupati Bridge," the province's regional Title Researcher Team head, Dewi Sartika, said in Bandung on Friday.
The decision to name the road after Kusumaatmadja is meant to honor and commemorate his contribution to elevating Indonesia's image among the international community while serving the country as foreign minister and justice minister in the New Order era, she informed.
"The first proposal to name the road after him originated from Padjajaran University academics, and the proposal has received popular support and endorsement from the Governor (Ridwan Kamil) who has appealed to the central government to allow the change," Sartika remarked.
The provincial authority has submitted the proposed name change to the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing to follow up on Kamil's notification to the central government, which the ministry responded to positively, the team head said.
The ministry has allowed the change to proceed, she added.
"Praise be to God, we express our gratitude to the ministry for allowing us to rename the road over Pasupati Bridge as Mochtar Kusumaatmadja Road," she remarked.
After the ministry approval, the West Java authority will officiate the new name in a ceremony soon, she added.
"Naming the road over Pasupati Bridge after Mochtar Kusumaatmadja would fulfill other criteria for proposing his name as a national hero, which is that the proposed name must be commemorated by a monument or building name in the region that proposed the name," Sartika informed.
Earlier, West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil reiterated his commitment to naming the road after Mochtar Kusumaatmadja to support the process to propose his name as a national hero to the central government.
Kamil praised Kusumaatmadja's role in uniting Indonesia through his Indonesian Archipelago Vision concept that consolidated the nation's identity as an archipelagic state united by seas.
Kusumaatmadja's struggle augmented the Djuanda Declaration of 1959 that shaped Indonesia's identity as an archipelagic state and bore fruit through the recognition of the concept in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea ratified in 1982, he said.
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Translator: Ajat Sudrajat, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Sri Haryati
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