President Attends Chinese New Year Celebration

Jakarta, Feb 7 (Antara) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Boediono jointly attended the national Chinese New Year (Imlek) celebration at the Convention Center, here on Friday evening. On the occasion, General Chairman of the Indonesian "Khonghucu" (Confucianism) Supreme Council (Matakin) Wawan Wiratma underlined the importance of celebrating the New Year as a moment for self-introspection. This year`s national Imlek celebration carries the theme "True Leader holds Love and Truth not Profit." Wawan lauded the current and previous governments who have significantly contributed to the development of the Khonghucu religion. He emphasized that the late former president Abdurrahman Wahid had contributed by revoking the regulation that banned the Khonghucu followers from celebrating Imlek, while the former president Megawati Soekarnoputri had contributed by declaring Imlek as a national holiday and President Yudhoyono who contributed by stipulating regulations on the Khonghucu marriage civil registration and allowing the declaration of the Khonghucu religion on the identity cards of Khonghucu followers. First Lady Ani Yudhoyono and Mrs Herawati, the wife of Vice President Boediono, attended the event along with other government officials.