PRESIDENT RECEIVES INITIAL RECOMMENDATION FROM EPG INDONESIA

Jakarta, Feb 2 (ANTARA) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono here Monday received an initial recommendation from the Indonesian members of the Indonesia-Malaysia Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on how to improve people-to-people relations between the two countries.
"General (ret) Try Sutrisno as chairman of the Indonesian delegation in the EPG and his team just now reported the results of the discussions they had intensively carried out with their Malaysian counterparts," presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said after accompanying the President at the meeting at the palace.
Djalal said at the meeting with the presdient, the Indonesian EPG members presented the first part of several written recommendations the group had produced. All the results of the EPG's so far would be submitted to the two countries' leaders in the near future.
"We are planning a bilateral meeting between President Yudhoyono and the Malaysian prime minister around the middle of March," Djalal said.
He said the EPG had discussed various issues in the spheres of culture, history, economic cooperation, education, institutional aspects as well as "on how a number of bilateral youth activities can be organized and how certain institutions can help improve relations between the two countries, not only at governmental but also at peoples' level."
He said one of the recommendations called for a discussion on the two countries' histories. "It is history that the younger generations are beginning to forget. A discussion on the two countries' histories will therefore be planned," he said.
President Yudhoyono, he said, expressed appreciation and satisfaction about the EPG's work.
"The President said the EPG was formed to maintain the harmonious relations between Indonesia and Malaysia. The ultimate goal is creating closer relationships and the proper handling of problems that arise," he said.
Djalal aid the issue of migrant workers was also discussed in EPG meetings. "The relations between Indonesia and Malaysia are indeed unique because Malaysia has the largest number of Indonesian migrant workers . The problem concerns the two countries' interests.
Indeed, the EPG's recommendation advises the two parties to have more effective mechanism for the handling of migrant workers' problems," he said.
The EPG in which each country is represented by seven prominent personalities was established in 2008 to study problems in the relations between the two countries thoroughly and recommend solutions to their leaders.
The two countries' relations became strained some time ago following several incidents such as maltreatment of an Indonesian referee by Malaysian police, the false arrest of the wife of an Indonesian education attache and Malaysian property right claims on several Indonesian traditional art products.
***1***
T.G003