Creating a Maritime Nation, Pramarin Focuses on Building Education

Creating a Maritime Nation, Pramarin Focuses on Building Education

Pramarin General Chair Dr. Datep Purwa Saputra (center).

Jakarta (Maritimnews) – Since the vision of the World Maritime Axis was echoed by President Joko Widodo in 2014, the nation’s maritime passion has become increasingly intense. Various maritime organizations and associations continue to exist and have a platform to formulate ideas in order to make this vision a success.

One of them is the Indonesian Maritime Practitioners (Pramarin), which was founded in mid-2017 and has helped color the dynamics of the nation’s journey towards becoming a maritime nation. The association, which was initiated by Adharta Ongkosaputra, Chandra Motik and several national maritime figures, continues to exist today.

Under the new captain, Dr. Datep Purwa Saputra, this association continues to produce ideas and concepts to formulate the achievement of a powerful maritime state. Meeting at the Pramarin office, in the Kelapa Gading area, North Jakarta, last Friday (5/5/23), explained various programs to Maritimnews.

“We have made a blueprint for medium-term, short-term and long-term programs. “Indonesia has a very vast sea so it needs large maritime activities,” said Datep.

Accompanied by the Pramarin Supervisory Board, Adharta Ongkosaputra; Deputy General Chairperson of Pramarin, Rear Admiral TNI (Ret.) Dr. Surya Wiranto and several other administrators, Datep, explained that the program they had prepared was a mandate from the founders of Pramarin.

“We are bringing together all human resources, maritime practitioners in achieving a Golden Indonesia 2045 and the vision of the World Maritime Axis. We must also become a developed country. “We are not currently involved in politics, whoever wins (the 2024 presidential election), we support it to advance Indonesian maritime,” he said.

“What is clear is that we want to exist, our interest is only in red and white,” he stressed.

Datep, who has been involved in the world of national shipping and is also active as a teacher at seafaring schools, said that the crucial problem currently faced by the Indonesian maritime world is the problem of human resources.

“We have a lot of crew members, but our crew members are not in demand abroad. “So our maritime problems that we have just focused on are those related to sea transportation, such as the issue of shipping and crew safety,” he explained.

In the near future, Pramarin will collaborate with the College of Sailing Science (STIP) to improve the quality of Indonesian seafarers.

“This is so that our sailors have selling value. STIP will collaborate with us. “Apart from that, we will also build a free English course for sailors, so we want to create a kind of Pramarin Academy,” he explained.

In line with the General Chairperson of Pramarin, the Supervisory Board of Pramarin Adharta who was also present stated that they really support the educational program carried out by the current management.

“Pramarin must provide education, so it would be very good if Pak Ketum invited us to STIP. “We also need to hold trainings that not only get certificates but something like points or pride,” explained Adharta.

Adharta, who has also experienced salt and pepper in the maritime business, said that there was a cruise ship owner from Indonesia who was having difficulty finding crew. The reason is that Indonesian ship crews do not have international certificates which are a requirement for working on cruise ships.

According to him, this is very sad, so it is necessary to unite the vision and mission of maritime practitioners, many of whom currently have seafaring backgrounds.

“So back to education, my intention is to provide education. “Here maritime practitioners are also experts in the field of maritime education,” he stressed.

On that occasion, Adharta as the founder of Pramarin also explained how this organization was born. Since the early 2000s, he has thought about the need for a forum consisting of various maritime practitioners.

“Just in 2017 Pramarin was formed, but it was not easy to build this (organization), of course there were many obstacles. “But we have a vision and mission, namely to build maritime education for this nation,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, Deputy General Chairperson of Pramarin Rear Admiral TNI (Ret.) Dr. Surya Wiranto added that building maritime human resources by restoring the nation’s maritime culture is not as easy as turning the palm of your hand.

According to him, over the centuries, when European colonialism entered the archipelago, it changed the nation’s maritime culture into a land culture. This can be felt to this day.

“When we became independent there were indeed efforts to restore maritime culture, one of which was carried out by Prime Minister Djuanda with his Djuanda Declaration which changed the 3 mile territorial sea according to the distance of a cannon shot to 12 miles,” said Surya.

Surya, who once served in the Indonesian Navy as Wadanseskoal and Kadispotmar, strongly agrees that rebuilding the nation’s maritime glory must start with education.

“Restoring maritime glory must involve education. When I teach, I always start with deJust look at the map of Indonesia. So we have to know where we are and who we are,” he said. (*)