Archaeologists, unarmed heritage guardians<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Thousands of centuries-old Chinese ceramics have
\nbeen salvaged from Indonesia's waters, while hundreds of
\nhistorical sculptures and reliefs are stolen every day from
\ntemples and archaeological sites throughout the country.<\/p>\n
Temples, ancient settlements and old and historical buildings
\nhave been bulldozed to make way for various development projects.<\/p>\n
For decades, the Indonesian government has been turning a
\nblind eye to this illicit business of widespread pillaging of the
\ncountry's cultural heritage.<\/p>\n
Local archaeologists, who are supposed to safeguard these
\nprecious heritages, remain silent when facing the more powerful
\nof those responsible.<\/p>\n
Respected professor of archaeology at the University of
\nIndonesia Mundardjito said: "We feel like armless soldiers who
\nhave to protect the national treasures."<\/p>\n
Mundardjito and his colleagues despair in the face of the
\ngrowing and more complex thefts and damage caused to important
\narchaeological sites and findings.<\/p>\n
"The current policy of national development has created a lot
\nof conflicting problems which largely affect important
\narchaeological sites protected by the law," said the professor.<\/p>\n
In Indonesia, preservation and conservation activities of
\narchaeological sites and artifacts has been ongoing since l901
\nwhen the Dutch colonial government established a special
\ncommission to protect all cultural heritages in its colony.<\/p>\n
These activities were continued after Indonesia's
\nindependence. "However, the massive plundering, looting and theft
\nof antiquities and artifacts is flourishing much more now,"
\nMundardjito complained.<\/p>\n
He said Indonesian archaeologists still had a weak bargaining
\nposition against institutions and individuals that violated the
\nlaw on cultural properties.<\/p>\n
"We have to establish powerful professional associations and
\nnon-governmental organizations (NGOs) which advocate the
\nimportance of preserving and protecting our heritage," he
\nconceded.<\/p>\n
The current Association of the Indonesian Archaeologists must
\nbe empowered to strongly raise various archaeological issues and
\nbe more involved in the decision-making process.<\/p>\n
Environmental concern, for example, is relatively new in
\nIndonesia, but campaigns and advocacy aggressively carried out by
\nNGOs and leading environmentalists have been successful in
\nincreasing the awareness of the government, businessmen and
\nsociety on the need to save and protect the environment.<\/p>\n
"In local archaeological, we need people like Emil Salim who
\nconsistently and strongly promotes and pushes environment
\nissues," he said.<\/p>\n
He recalled that when the government planned to build a
\nhydroelectric power plant in Muara Takus in South Sumatra,
\nbelieved to be a significant archaeological site of the ancient
\nSriwijaya kingdom (7th century and 8th century), Emil Salim as
\nhead of the Environmental Center for Development and Control
\ndemanded the government stop building the power plant as it would
\ndestroy important archaeological sites and create environmental
\nproblems.<\/p>\n
"I represented Pak Emil at that time, and the government
\nimmediately halted the project. If I represented the Directorate
\nGeneral for Culture or archaeologists, people in the government
\nand the projects would not listen," he remembered.<\/p>\n
This, he said, illustrated how powerless the archaeologists
\nwere and also the Directorate General for Culture, an institution
\nin charge of safeguarding all protected cultural heritages.<\/p>\n
He mentioned several problems which must be solved first in
\norder to save the country's cultural and historical legacies.<\/p>\n
One of the urgent steps needed is to increase the number of
\nproficient and dedicated archaeologists and continually improve
\ntheir knowledge to adjust to the ongoing development progress.<\/p>\n
Human Resources<\/p>\n
"We have always complained we don't have adequate human
\nresources to take care of cultural property and this is true,"
\nsaid the professor.<\/p>\n
In Indonesia, there are only four universities -- the
\nUniversity of Indonesia in Jakarta, the University of Gajah Mada
\nin Yogyakarta, the University of Hasanuddin in Makassar and the
\nUniversity of Udayana in Bali, which have schools of archaeology.<\/p>\n
"Each university yields only between 10 and 20 graduates
\nannually," he said.<\/p>\n
Some of these graduates will become dirt archaeologists (field
\nexperts), researchers and armchair archaeologists (bureaucrats).<\/p>\n
The professor said Indonesia's archaeological sites stretch
\nfrom Aceh in the west to Irian Jaya, comparable to the distance
\nfrom San Francisco to New York.<\/p>\n
"Many important sites are located in faraway islands or at
\ninner forested areas which are very difficult to reach and to
\ncontrol by archaeologists," he maintained.<\/p>\n
It is important to strengthen the close cooperation between
\narchaeologists and provincial and regional governments.<\/p>\n
"Most of the notorious archaeological thefts occurred in
\nremote places and were carelessly handled by regional officials,"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the majority of local government officials have
\nlittle or no knowledge of cultural property law.<\/p>\n
"We have to equip these officials with the necessary know-how
\nabout archaeology and arts and cultures so that they will be able
\nto tackle cultural crimes," he noted.<\/p>\n
Those buglars took advantages of local officials' ignorance
\nand incapability in dealing with cultural thefts, which are
\nusually linked to powerful international connections.<\/p>\n
He strongly denounced this and previous governments for
\ndecades of inactions.<\/p>\n
"It requires the government's political will to deal with this
\ncultural issue," he said.<\/p>\n
So far, it has showed no serious intention to foster cultural
\ndevelopment, let alone archaelogy, which is often considered as
\nan archaic science.<\/p>\n
Compared to other countries like Egypt, Italy, Greece and even
\nThailand, the Indonesian government leaders paid little attention
\nto the preservation of cultural heritages.<\/p>\n
In Egypt, for instance, President Hosni Mubarak directly
\ninvolved and halted a road construction affected the Necropolis
\narcahelogical sites in Giza where historical pyramids and the
\nremains of ancient kingdoms are included in Unesco's list of
\nWorld Heritages.<\/p>\n
The Italian government is now launching a war against cultural
\nlooters who smuggle heritages from Roman empires abroad.<\/p>\n
"I suggested that we establish a ministry of culture separate
\nfrom the present Ministry of National Education," the professor
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The education field is so wide, therefore, the current
\nministry faces difficulty in handling cultural issues. Indonesia
\ncan learn from Greece. It has a powerful directorate of museums
\nand archaeology, directly under the prime minister.<\/p>\n
"It is also important to have a minister who really
\nunderstands and cares about cultural heritage," he said.<\/p>\n
The present Minister of National Education Yahya Muhaimin
\nseems reluctant and slow in taking action.<\/p>\n
The New Order government contributed to the destruction of
\nnumerous archaeological findings and cultural legacies.<\/p>\n
"This is so pathetic, ironic and foolish. They only think
\nabout temporary temptation to gain money," he added.<\/p>\n
For Mundardjito, to rip archaeology from the earth and the
\nwater is an attack not just on us but on the future of children
\nand civilization. (raw)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/archaeologists-unarmed-heritage-guardians-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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