Institute makes cultural points outside Aceh<\/p>\n
Endy M. Bayuni, The Jakarta Post, Oslo<\/p>\n
For months now, Hasballah M. Saad has warned Jakarta about the
\nneed to pay attention to cultural aspects when rebuilding Aceh
\nafter the untold destruction caused by the Dec. 26 tsunami.<\/p>\n
While he found sympathetic ears from government planners, the
\nappeal went largely unheeded on the ground as the Reconstruction
\nand Rehabilitation Agency (BRR) for Aceh and Nias rushed around
\nwith its projects to build homes for the half-million displaced
\npeople.<\/p>\n
This week, the former minister of human rights tried to hammer
\nhome his point once again, but not in Jakarta or in Banda Aceh,
\nbut thousands of kilometers away: in Oslo, Norway, the capital
\ncity of one of the most generous donors for the rebuilding of
\nAceh.<\/p>\n
The official blueprint, he told a seminar on Thursday, is
\nwidely perceived to be physically-oriented. It talks about target
\nnumbers like how many houses it must build, how many school
\nbuildings and how many teachers are needed, but it doesn't say
\nanything about the type of houses and the school curriculum Aceh
\nneeds today.<\/p>\n
\"This is caused by a very poor understanding of local wisdom,
\nvalues, character and culture,\" Hasballah said at the Forum on
\nIndonesia 2005 jointly organized by the Indonesian Embassy in
\nNorway and the Norwegian Human Rights Center.<\/p>\n
Hasballah called for more development that put character-
\nbuilding at its core.<\/p>\n
The end of the conflict between the Indonesian government and
\nthe Free Aceh Movement with the signing of the peace agreement in
\nHelsinki in August provided a window of opportunity to improve on
\nthe blueprint and incorporate cultural considerations into the
\nreconstruction projects, he said.<\/p>\n
The seminars are only half of the forum. Other speakers
\nincluded Aceh linguistic expert Bukhari Daud and Maj. Gen.
\nBambang Darmono, the Indonesian representative to the Aceh
\nMonitoring Mission. who has had stints in war- and peace-time
\nAceh.<\/p>\n
The other half was the cultural evening later on Thursday. Two
\npieces were performed by the Nurul Alam dance troupe flown in
\nfrom Banda Aceh and one other by children of embassy staff at the
\nOslo Konserthus concert hall.<\/p>\n
There was also an exhibition of nine color drawings by Aceh
\nchildren vividly depicting their impressions of the tsunami and
\nits impact on their lives.<\/p>\n
Following the tsunami, Hasballah and several like-minded
\nfriends established the Aceh Cultural Institute specifically to
\nensure that the cultural needs of the people of Aceh were being
\nmet as they rebuilt communities traumatized by the natural
\ndisaster and nearly three-decades of conflict.<\/p>\n
The inspiration for the institute came when the organizers
\nlearned that thousands of books and manuscripts stored at the
\nAceh Center for Documentation and Information had been washed
\naway. Today, one of its missions is to try to restore the library
\nwith plans to expand it later as cultural learning center. They
\nare already talking about possible collaboration with the
\nNational University of Singapore to bring either original or
\ncopied materials from the Netherlands, France, Australia and
\nother international sources.<\/p>\n
Hasballah said the reconstruction of Aceh needed a new
\nparadigm and perspectives and presently there seemed to be no
\nvision for the way forward.<\/p>\n
Trying to restore the situation to some pre-tsunami state was
\nnot the \"desired picture of Aceh\", he said, because before the
\ntsunami Aceh was still at war.<\/p>\n
\"The goal of development should be to push people to be more
\ncivilized, to respect fellow human beings, to move to a more
\nmodern lifestyle, but one based on their traditional roots and
\ntheir cultural values.<\/p>\n
\"Character-building is more important than physical
\nreconstruction and development,\" Hasballah said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/institute-makes-cultural-points-outside-aceh-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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