Archaeologists, unarmed heritage guardians

Archaeologists, unarmed heritage guardians

JAKARTA (JP): Thousands of centuries-old Chinese ceramics have
been salvaged from Indonesia's waters, while hundreds of
historical sculptures and reliefs are stolen every day from
temples and archaeological sites throughout the country.

Temples, ancient settlements and old and historical buildings
have been bulldozed to make way for various development projects.

For decades, the Indonesian government has been turning a
blind eye to this illicit business of widespread pillaging of the
country's cultural heritage.

Local archaeologists, who are supposed to safeguard these
precious heritages, remain silent when facing the more powerful
of those responsible.

Respected professor of archaeology at the University of
Indonesia Mundardjito said: "We feel like armless soldiers who
have to protect the national treasures."

Mundardjito and his colleagues despair in the face of the
growing and more complex thefts and damage caused to important
archaeological sites and findings.

"The current policy of national development has created a lot
of conflicting problems which largely affect important
archaeological sites protected by the law," said the professor.

In Indonesia, preservation and conservation activities of
archaeological sites and artifacts has been ongoing since l901
when the Dutch colonial government established a special
commission to protect all cultural heritages in its colony.

These activities were continued after Indonesia's
independence. "However, the massive plundering, looting and theft
of antiquities and artifacts is flourishing much more now,"
Mundardjito complained.

He said Indonesian archaeologists still had a weak bargaining
position against institutions and individuals that violated the
law on cultural properties.

"We have to establish powerful professional associations and
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which advocate the
importance of preserving and protecting our heritage," he
conceded.

The current Association of the Indonesian Archaeologists must
be empowered to strongly raise various archaeological issues and
be more involved in the decision-making process.

Environmental concern, for example, is relatively new in
Indonesia, but campaigns and advocacy aggressively carried out by
NGOs and leading environmentalists have been successful in
increasing the awareness of the government, businessmen and
society on the need to save and protect the environment.

"In local archaeological, we need people like Emil Salim who
consistently and strongly promotes and pushes environment
issues," he said.

He recalled that when the government planned to build a
hydroelectric power plant in Muara Takus in South Sumatra,
believed to be a significant archaeological site of the ancient
Sriwijaya kingdom (7th century and 8th century), Emil Salim as
head of the Environmental Center for Development and Control
demanded the government stop building the power plant as it would
destroy important archaeological sites and create environmental
problems.

"I represented Pak Emil at that time, and the government
immediately halted the project. If I represented the Directorate
General for Culture or archaeologists, people in the government
and the projects would not listen," he remembered.

This, he said, illustrated how powerless the archaeologists
were and also the Directorate General for Culture, an institution
in charge of safeguarding all protected cultural heritages.

He mentioned several problems which must be solved first in
order to save the country's cultural and historical legacies.

One of the urgent steps needed is to increase the number of
proficient and dedicated archaeologists and continually improve
their knowledge to adjust to the ongoing development progress.

Human Resources

"We have always complained we don't have adequate human
resources to take care of cultural property and this is true,"
said the professor.

In Indonesia, there are only four universities -- the
University of Indonesia in Jakarta, the University of Gajah Mada
in Yogyakarta, the University of Hasanuddin in Makassar and the
University of Udayana in Bali, which have schools of archaeology.

"Each university yields only between 10 and 20 graduates
annually," he said.

Some of these graduates will become dirt archaeologists (field
experts), researchers and armchair archaeologists (bureaucrats).

The professor said Indonesia's archaeological sites stretch
from Aceh in the west to Irian Jaya, comparable to the distance
from San Francisco to New York.

"Many important sites are located in faraway islands or at
inner forested areas which are very difficult to reach and to
control by archaeologists," he maintained.

It is important to strengthen the close cooperation between
archaeologists and provincial and regional governments.

"Most of the notorious archaeological thefts occurred in
remote places and were carelessly handled by regional officials,"
he said.

Unfortunately, the majority of local government officials have
little or no knowledge of cultural property law.

"We have to equip these officials with the necessary know-how
about archaeology and arts and cultures so that they will be able
to tackle cultural crimes," he noted.

Those buglars took advantages of local officials' ignorance
and incapability in dealing with cultural thefts, which are
usually linked to powerful international connections.

He strongly denounced this and previous governments for
decades of inactions.

"It requires the government's political will to deal with this
cultural issue," he said.

So far, it has showed no serious intention to foster cultural
development, let alone archaelogy, which is often considered as
an archaic science.

Compared to other countries like Egypt, Italy, Greece and even
Thailand, the Indonesian government leaders paid little attention
to the preservation of cultural heritages.

In Egypt, for instance, President Hosni Mubarak directly
involved and halted a road construction affected the Necropolis
arcahelogical sites in Giza where historical pyramids and the
remains of ancient kingdoms are included in Unesco's list of
World Heritages.

The Italian government is now launching a war against cultural
looters who smuggle heritages from Roman empires abroad.

"I suggested that we establish a ministry of culture separate
from the present Ministry of National Education," the professor
said.

The education field is so wide, therefore, the current
ministry faces difficulty in handling cultural issues. Indonesia
can learn from Greece. It has a powerful directorate of museums
and archaeology, directly under the prime minister.

"It is also important to have a minister who really
understands and cares about cultural heritage," he said.

The present Minister of National Education Yahya Muhaimin
seems reluctant and slow in taking action.

The New Order government contributed to the destruction of
numerous archaeological findings and cultural legacies.

"This is so pathetic, ironic and foolish. They only think
about temporary temptation to gain money," he added.

For Mundardjito, to rip archaeology from the earth and the
water is an attack not just on us but on the future of children
and civilization. (raw)