Courting arts and culture

After a 12-year hiatus, the Fifth National Congress on Culture was once again organized, hoping to give direction and guidance for the development of arts and culture in the country.

At the congress, held in the hill town of Bukittingi, West Sumatra, from Oct. 20-22, the 570 participants tried to pin down concepts, policies and strategies of Indonesian culture, as well as putting together a set of recommendations in the hope of influencing culture-friendly government policies.

In the end, the steering committee came up with 18 points of recommendation, including the establishment of a separate ministry of culture to ensure independent development of culture, as well as inclusion of cultural awareness in national education to encourage further development of new cultures, avoid social disintegration and violence.

Convincing political leaders on the importance and value of the recommendations would be the next step. However, with the way things now stand, this would probably be the most difficult step in the process.

As playwright Wisran Hadi put it, "Where are all the political people? Where are all the country's officials? Not one (bothered to come), because they think culture is only about (poet) Rendra, about (playwright) Putu Wijaya, no political content. While we believe political understanding is itself a part of culture."

-- Text and photos

by Tantri Yuliandini