Courting arts and culture

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