Foreign cultural programs go on despite crisis
By Izabel Deuff
JAKARTA (JP): Many expatriates have left for home due the country's political instability, and a lot of foreign tourists canceled their trips as sensational news of the May riots hit home.
Even so, most of the foreign cultural centers here are committed to keeping their cultural agendas even if they have had to make short-term modifications in their plans.
The Japan Cultural Foundation has postponed a Japanese speech contest, originally scheduled for May 16, until Sept. 19. The Second Asian Cartoon Exhibition scheduled from May 18 to May 31 has been put off for three weeks.
A Kaiwakai (conversation meeting) planned for May 27 was called off.
"It was canceled because all the teachers from the Japan Foundation left for Japan," said Mrs. Ita in charge of communication.
Erasmus Huis, the Dutch cultural center, decided to cancel two concerts and a dance performance by Introdans, originally planned in late May and early June. They also canceled the Dutch Gamelan Festival, scheduled for July.
But the center will maintain its policy to promote cultural links between Dutch and Indonesia. Even though several programs were canceled, it is sticking to most of the planned cultural activities. In June, it organized three concerts and an art exhibition. Two other concerts will take place in July.
"Many people need evening relaxation," David C. Korthals Altes, director of the center, said.
The French Cultural Center (FCC) postponed a cultural event, Voices of Disappearing Harmony, on the Asmat and Dayak tribes and a documentary film festival which was due for May and early June. No new dates have been set.
Two main events have also been put on the back burner: an exhibition featuring the Franco-Swiss sculptor Ronald Curchod's works on Indonesia and the involvement of Philippe Cottenceau, a French specialist of kites, in the Indonesia Kite Festival in Jakarta, scheduled from June 31 to July 3.
La Fete de la Musique (the festival of music), known as a great event in France and scheduled for June 21, was canceled partly because of the risks involved in its staging. It was originally planned in an outdoor area but the safety of such a large group of people could not be assured.
Likewise, the British Council called off a series of concerts titled "Piano Circus", scheduled to be performed by six pianists in Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya and Yogyakarta. It cost the British Council US$10,000 in compensation, which is in addition to the $16,000 in compensation for the cancellation of a meeting on modern music scheduled for March 10, a day before the election of then president Soeharto.
The council has just finished screening several films in the British Film Festival, held to commemorate its 50th anniversary in Indonesia.
The first effects of the riots on the foreign cultural centers was their closing for a few days.
The main activities of these centers were thus jolted: most of the language teaching courses have had to be rescheduled because there would have been few, if any, students on hand.
Hans Groot, the language counselor for the Dutch Language Center, said the registration target for the most recent session in March was reached easily.
Course attendance was affected at first, he said, but subsequently rebounded. "First, it seemed there were only a few people but then 65 percent to 70 percent of our students came back."
FCC director Yves Ollivier said he was confident the number of students for the second semester of the language courses, which will start in August, will exceed the previous one.
Both the FCC and the Japan Foundation have maintained their course fees despite the increasing prices, while the Dutch language center and the Goethe Institute have slightly increased their prices.
The centers may be feeling a little pinch from the crisis. Even if the major part of their budgets is in their currency, some centers get their receipts in rupiah. Accordingly, they need to find ways to cope with the situation. For example, the British Council is now considering asking for higher subsidies and seeking lower airfares to send Indonesian students overseas.
"We cannot ignore the crisis. But our wish is to minimize its effect on our offerings to the public," Ollivier said.
Other cultural centers seem to maintain this policy as the usual activities of the centers keep on functioning. They do not want to disappoint people, especially when their Indonesian partners reassert their willingness to fulfill what was planned a long time ago.
Thus, if they take part in the next edition of Art Summit'98, this should mean more today: it would be a way to challenge the economic crisis and for the foreign cultural centers to support culture in Indonesia. But the decision to cancel or set this year's Art Summit, scheduled for September, is in the government's hands. The Ministry of Education and Culture should make its decision in the first week of July.