Government told not to sideline culture

Tantri Yuliandini and Kasparman Piliang, The Jakarta Post, Bukittinggi, West Sumatra

The fifth National Congress on Culture in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, ended on Wednesday with dozens of recommendations that the government should take into account when drafting future policies.

The recommendations included building cultural awareness through national education to encourage the development of new cultural forms, avoiding the desecration of functioning religious places, encouraging a philanthropic spirit for the development of science, technology and art, and establishing a ministry of culture to ensure the independence of culture.

Congress Steering Committee member Edi Sedyawati said the establishment of an independent ministry for cultural affairs was urgent.

"Looking at the current condition, this (proposal) is urgent. At least return it (culture) to its original position with the education ministry because there at least we have the same scope of activity: to educate and cultivate," said Edi, former director general for culture during the Soeharto era.

During the Soeharto era, culture was attached to the ministry of education and culture. When Abdurrahman Wahid became president in 1999, culture was merged with education in the Ministry of National Education. In 2000, culture was overseen by the ministry of culture and tourism, and in 2002 it was divided into the Office of the State Minister of Culture and Tourism and the Indonesia Culture and Tourism Agency (BP-Budpar). Under the current government, culture is overseen by the Office of the State Minister of Culture and Tourism.

"The idea emerged with the hope that culture will have a bigger focus, with a ministry and a minister representative of the whole entity of culture, for example in Cabinet meetings," said Edi, who is also a professor of archaeology at the University of Indonesia.

She pointed out that European countries such as France and Finland had a separate ministry for culture in their governments.

Edi said it was not enough just to have a state minister overseeing culture in Indonesia, explaining that many things in the cultural scope needed concrete action rather than just government policies, which was all that a state minister could determine.

"For example, in the case of heritage culture, archaeological and historical remains may look ugly but valuable to science. Who in the government would fork out lots money for archaeological excavations, or for restorations or conservation?" she said, explaining that culture should not have to compete for attention with either education or tourism in the state budget.

Edi stressed that whether standing independently or attached to the education or tourism sector, the people overseeing culture should be professional with a clear vision and mission about culture and its problems.

This professionalism was further highlighted in the need for specific curatorial and managerial training for the actors of art, including in the recommendations read by steering committee chairman Toeti Heraty N. Roosseno.

This professionalism was needed in order to bring culture into a full fledged art industry, she added.

"Art industry means an industry that produces works of art continuously, not merely based on inspiration like it is now," playwright Putu Wijaya and member of the steering committee said, explaining that to do this, actors in the art world must be professionals who know how to achieve optimum results for their art.

Some 570 participants from across Indonesia convened in the small town of Bukittinggi, about two and a half hours from the West Sumatra capital, Padang, for the congress. Participants included artists, cultural experts, scholars, community leaders, government officials and students.

Ninety-six papers were presented in the three plenary discussions and 30 commissions, which finally extracted 18 recommendations out of the 16 widely diverse topics, which included topics on integration and disintegration, authority crisis, conflict and violence, cultural heritage, gender streamlining, education, language and symbolism, pop culture and entertainment, religion and spirituality, and science and technology.

"The congress has not only produced a set of recommendations to the government, but a document of events and thoughts that will be presented to the government in the hope that it will heed them," Putu said.