Not on bread alone

Not on bread alone

Man cannot live on bread alone, says the Bible. And in the
1960s, when visiting Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev chided
Indonesia's first president Sukarno for spending too much money
and effort on grandiose cultural undertakings and not enough on
industrial development, the latter was said to have retorted --
paraphrasing Vladimir Ilyich Lenin -- that people needed pants
too in order to achieve progress, thus throwing back at his
communist guest the words of the venerated founder of the Soviet
state.

Indeed, over the millennia, this same truism has been stated
time and time again, in different forms and by different
personalities. But perhaps one of the most concrete examples of
what those words actually mean was provided by Jakarta's governor
Ali Sadikin in the 1970s, when he launched the first Jakarta Fair
at Monas Square, setting into motion a month of festivities to
mark the anniversary of the founding of the city.

Indonesia's capital city, more so perhaps than any other
community in Indonesia, urban or rural, has for centuries been a
major melting pot of ethnic, cultural, religious and racial
groups coming from all parts of the archipelago and from the
world. Out of Indonesia's hundreds of ethnic populations, there
is hardly one that is not represented in this city.

In order to motivate that hodgepodge of population groups to
work toward the city's advancement in those difficult years, a
common sense of belonging and pride had to be instilled among all
of Jakarta's residents, regardless of their creed and racial or
ethnic background. The people of Jakarta, the governor reasoned,
have to be made to feel that they are Jakartans and to take pride
in that fact.

It would go beyond the purpose of this column to pass judgment
on whether or not former governor Ali Sadikin succeeded in his
drive. The undisputed fact remains, however, that even up to this
day, the live wire governor is commonly regarded as Jakarta's
most successful governor. Apart from a few new facilities, such
as the construction of toll roads and flyovers, there is hardly
one that had not been put in place by the time he ended his
governorship in 1977.

All this leads us to the string of art festivals that has to a
certain extent livened up the dismal social and political
landscape that has prevailed in Indonesia these past few months.
In contrast to similar events held in previous years, the Bali
Art Festival was launched with relatively little fanfare, due, no
doubt, to the memory of the Oct. 12 bombing tragedy in Kuta last
year.

Similarly, the Borobudur International Festival in Central
Java last week appeared to be suffering from a lack of foreign
visitors, brought about by the Bali bombing incident and the
subsequent travel warnings that were issued by several foreign
governments. The same might possibly be said of the Jakarta Art
Festival and the Five Mounts Festival at Warangan village at the
foot of Mount Merbabu in Central Java over the past weekend,
although the latter did enjoy considerable success locally.

One question that might possibly arise in view of all that has
been said, then, is: Can it be justified, in these times of
crisis and terrorist concerns, to organize elaborate art
festivals whose main purpose is to draw visitors and, more in
particular, their money? While it may be true that tourism
revenue is the major driving force that sets the tourist industry
in motion, it must be borne in mind that for the average person,
art, culture or entertainment -- whatever one may call these
events, even kitsch -- have a function to perform in society that
goes well beyond commercialism.

It is a well-accepted fact that prolonged exposure to
stressful conditions can have an adverse effect on even the most
healthy of individuals. Art festivals -- or whatever is
understood by the word "art" -- provides at least some relief.
What's more, they also provide that other thing that every person
needs besides bread, as referred to in the Bible, or Sukarno's
pants for the people. In brief, if it is not tourism, then it is
the people who can benefit from art festivals or performances.
Let us not deny the people this means of preserving their sanity.