RI, Holland to set up joint heritage committee

RI, Holland to set up joint heritage committee

Ida Indawati Khouw, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The governments of Indonesia and the Netherlands have agreed
to set up a joint heritage committee to preserve Indonesia's
Dutch related heritage, the visiting Dutch State Secretary for
Education, Culture and Science, Frederick van der Ploeg, said.

The agreement was reached after a meeting with Minister of
Culture and Tourism I Gede Ardhika on Thursday. The committee is
expected to be set up by the middle of next year.

"The committee will be tasked with identifying a number of
feasible joint projects, which can be carried out within a quick
time frame, in the fields of museums, archeology, monuments and
archives," he told a press conference at Kedai Tempo in East
Jakarta, before completing his week-long official visit.

He said that conserving heritage in Indonesia was very
important for a number of reasons. "The archives of the VOC
(Verenigde Oost Indische Compagnie, the Dutch East India Company
-- the ruler of the Dutch East Indies until 1799) here, for
example, also tell us a lot of things about the history of other
countries, such as Sri Lanka, Japan and the rest of Asia."

He said that so far there had been some ad hoc preservation
projects that involved the provision of training courses by
experts from the Royal Institute of the Tropics for museum staff
as well as for archivists on special methods of conserving the
archives.

Van der Ploeg said that his visit to Indonesia was important
because for the last two years, following the approval of the
Dutch parliament, Indonesia had been considered as the priority
country for cultural exchanges.

Another reason for his visit was related to the planned major
commemoration of the VOC's 400th anniversary in the Netherlands
next year.

"I have encouraged people involved in the commemoration
project to also pay particular attention to the not so pleasant
aspect of the VOC. One should not just see it as something
glorious, (that is) the contribution to the golden age of the
Netherlands but also to humanitarian, economic and other aspects.

"Many things should be documented such as what happened in
Indonesia and other parts of Asia (during the VOC era), which has
possibly cast something of a shadow over Dutch history," he said.

Van der Ploeg added: "We should make the new generations
realize that many of the beautiful canal houses of Amsterdam were
built from the wealth of this part of the world. I learned a lot
about that by talking to Indonesian experts and Cabinet ministers
so as to gain a bit more of an understanding about the sensitive
aspects of this issue."