Salim Said resigns from Jakarta Arts Council
JAKARTA (JP): Chairman of the Jakarta Arts Council (DKJ) Salim Said and six other board members tendered their resignations Friday, following rancorous demands they step down.
With literary figure Taufik Ismail at the helm, Hamid Jabbar, Salim, Adi Kurdi, Chaerul Umam, Slamet Soekirnanto and Tommy F. Awuy followed suit and resigned, council member Ratna Riantiarno told The Jakarta Post yesterday.
The seven were among 27 members of the board.
Separately before his resignation, Salim told the Post that in the event he resigned from the board it would be not because of the demands made by young artists and students, but because "situations had become unbearable for him to continue working at the board".
Following the drive by prominent artists and art students for the immediate dismissal of the DKJ board and the Jakarta Academy of Arts and Culture (AJ), the board which elects DKJ members, Friday's meeting also saw the surrendering of the DKJ mandate to AJ members Iravati Sudiarso and Taufiq Abdullah.
In a meeting organized by DKJ on Tuesday, poet Sitok Srengenge read a statement, Bongkar (Remove), signed by at least 100 people and dated June 1.
Signatories included poet Afrizal Malna, playwright Ratna Sarumpaet, production designer Mualim M. Sukethi, musician Sawung Jabo, film director Garin Nugroho and actor Ikranegara.
Their demands included freeing the arts from red tape, censorship and banning. Despite a 1995 government decree stating that performances no longer need permits, artists say in reality they still face bureaucratic obstacles.
At a local level, they demanded the DKJ board elected April 21 for the term 1998/2001 disband itself.
Artists said they wanted changes in how DKJ board members were selected. They also criticized the lifetime membership tenures of members of the Jakarta Academy.
Since 1970, board members have been selected by the Jakarta Academy before being approved by the governor.
The artists argued board members should be selected through voting by city artists.
Sitok said in a prepared statement that members "are clearly old figures who no longer follow the dynamics of the arts in society" and had "no objectivity" in electing council members.
The board elected April 21 had only a few new faces. Salim led the board for 10 years.
Sitok said yesterday a two-day public discussion was scheduled for June 13 - June 14 to discuss the mechanism of voting to elect new members of the council by Jakarta artists.
Other topics may include government regulation of the arts.
Sitok said the forum of about 20 members had invited government officials, non-governmental organizations, cultural observers, business people and art critics.
Playwright Ratna of the Teater Koma troupe warned of tough tasks ahead for new board members, particularly on lobbying for funds.
"I agree that some of them have brilliant artistic ideas, but can they convey them articulately enough to get funding for the programs? Pak Salim did that before ..."
She claimed those who opposed the board had forgotten about Indonesian ethics and culture when it came to dealing with elders.
"Out of the around 100 signatures asking for the board dismissal, only about 20 were actually artists. The rest were unknowns ... even a five-year-old.
"The children (the dissenting young artists) are ignorant and misinformed about the institutions. Basically, this is just a huge misunderstanding for which a 30-year-old arts council is paying for."
She said that since the founding of the Jakarta Arts Foundation nearly a decade ago, DKJ "never again" took control of budget allocated for Jakarta arts and cultural committees by the city's administration and the National Development Planning Board.
"How can they blame us for monopolizing the budget for the staging of progovernment plays?"
Artists contended that while they faced "politics of licensing," government-sponsored cultural events, supported by the Arts Council, always proceeded smoothly. (ylt)