Sculptors join appeal to defend statue of farmers

JAKARTA (JP): Two noted sculptors urged people, including the Betawi people (native Jakartans), on Wednesday not to destroy the farmer's statue (Tugu Tani) because of its artistic and diplomatic value.

Sculptor Arsono contended that the statue illustrated the congenial diplomatic relations between the Russian and Indonesian governments at that time as well the beauty and technical skill of the statue's sculptors.

"The statue is one of the most beautiful statues in Jakarta. The Betawi people should not be provoked," said Arsono, who made several statues in the city, including the statue of poet Chairil Anwar in National Monument (Monas) park, Central Jakarta.

Contacted separately from his hometown of Yogyakarta, sculptor Edhi Sunaryo supported Arsono's statement, expressing regret should the statue really be destroyed.

"It would destroy our relations with the Russian government since it was a gift from their country," Sunaryo, the sculptor who designed the Welcome Statue at Hotel Indonesia's traffic circle, said.

Both Sunaryo and Arsono disagreed with the view that the statue symbolized communist ideology. They said it described Indonesia's struggle against colonialism.

Arsono said the statue's Russian sculptors Matvei Manizer and Otto Manizer tried to depict the Indonesian struggle during the colonial era by symbolizing it with farmers.

"As artists, the sculptors, using their freedom of expression, made farmers, not soldiers, heroes of that time," Arsono said.

The statue depicts a farmer wearing a caping (farmer's hat) and carrying a bayonet and a woman who symbolizes the motherland giving her blessings to her son to go to the battlefield.

The sculptors probably viewed the caping as an object symbolizing the Indonesian people who struggled against colonialism, Arsono said.

"So that's why the statue was named a hero statue, not the farmers statue, although it later became better known as the farmers statue," he said.

Edhi, nevertheless, argued that the statue did not really portray Indonesians as the man and woman there were "too beautiful" to represent Indonesians.

"The figures of the farmer couple were too perfect for Indonesians. I as a sculptor would not make it like that. That was totally the Russian style at that time," he said.

Nevertheless, Edhi said the statue had historical value, besides its artistic value, and therefore it must be protected from any possible attack.

He pleaded with Muslim groups not to destroy the statue as it was not used for worshiping.

"Only stupid people would be provoked into destroying the statue," Arsono said.

The Anticommunist Alliance (AAK), consisting of several Muslim "hard-line" organizations and Betawi youth, in its campaign against communism has called on the authorities to destroy Tugu Tani which it considers to be a product of communism. Otherwise, it warned, its people would destroy the statue by themselves.

Meanwhile, the chairman of Tanah Abang Big Family Association (IKBT), M. Yusuf Muhi, refused to join the campaign to destroy the statue.

"The statue is not our concern. So far no party has asked us to join forces to destroy it," Yusuf, popularly known as Bang Ucu, told reporters on Wednesday.

However, he said IKBT would join the anticommunist campaign in targeting leftist books if the association was asked to join the campaign. (jun)