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ndonesia’s cultural heritage may be eventually lost in the mists of time as the newly inaugurated deputy education and culture minister for cultural affairs, Wiendu Nuryanti, intends to focus on its economic aspects to benefit citizens.

“Culture must not be static or rigid. It shouldn’t be kept in a greenhouse to be looked at. We must conserve culture yet at the same time create innovations so that it will benefit people economically and socially,” she told The Jakarta Post.

The Gadjah Mada University professor of architecture and tourism planning said that she planned to approach culture from the development perspective for the next three years during her stint with the ministry.

Wiendu, who has a doctorate in tourism planning and regional development, said that the ministry, along with different stakeholders such as sociologists and artists, would soon prepare a blueprint for cultural development comprising five principles, namely character building; history, heritage and cultural innovation; cultural diplomacy; human resources and institutional building on culture; and cultural infrastructure.

After almost 11 years, the government has reunited the Directorate General of Culture and the Directorate General of Education under the national education ministry, which is now called the Education and Culture Ministry.

The government separated the two directorates general and placed the Directorate General of Culture under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in December 2000, in order to boost tourism.

While tourism has barely expanded, cultural preservation has also suffered. The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) recorded only 7 million foreign tourists in 2010, a less than 30 percent increase in eight years.

In the absence of strong legal enforcement, rampant theft of historic artifacts and relics from local museums and historical sites has occurred in many regions.

Historical buildings in many regions have also lost out to regional development as there are no guidelines for preserving historical buildings and other forms of cultural heritage.

Critics have long demanded that the government separate the culture division from the tourism ministry since the commercialism in tourism is seen as a hindrance to the development and preservation of culture.

Sociologist Ignas Kleden and director of the Yogyakarta-based Karta Pustaka Anggi Minarni has welcomed the recent change because he sees it as a positive attempt to improve national education and preserve Indonesian culture.

He also said that it was important to involve local people in any attempts to develop culture.

“The government must give local communities the opportunity to create cultural innovations and also support them financially to motivate them to be continuously innovative,” he said.

He, however, said the integration might also lead to failure if the government introduced the wrong strategies in its policies and programs.

“The minister and his deputies must consider the cultural heterogeneity of Indonesia in establishing policies or designing programs.”

Prominent Muslim scholar Azyumardi Azra said that he doubted whether bringing the two directorates general together is a good idea.

“The ministry will have too much to deal with,” he said.

Doubts have also been voiced to Wiendu, a tourism development icon who is popular for her pro-market outlook.

Chairing the project to build the Jagad Jawa Arts Market in the Borobudur temple compound, Central Java, in 2003, she was criticized for planning to design the area like a shopping center.

The arts market was planned as a three-story building with 1,200 kiosks inside to accommodate between 1,500 vendors and provide information about Borobudur and various tourist facilities for visitors.

Marco Kusumawijaya, an architect and urban planner who petitioned against the project, voiced doubt about Wiendu’s capacity in preserving cultural heritage.

The project was eventually canceled. “I don’t think Wiendu has the capacity to appreciate and preserve cultural heritage such as Borobudur,” said Marco. (msa)