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Walk the talk: Countering corruption culture
Act now: Visitors browse through works on display at the launching of artistsâ campaign against corruption at Taman Ismail Marzuki arts center in Central Jakarta on Thursday
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span class="inline inline-center">Act now: Visitors browse through works on display at the launching of artists' campaign against corruption at Taman Ismail Marzuki arts center in Central Jakarta on Thursday. JP/Don
Fed up with the development, the Jakarta Arts Council (DKJ), along with artists from different fields and art foundations, launched an action to call for a stop to corruption.
The event, called Seni Melawan Korupsi (Art against Corruption), was launched at the Taman Ismail Marzuki arts center in Cikini, Central Jakarta on Thursday.
DKJ chairman Irawan Karseno said it took the artists only about a week to set up the event ' signifying their solidity in the fight against corruption.
He said they were inspired by the courage shown by suspended Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) leaders Abraham Samad and Bambang Widjojanto in the commission's row with the police.
They also admired the courage shown by Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahja Purnama, who dared to face hundreds of angry Jakarta council members by himself in the fight against corruption.
Ahok reported alleged city budget irregularities to the KPK involving suspicious allocations in the councilors' version of the draft 2015 city budget totaling Rp 12.1 trillion (US$932 million). He also reported irregularities found in the 2012 to 2014 city budgets.
'We, as artists, then thought that we needed to do something to show our contempt for corruption so we launched this exhibition,' Irawan says.
'Corruption is more than just having your money stolen, it kills people, it ruins the environment and it damages a nation.'
At the event, the artists exhibited works and staged performances, ranging from standup comedy, dramatic reading and documentary screenings.
Artists who took part in the event included monolog artist Butet Kartaredjasa, poet Agus Noor and Acehnese folk singer PM Toh.
Fighting deep-rooted corruption, just like in treating cancer, requires determination.
In the old days, corruption had become so severe that Bung Hatta, one of the nation's founding fathers whose anti-corruption stance was legendary, lamented that it had become part of the country's culture.
Even a popular fairy tale, titled Kancil Nyolong Timun (Mouse-Deer Stealing Cucumbers), glorifies the act of stealing and manipulation. In the fairy tale, the mouse deer steals cucumbers from farmers or tricks other animals to reach its goals, but at the end of the story it is treated like a hero.
The story, often told to children in kindergarten and elementary school, has long been criticized for failing to deliver an anticorruption message to children.
The corruption culture is apparently still as strong as ever, prompting groups of concerned citizens take the initiative ' starting a counter-culture movement in an attempt to fight the severe corrupt mind-set using the arts.
The event's organizer, Abduh Aziz, said the art community had grown really sick of watching the political drama and blatant conspiracies that had relentlessly tried to weaken all anti-corruption attempts.
'The latest incidents are more than just conflicts among the elites. They are a systematic attempt to weaken the anti-corruption movement. The KPK is being killed, slowly,' Abduh said.
The artists involved in the event have pledged that their movement will be a long-term fight, not just a sporadic, one-time thing.
'We have been coordinating with artists in other regions to make this art against corruption movement sustainable civil activism,' Irawan says.
