The 100th installment of the long-running Indonesian Culture Congress opened this week, with the stark aim of getting more government strategies and resolutions regarding cultural development and preservation.

This year’s edition, taking place at the Education and Culture Ministry from Dec. 5 to 9, could be crucial because the resolutions and the strategies drawn up there would affect the public development of culture for the next two decades.

Having been active in Indonesia since 1918, the congress has always been treated by government officials as a medium for making crucial decisions regarding cultural development in Indonesia and for sharing ideas.

The Education and Culture Ministry’s cultural director general, Hilmar Farid, said the resolutions would include several points to be given to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo so that other ministries, as well as national institutions, could voluntarily follow up on them.

“The first result we are aiming for is a formal national cultural strategy, which would be run in accordance with the laws and the Constitution on a city-wide or regency-wide scale. The second aim is the congress-end resolution, which would involve participants of the congress,” Hilmar said.

Participants were asked to suggest ideas on what to do and they can submit funding-related ideas through a kind of trust fund set up by the ministry so the process would not be weighed down by the notorious government bureaucracy.

“These cultural strategies would be more abstract in nature because they would serve as a guideline for the next 20 years. The concrete results would come from the resolutions,” Hilmar said.

However, it is not yet known what these resolutions are to be, or what kind of strategies would be implemented, or how they would be implemented and for how long or for what fields of culture. As per our culture: Discuss first, do later.

Hilmar Farid (JP/PJ Leo)

At the congress itself, myriad different fields and exhibits were to be displayed to point out the diversity of the arts and cultural fields taking form in Indonesia, from literature discussions, film discussions, the showcasing and making of traditional instruments, illustration workshops, food demonstrations and even scientific discussions.

With an idea this grand, it would be a shame if the presentations and the cultural exhibitions that are presented at the congress itself were to be unengaging and uninteresting.

Sure, the topics discussed ranged from the differences between local languages and dialects in poetry, the development of culture against the conservation of nature and history lectures on culture-centric laws, but without a sincerely engaging way of presentation, these important topics would just be forgotten the minute people walk out the door.

Some of the presentations in the main Graha Budaya hall, were styled as public lectures.

Nobody on stage on Dec. 5 really put any effort into making their presentations more interesting or even engaged with the audience, thus wasting their interesting points and research about their chosen fields of culture.

However, not everything was like this.

The congress’ events did encapsulate a diverse range of Indonesian arts and culture, ranging from food to sketches, graffiti murals, film and music.

Artists of all ages were equally represented at the congress, which is a welcome revelation of the government’s gradual recognition of young people’s roles in the arts.

The congress aimed to embrace the range of cultural and artistic artifacts and skills and did so with a commendable effort, challenging the oft-proven skepticism that such cultural events usually just put cultural dances, murals and food around the area as decorative notions of culture without really understanding what they are.

Throughout the next few days, several Indonesian performance artists and musicians are on the bill to showcase their art in hopes of getting the attention of the government.

The first night was graced by the wonderful, whimsical performance art of Agus “PM Toh” Nur Amal with his signature storytelling method using myriad props consisting of everyday items.

The musicians on the bill represent many genres and sounds, but they all incorporate earthy Indonesian cultural elements in their music. These artists include Robi Navicula, Nasida Ria, Jason Ranti, Bottlesmoker, Suarasama, Theory of Discoustic and Flower Girls.

The entertainment portion, which is basically a showcase of Indonesian culture by the artists themselves, proved to provide a better understanding of the state of Indonesian cultural development than the lectures and debates.