Indonesia, under President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, is committed to continuing its ambitious infrastructure drive to boost the economy, even vowing to inject Rp 10 trillion (US$708 million) toward the development of “10 New Balis” in an effort to grow local economies and develop tourism.

Such large-scale development is feared to have a detrimental impact on the environment and repositories of history and culture, but the government has vowed to pursue a national strategy that strikes a balance between preserving history and promoting overdue development.

Efforts to preserve cultural heritage sites should be able to shift the perspective of development, said Hilmar Farid, the Education and Culture Ministry’s culture director general.

“When we are [in] this race for more development, I think monuments of world [...] cultural heritage will always remind us that there are more important things than development,” he said in a discussion held in cooperation with UNESCO.

President Jokowi recently announced that the government was fast-tracking the development of five of the 10 priority tourist destinations by the end of 2020, which includes the Borobudur temple, an ancient Buddhist compound that has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Now the government is keen to use the monument’s wide appeal as an asset for diplomacy.

“Development may go on and changes may occur in our society, but for 1,200 years the monument has remained. And what is interesting about Borobudur is that it is a Buddhist temple in the middle of a community that is currently predominantly Muslim; there is no better symbol for peace and tolerance,” Hilmar said on Monday.

Indonesia has a total of 49 national heritage sites that have gained worldwide recognition. These include Borobudur and the Sangiran Early Man Site in Central Java, the Hindu Prambanan temple compound in neighboring Yogyakarta and the Ombilin coal mine in, Sawahlunto, West Sumatra, the oldest coal mine in Southeast Asia.

The country also had natural heritage sites such as the Komodo and Ujung Kulon national parks and the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra, as well as four global geoparks and 16 biosphere reserves, said Febrian Ruddyard, the Foreign Ministry’s multilateral affairs director general.

Febrian said Indonesia had actively contributed to the World Heritage Program, with six submissions in the UNESCO designation categories of Geopark, Biosphere Reserve, Memory of the World and Creative Cities still pending. In 2019, four sites were added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites, including the Ombilin coal mine and Ambon city in Maluku.

“We have done quite a lot, because Indonesia is considered by UNESCO to be a superpower in the field of culture. We are doing our part in sharing the world's cultural heritage and not [claiming it as] ours exclusively,” he said during Monday’s discussion. “Now we hope that by maintaining it, we can foster a sense of solidarity to protect world peace and security.”

UNESCO representative to Indonesia Shahbaz Khan said Indonesian culture, whether tangible or intangible, had brought about many ideas that underscored the importance of peace.

“Because there are more than 17,000 islands, there are so many cultures, once we bring them together the whole world will benefit,” he said.

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