Developing the Creative Industry

Mid of November 2007; most of the Indonesian citizens, especially the public of Ponorogo, East Java; responded hard to the claim Malaysia made on the Barongan art for its similarity to the Reog Ponorogo. Various demonstrations were even held at that time. Among them is the one did by the Reog Ponorogo artists and enthusiasts from East and Central Java; assembled in front of the Malaysian Embassy on 29 November 2007.

This has not happened once or twice. We surely still remember what a calamity it was when Malaysia claimed batik, and how sensational it went when the pendet dance from Bali was used in the Discovery Channel program titled Enigmatic Malaysia. Actions by the neighbouring country that often times are considered claiming the arts originated from Indonesia are quite “tickling” for the Indonesian society.

How should we react to such inappropriate act? And what mitigations can be done to protect and also develop our culture? The following is the thought by culturist Taufik Rahzen, summarized from the interview held with the man, Monday, 7 June 2010 in the Newseum Cafe, Veteran Street 1 No. 33, Paseban, Central Jakarta.

Firstly; it is globalization that drives the entire nation to building self identity, the identity that will distinguish us from other nations, that is an internal movement, to the inside. But on the other hand there is also the demand to be a shared culture, to be a culture that is collectively owned. That is why there is the choice on what is called collective heritage or global heritage, that the cultural responsibility is not only the nations, but also the worlds. Now, the understanding of a collective possession is then manifested in the acts of respecting copyright, cultural right, and selfimprovement right of people from certain cultures. That is the basic frame.

Then, how does Indonesia play in those two sides? On one hand we have been panicking much on the claims of other countries towards our culture, when on the other hand, we sometimes don’t pay enough attention to the culture itself. Even if there are those that care for it, that is one form of affirmation that cultures can be a collective possession.

The clearest example is the Reog. Malaysia claimed Reog also. What needs to be known is that the people that develop Reog there are the Javanese people who have resided in the country, and they have the right to do just so. There should be no problems. Same thing as jazz. America owns jazz, so why would Indonesia have the biggest jazz festival in the world? That is called shared culture. However, when made an icon, that’s when the limits set it. That was the mistake that happened with the pendet dance case. When pendet dance is used as an icon by a country for commercial purposes, in this case tourism that should be fought against.

But when pendet does evolve in Malaysia in the future; that should be supported. Also, when gamelan progresses in America and becomes a study, the same thing must be done. And sasando, when enlisted as the world music, people will wtill know that ssando is from the East of Indonesia, from Rote; because there is no way that the country that does And so, how fas can a culture be improved in the name of advancing a country? In America, their largest industry is thecultural industry, especially pop culture. Music and film are big values. And what’s more expanded is the software, as it contributes the higest deal in entertainment. Culture has ultimately been made into a creative industry.

In reality, at this point the entire cultural improvement has lead to the direction of creative industry. It is now how far we can fo in offering, exploring, and integrating it to our daily routine.

America was successful in doing so. In Europe, they’re building a classic tradition, and that is why the museums, conservatories, and cafes are established, to show the real cultural industry. We should possess the planning for cultural use or benefitting especially towards the creating of creative industry.

Indonesia can refer to both. This means that using the background of traditional heritage, plurality, biodiversity that have already been in the society, a lengthy historical journey, can be for the purpose of creating new works. The most genial example from the Indonesian people is actually the Indonesian language. Indonesian language was invented and new, standing from the support of other ancient languages, that vertically is from ancient Malayan, Sanskrit, Deutsche, and also spreads horizontally to traditional languages. Aside from that on one hand it is the duty of the country to preserve existing cultures. Such as the ketoprak tobong that is now gone because it got no appreciation from the government. The government’s duty is to preserve, even though there is no benefit from the financial aspect, but it is from there that the sources of creativity and inspiration are from and it originated from those kinds of folk shows. The step to improve our culture in order to make it competitive to other countries is that first we should create an infrastructure. The most significant infrastructure is one environment that allows the emergence of creative industry, creative economy, and that is also related to the lifestyle.

The second infrastructure is government policy. How the innovation management is integrated to the government policy, so not to let bureaucracy come in the way or give issues on the occurrence of innovations.

The justice system should also not make people feel reluctant to conduct new experiments. Thirdly the management and marketing of the creative industry system. I personally feel that those three things could make our culture and creative industry to improve.

Teks Darma Ismayanto
Interview with Taufik Rahzen
Source: arti special edition