Archive for June, 2008
Denpasar, Bali (ANTARA News) - Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik will replace President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in opening the 30th Balinese Traditional Arts Festival (PKB) on June 14 next Saturday, Governor Dewa Beratha said here on Monday.
Earlier in the day, the governor had said President Yudhoyono was scheduled to open the festival but it turned out that because of his tight schedule in Jakarta, the head of state would not be able to attend the event, and therefore he would be replaced by the tourism minister.
“The Balinese Traditional Arts Festival was originally scheduled to be opened by President Yudhoyono but he proves unable to do so because of his tight agenda,” Beratha said.
“Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik will open the festival on behalf of President Yudhoyono,” the governor said, adding that eight United Indonesia Cabinet ministers and 12 foreign ambassadors based in Jakarta were also expected to attend the annual cultural event in Bali.
Beratha said the eight ministers invited by the organizing committee were among others Home Affairs Minister Mardiyanto, National Education Minister Bambang Sudibyo, Minister for Women`s Empowerment Meutia Hatta and Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik.
He added the 12 foriegn ambassadors were among others from the United States, Japan, Singapore, India, South Korea, Thailand, Britain, and Malaysia.
The governor said that although Yudhoyono could not open the festival, the president, the ministers and the foreign envoys on the occasion would be treated to cultural attractions and a colossal dance performance performed by Denpasar-based Indonesian Art Institute (ISI) students and lecturers.
Meanwhile, Bali Culture and Tourism Office chief Nyoman Nikanaya said some 38 domestic and foreign personalties would speak at the three-day event from June 14 to 16.
Nyoman Nikanaya said the foreign speakers would be among others UNESCO director general Kaichiro Matsura, Dr Shangkar Dhayal Dvivedi of Uthar Pradesh University in India, Prof Jenkins of the United States, Adrian Vickers of Australia, Shenji Yamasitha of Japan, and Dr Mark Hobar of Britain.
He added that the international speakers once spent some time in Indonesia to conduct research on Balinese traditional culture and arts. (*)
COPYRIGHT © 2008
Source: ANTARA News
June 10th, 2008
A school-based HIV/AIDS education program in Bali, Indonesia, is being hampered by low participation from schools on the island, Oka Negara, an organizer for the program, said Monday, the Jakarta Post reports. “Most schools are hampered by financial problems,” Negara said, adding, “They can’t finance the program.”
The program was launched in 2006 and combines school-based education sessions on HIV/AIDS with extracurricular activities organized by the Students Care Group for HIV/AIDS and Drugs, or KSPAN. According to Negara, Bali’s governor in 2007 issued a decree to establish KSPAN in every junior high and senior high school on the island, but not all schools have made it a priority. Of the 200 schools that have implemented the program and established their own KSPAN, about 50% regularly participate in activities organized by the Bali chapter of Indonesia’s National AIDS Commission, according to the Post.
Elyas Pawelloi, a program coordinator for the National AIDS Commission, said that the commission “used to have HIV/AIDS prevention programs that [it] delivered through seminars or workshops, and the results were disappointing because there were only several students who attended the events and the information did not last long.” Pawelloi added that the commission “decided to integrate the HIV/AIDS education program with the related curriculum, like biology or sociology.” According to Negara, “Bali is quite lucky because [the] program is supported by the regional administrations.” He added, “Now, we have to strengthen and expand this program.” Negara noted that “[p]eople should realize that students are the spearhead of the HIV/AIDS prevention efforts, because they belong to one of the most vulnerable groups to HIV/AIDS.”
According to the Post, the commission organized a three-day event that began on Wednesday and involves around 250 students. Anak Agung Ketut Sujana, head of the event’s organizing committee, said, “The event aims at establishing a network of cooperation among different KSPAN, as well as providing a forum for the students to share information” (Wardany, Jakarta Post, 6/4).
Source: http://www.news-medical.net/
June 9th, 2008
By TOM COCKREM
Denpasar is definitively Balinese — in its temples, buildings, markets and friendly people.
Bali is an exotic repository of Hindu and Buddhist cultural treasures, courtesy of past refugee dynasties from Java. Denpasar, I had imagined would be the one place bereft of the ceremonial and artistic splendour you associate with this luxuriant little island. I could not have been more wrong.
Like most visitors to Bali, I had never been encouraged to stay in the capital — not by fellow travellers, guide books or my personal guide. It was really just a hunch that had me defy all the pundits and give myself four days in Denpasar.
It was perhaps fortunate for me that my stay corresponded with the time of the full moon (purnama), a phenomenon that inspires a feast of celebrations, with copious temple offerings and boundless goodwill. But ceremony aside, Denpasar clearly has one great asset to recommend it to the visitor.
As much as any city could be, it is definitively Balinese — in its temples, its buildings, its markets and in its friendly people. I got most of my enjoyment simply cruising the markets and the streets, popping in and out of shops and stopping off to eat.
I was given an inkling of how celebrities must feel. There were exuberant greetings from almost everyone I passed, invitations to sit and chat, offerings of food — yes, I was given a banana and a soft drink in a shoe shop!
It’s mandatory to do the walking tour. This takes in some splendid and evocative temples, the fabulously vibrant produce market (Pasar Badung), the handicraft market (Pasar Kumbasari), Kampung Arab with its quaint old fabric shops and the famous Museum Negeri Propinsi Bali. These are all within the vicinity of the main shopping street, Jalan Gajah Mada.
Pasar Badung requires a good few hours to absorb. The colours are fantastic, to say nothing of the fragrances and the aromas of the spices. Flowers abound, sold as handsome bunches or as mini sacred offerings (canang sari), exquisitely arranged.
The city’s most venerable temple is Pura Jagatnatha. Built in the 70s, it is dedicated to the godhead of the Hindu-Balinese pantheon, Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa.
A towering obelisk, or padmasana, serves as its centrepiece, with the godhead at its crown. The night of the full moon saw the temple compound thronging with the endless comings and goings of earnest devotees. The entire city, it seemed, had turned out in their finest.
A wayang kulit, or shadow puppet show, was also being staged. A simple oil lamp provided the back-lighting. A single puppeteer provided the voices, manipulated all the cast, played percussion with his foot and conducted the orchestra (gamelan). What a guy!
Next to Pura Jagatnatha is the museum. It was set up by the Dutch just a few years after they massacred 4,000 Balinese in what is now Puputan Square — the large park directly opposite the museum. The present day collection is reasonably impressive. But the five display pavilions are themselves the main attraction. They represent Balinese temple and palace architecture in different regional styles, and are set in exquisitely kept grounds.
The full moon ceremonies were certainly not limited to Pura Jagatnatha. Secluded little temples — even humble Seni Market near the lozman where I stayed — were lavishly festooned with rows of padmasana — those monumental pyramids of tropical fruits and flowers that Balinese ladies carry so demurely on their heads. I came across several padmasana processions. They all managed to stop the city traffic.
I also chanced upon a Balinese funeral. These are always monumental events. Several hundred women, all clad in matching purple tunics, marched in single file before and after the sarcophagus, which itself was a fantastically elaborate work of art, and huge enough to accommodate several family members under cover on its top. It too stopped the city traffic.
Yes, Denpasar is above all else definitively Balinese. Shrines are everywhere, archaic-looking monuments, all carved by highly-skilled artists who bring to their work the passion of the humble devotee. Such artistry extends to secular architecture too.
Many of the city’s major banks and “office blocks” are distinctly “Baliesque”. They resemble ancient palaces, with their temple-style split gates, highly decorative columns (like those that adorn Jalan Gajah Mada’s verandahs) and elaborate facades. You almost expect to see the rajah and his entourage parade out through those gates, instead of men in sober business suits.
The city shops also hark back to the past — well, at least to the 50’s. There is little in their windows to tempt a casual visitor, unless you are in the market for a kain kamben (ceremonial wrap-around), a destar (headcloth) or a kebaya (lady’s ceremonial tunic). But Jalan Gajah Mada contains several fine craft shops, and the handicrafts at Pasar Kumbasari draw plenty of eager patrons from the major tourist precincts.
And then there are the malls. Two of the most popular — Matahari and Robinson — are opposite each other on Jalan Teuku Umar, a couple of kilometres south of central Denpasar. If you are not inclined to walk, you can jump into a taxi, a bemo (shared taxi) or a dokar. The latter are the brightly painted pony-carts that clip-clop their way anachronistically through town, defying both the traffic and the times. Matahari especially is a great place to up-date your wardrobe. A sucker for a bargain, I emerged from my shopping spree a totally new man.
Nightlife in Denpasar would seem not to exist. I hardly missed it. There was so much else to do. The shopping malls stay open till 10pm, and Pasar Badung is well and truly hopping still at dawn. There are also any number of warung — Balinese-style kiosks — that stay open very late. You can stop for a beer or coffee — great Balinese coffee — and a chat with whoever might be there. If language is a problem, content yourself with pleasantries and smiles.
I had no trouble filling in my days in Denpasar. I certainly never felt alone. Made to feel very much at home in my garden-shrouded lozman, I felt very much at home in the city as a whole.
Denpasar, I’m sure, would be a joy at any time. But a Balinese-style festival is a special bonus. So when you come to plan your visit, you might want to bear in mind the phases of the moon.
Source: http://thestar.com.my/
June 9th, 2008
Ricardo S. Soler, Contributor, Bali
Surfing in this island capital of the resurgent but again fast-growing sport and art of riding waves is becoming an earnest business, with the introduction of a certification and accreditation system for surfing instructors.
An Australian certifying authority, the Academy of Surfing Instructors (ASI), is now undertaking the process in Bali.
ASI is an international organization setting the world standard for education and accreditation in the surfing industry. Two years ago, ASI started training classes to enable the island’s hundreds of surfing coaches to be certified and accredited.
Some 30 Balinese instructors recently took part in this season’s training and certification program, along with one from the Philippines and a female coach from Australia. The ongoing sessions closed at the end of May.
The student-instructors underwent rigid classroom lectures and actual beach and sea workshops especially designed to inculcate in them the professional expertise that will ensure their students learn more than just the very basics of surfing. Safety in the sport was also highlighted.
“In this way, instructors will stick to the rules and ensure student safety, as well as develop higher levels of skill, proper conduct and duty of care in a sport that, despite its seemingly harmless appearance, can be dangerous if one does not know what he or she is doing,” said Nigel Hutton-Potts, the director general of ASI, which is based in Bondi, Australia.
“There is a science to surfing, it requires more than just getting on a surfboard and riding a wave — there are not only hazards that must be prevented, but also skills that make the sport even more enjoyable that must be learned,” said Tania Nisbett, who is the education director and secretary of ASI.
Tania supervised the classes, which were handled by Darryl Buckley, a surfer who has taught thousands of Australians to surf over the last 15 years.
The expectations were that the appeal of surfing in Bali, arguably one of the most favored surfing sites in the world, would be enhanced, thereby attracting even more enthusiasts from all over the globe to learn the sport in the correct way — far from the sometimes frivolous manner applied by self-taught coaches.
ASI also accredits surfing schools and is currently undertaking a serious expansion program that aims to form affiliates in other countries. An affiliate accreditation agency has already been organized in the Philippines, with Buckley doing the information transfer to the local affiliate.
“All instructors trained by ASI will correspondingly be given certifications indicating their level of proficiency, much in the same manner as is done by certifying authorities in the diving industry,” Hutton-Potts said.
“We expect the new generations of surfing instructors in Bali will benefit from recognition as being experienced in surfing, in varying levels and degrees.
“This augurs well for an industry that has remained basically without any officially established and sanctioned set of rules in many parts of the world,” he said.
Source: The Jakarta Post
June 6th, 2008
Trisha Sertori
There seems to be something extraordinary in the Djelantik gene structure. Family members of this well-known Balinese royal lineage have both sides of the brain switched firmly on.
From the last king of Karangasem, Goesti Bagoes Djelantik, described by his granddaughter, Bulantrisna Djelantik, as “an artist, an architect and a dreamer”, his son, humanitarian, doctor and art patron, A.A.Made Djelantik and his daughter, Bulantrisna, a dancer, doctor and now actress, the family display the best of right and left brain creativity and pragmatism.
However Bulan, as Bulantrisna is known, does not believe this dual nature — this right and left brain hemisphere life view — is restricted to her family, but rather an aspect of Balinese culture.
“I feel everyone can use both sides of the brain, the scientific or logical and the creative, but we don’t use it. All Balinese have this (left and right brain activity)… farmers work in the fields all day and play gamelan all night,” says Bulan, citing just one example of the daily exercise of brain hemispheres that is the norm for many Balinese.
A norm that appears to keep people young and active: At 60 years of age, Bulan is remarkably beautiful — she radiates a calmness that explodes with a zest for life every few minutes in laughter. She is utterly engaged with the world around her. That engagement is seen in her work in medicine, dance, literature, children’s education, film, the environment — just about everything that crosses her radar.
“At the moment we (with Saritaksu Publications) are in the process of releasing the Indonesian language version of Against All Odds by Idanna Puci, with illustrations by my father, A.A.Made Djelantik. The illustrations were done as physiotherapy and it turns out he was making water color paintings of his life ever since he was born.
“Every illustration has a story from his memoirs that touch on courage, ethics — his life as a Balinese prince that had a Western education then came back to Indonesia to work in public health in remote islands back in 1948,” says Bulan of a book that aims to gives kids a hero figure to emulate.
As well as the book, Bulan recently completed her first film-acting role in director Garin Nugroho’s new film Under the Tree.
“The film tells the stories of five women in Bali — that’s why I was willing to do it. It tells the stories behind the postcard of Bali. My role in the film is a doctor who is also a dancer,” laughs Bulan of film imitating life.
She points out there was very little character acting involved as she has danced since she was a small child and continued to dance during her years as a specialist ear doctor.
“Very few people know that when I was writing my Masters in Medicine in Munich as a young student, I was also traveling the country dancing,”
That blend of medicine and dance continues today. Though retired from medical practice, Bulan still chairs the Southeast Asia Society for Sound Hearing, and still dances and choreographs.
It is perhaps through dance that Bulan maintained her ties with her childhood home, an essence of her religion, family and lands concentrated like familiar perfume in the Balinese dance she carried within her across the world.
Recently returning to Bali after 40 years studying, working and living in Bandung, Germany, New Delhi and America, Bulan says she feels like a stranger in her own home territory. Bali has changed so very much from her childhood memories of the island.
“I am excited to be back, but I do feel like a stranger in my island. When I was small there were very few foreigners and I knew them all — now there are what, 40,000 expats!
“Bali has become very crowded. Not with people but with action. There is tourism and conferences and ceremonies. In the past people only went to ceremonies in their own villages, but with cars and motor bikes, people are zipping to ceremonies all over the place. Due to all this activity, Bali has become a very exciting place,” says Bulan.
This zipping about and activity in Bali does not make Bulan fear for the future of the island — she is not rooted in the Bali of her childhood, rather she welcomes the future with open arms. “But checks and balances are needed in our society. We can not go against change, but it is most important we have a sieve to keep what’s good and sift out the rest.
“All this globalization and media attention on Bali won’t be stopped, and I do feel that we still can find Bali’s essence. That is not static, that essence is always fluid, but within that movement, Bali will always be Bali. The island won’t become Hawaii or the Caribbean it will always be Bali and in some ways I think we have Kuta to thank for that.
“Kuta is a shock therapy that makes people aware of what can happen and, hopefully that shock therapy protects the rest of Bali against bombs, terrible environmental damage and over exploitation,” Bulan says.
That essence of Bali remembered from childhood is still alive and can be found confidently meshing with the modern world, says Bulan.
“I remember going to Tirtagangga and Ujung water palace as a child. My grandfather (King Goesti) built these water palaces, not for his family and guests, but for the people to have somewhere to go for recreation and picnics.
“As a child I remember every Galungan and Kuningan, Hindu families would have picnics in the gardens and at Muslim or Christian holidays there would be Muslim or Christian families having picnics under the trees,” says Bulan of the water palaces that have been maintained and kept open to the public by the Djelantik family.
The family legacy to the well being of Bali’s cultural, social, environmental and health services continues with Bulan’s commitment to the Balitaksu Foundation that supports film and film making in Indonesia.
“I believe film can open a whole new field where not only Balinese, but other Indonesians have the potential to show our face to the world through films.
“I sincerely hope Indonesian film will become known … film we can showcase our country. In America people asked how I can live here (Indonesia) with bombs everywhere. That is such a wrong perception of Indonesia that needs to be addressed.”
Source: The Jakarta Post
June 6th, 2008
Established Will Meet New & East Will Meet West
The established will meet the new. The East will cross paths with the West. It will be a literary celebration like no other.
Tri Hita Karana is the theme of the Fifth International Ubud Writers & Readers Festival. Tri Hita Karana is a Balinese Hindu concept that translates as our relationship between God, Humanity and Nature. Invited international guests include acclaimed Indian author Vikram Seth, US novelist John Berendt, Camilla Gibb from Canada, Mexican author Alberto Ruy-Sanchez, Australians Alexis Wright and Father Frank Brennan, 2007 Man Booker Prize short-listed writer Indra Sinha, Chinese writer Geling Yan and food ecologist, Helena Norberg-Hodge.
Collision of Cultures will be one of the underlying themes of the 2008 Festival with established and emerging writers confronting the issues of ‘Us and Them.’ Discussions on the environment, world religions, languages and lifestyles will be delved into together with the subject of migration and its impact on communities. Hot debates addressing crime and punishment in Asia, and more specifically drugs, civil rights and moral dilemmas, will also take centre-stage.
It will be a dialogue like no other at Ubud, which lies on the fertile crossroads of two rivers, two oceans and two continents - Asia and Australia. In the 1930s, it was the exotic retreat of the rich and famous and has now re-invented itself as an international meeting place for writers, poets and artists from all parts of the world. It has become the stage where voices from China, India, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia and more are heard. In 2008, we will strengthen this partnership and engage writers from beyond the region into the heart of Africa and Central America.
Satisfy your hedonistic passions with our acclaimed stars by luxuriating in the lush surroundings of Ubud’s elegant hotels and gracious homes at our literary lunches and dinners. Join our Long Table feast in the rice fields featuring acclaimed chefs and food writers as they showcase Bali’s vibrant food culture. Enjoy workshops that teach the craft of writing or cultural activities that offer a peak into the mystical, magical world of Bali, in between book launches, performances, exhibitions, cocktail parties and celebrations into the early hours of the morning.
And if that is not enough, the 2008 Festival will take to the streets, literally with international street performers matching their wits against Ubud’s youth in a carnival of skill and artistry.
Is it any wonder we are named ‘one of the top six writer’s festivals in the world !’
WWW.UBUDWRITERSFESTIVAL.COM
Janet DeNeefe
Ubud Writers & Readers Festival
Festival Founder & Director
October 14 - 19 2008
www.ubudwritersfestival.com
Bali mobile:+628123853249
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Source: http://theseoultimes.com/
June 5th, 2008
Garuda Indonesia will introduce more capacity from Darwin to Denpasar with the introduction of an additional service from 25 June, 2008.
The new flight is a response to the strong visitor numbers from Australia to Bali, which are up by almost 60% from last year when comparing figures for January to March 2008.
And, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the growth of holiday makers from Northern Territory is even higher than the national trend at 71%I which is a strong indication that Northern Territory residents are again seeing Bali as a desirable holiday destination.
Mr. Syahrul Tahir, General Manager, Garuda Indonesia, NT, said, “Garuda’s already strong network between Australia and Indonesia will be even further strengthened with this additional flight bringing flight numbers to 28 per week between Australia and Indonesia.”
He said, “It is so pleasing to see Bali again becoming the destination of choice for leisure travelers from Australia, and with Garuda Indonesia in the lead as the preferred carrier to Bali and Indonesia.”
Garuda Indonesia’s additional service will supplement two existing flights per week between Darwin and Denpasar. The new inbound flight, GA710, will operate on Wednesdays, departing Bali at 0110hrs local time and arriving in Darwin at 0520hrs. It will depart as GA711 at 0730hrs and arrive in Bali at 0835hrs. The timings are as per the existing Monday and Friday flights.
Garuda Indonesia Darwin have launched some excellent promotional fares starting at $AUD190 plus taxes for a two day fare to Bali.
Source: http://www.etravelblackboard.com/
June 4th, 2008
Denpasar, Bali (ANTARA News) - A 13-member Balinese arts troupe is slated to leave for Japan on Sept 3 for a three-week long mission.
“They will conduct a series of art performances in a number of Japanese cities from Sept 3 to 20,” I Nyoman Budi Artha, chief of the Pusaka Sakti Batuan dance gallery in Gianyar, said on Monday.
A travel agent which had so far dealt with Japanese tourists to Bali would sponsor the mission, he said.
“The Balinese arts troupe`s mission is aimed at entertaining the Japanese people as well as at promoting Bali`s tourism in Japan,” he said.
The arts troupe was the winner of the third prize of the Batuan Art Festival (BAF) held at Batuan village in Gianyar district, Bali, from May 29 to June 2, he said.
(*)
Source: ANTARA News
June 3rd, 2008
BONN, Germany — Climate change experts from around the world will get their first chance this week to discuss the nuts and bolts of a new global warming agreement designed to take effect after 2012.
The meeting builds on a landmark accord reached last December on the Indonesian island of Bali which, for the first time, held out the promise that the United States, China and India will join a co-ordinated effort to control carbon emissions blamed for the unnatural heating of the Earth.
The two-week conference, drawing some 2,000 delegates from more than 160 countries and dozens of agencies, begins Monday.
The Bali conference agreed to conclude a new climate change treaty by December 2009. Another conference four months later in Bangkok adopted a negotiating timetable.
In Bonn, “the real work is now only beginning,” says Yvo de Boer, the United Nations’ top climate change official.
Scientists say the world’s carbon emissions must peak within the next 10 to 15 years and then fall by half by mid-century to avoid potentially catastrophic changes in weather patterns, a rise in sea levels that would threaten coastal cities and the mass extinction of plants and animals.
The new climate change pact will succeed the first phase of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which requires 37 industrialized countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions an average of five per cent below 1990 levels by 2012.
The United States is the only industrialized country not to have ratified Kyoto. Negotiators hope Washington’s consent to the Bali “action plan” marked the end of its hostility toward working with other countries to contain global warming.
“Their attitude, their activity, has changed very much in the recent year. It’s really a big change,” said Andrej Kranjc of Slovenia, the head of the European Union delegation.
Still, the administration of President George W. Bush rejects specific and mandatory targets to reduce emissions over the next dozen years. And countries such as India and China question why they should accept limits on their development without commitments from the U.S., the world’s largest polluter.
Delegates say such major decisions must wait for the new U.S. administration next January.
“It’s unlikely we are going to make lot of progress this year because we need strong signals from the U.S., and that’s not going happen until the election,” said Ian Fry, the delegate from the tiny Pacific country of Tuvalu.
But time is pressing.
The basic outline of the post-Kyoto agreement should be ready by next summer to prepare for the critical December conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, where the new pact should be adopted, de Boer says.
That allows negotiators just six months after the next U.S. president takes office to negotiate a complex, multifaceted and hugely expensive treaty.
Delegates in Bonn will begin work on how to help developing countries adapt to anticipated changes in their climate, on transferring new technologies to help them avoid hefty carbon emissions as they expand their economies, and on how to raise the trillions of dollars required over the next decades to curb climate change.
Each objective faces a multitude of obstacles.
Governments cannot commit to transferring technologies that belong to private companies, which are protected by intellectual property rights, for example.
Small countries need satellite monitoring, especially of deforestation, which they cannot afford without help. The costs of installing carbon-storage facilities on power stations, once it becomes technically feasible, will be out of reach to all but the richest.
Proposed “adaptation funds” for developing countries are plagued by questions of how money will be generated, who will control it and how it will be allocated.
Some countries favour a levy on airplane tickets and maritime transport to be deposited in a special account earmarked for developing countries.
Source: http://canadianpress.google.com/
June 2nd, 2008
Irawaty Wardany, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar
Candidates for the upcoming gubernatorial election pledged to preserve Bali’s cultural heritage to a gathering of the island’s artists and writers on Saturday.
The gathering took place in Denpasar’s Werddhi Budaya Art Center during the opening ceremony of a joint art exhibition. Titled “Consciousness Entity” the exhibition, showing until June 7, set to remind the island’s politicians about the aspirations of the Balinese people. The exhibition committee gave each candidate a chance to discuss their cultural policies.
Cokorda Budi Suryawan, a candidate endorsed by the Golkar party and the Bali People Coalition (KRB), an umbrella of several minor parties, pledged to establish the Bali Arts Council (DKD) if elected, which would be tasked with designing a cultural development policy.
“The Council will comprise respected artists and public figures and its programs will be financed with the provincial budget,” he said.
Made Mangku Pastika, a candidate supported by the island’s largest political power, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), told the audience the cultural policy and development should not be managed in a top-down bureaucratic style.
“We will provide an atmosphere, in which the provincial administration will extend various assistance to the artists without compromising the artists’ aesthetic integrity and their freedom of expression,” he said.
The third candidate, I Gde Winasa, who is backed up by a coalition of minor parties known as The Bali Awakening Coalition (KKB), didn’t attend the event. He was represented by his running mate, IGB Alit Putra, who conveyed his concern about the poor financial remuneration many Balinese artists received, before performing a song titled Cedil Bingung (Confused Cedil) to the amazement of the audience.
The candidates each wrote down their promises on a piece of canvas before signing them.
Head of the Bali General Election Commission (KPUD) AA Oka Wisnumurti praised the event as a testament of the transperancy of the the island’s political process.
“This event proves that here in Bali, each group of constituents can invite candidates, ask them to speak about their agenda and ask them to make a promise, a written one for that matter, to fulfill that agenda,” he said.
Wayan Suardika, an arts writer and one of the exhibition’s organizers, said she believed the event would connect politicians with artists.
“There is always a hope to strengthen artists’ relationship with the government, even though without support from the government we are still able to move forward and get noticed by the international world,” he said.
A member of the exhibit committee, Wayan Redika, said there had been a gap between artists and politicians, which the exhibition had sought to close.
“We, the artists, emphasize more on our room for creation and we never realize that it has built some kind of gap between arts and politics,” he said.
The exhibition features the works of 42 artists, including several celebrated artists, such as Wianta, Gunarsa, Djirna, Erawan and Mandra.
Source: The Jakarta Post
June 2nd, 2008
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