Country’s Heritage Crumbling

The Jakarta Globe, Nurfika Osman, March 13, 2009 

Up to 5,800 cultural sites across the archipelago have been left in disrepair and are in danger of falling apart due to continued neglect, an official said on Friday. 

The director of archeological heritage at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Suroso, said that residents were growing increasingly apathetic toward their cultural heritage, and that if the trend continued, the country would be put at a disadvantage. 

“Indonesia could lose its cultural heritage buildings,” he said. “But the most important thing is that Indonesia stands to lose its national identity if this neglect of cultural heritage is allowed to continue.” 

Suroso added that the country would also face financial losses. 

“If we maintain the heritage buildings, we will also get economic advantages as more people will visit us,” he said. He said money earned from tourism could be invested in maintenance of the sites to ensure ancient buildings would be protected. 

“People now tend to build more buildings rather than maintaining our cultural heritage,” he said. “[Indonesians] also tend to love other country’s heritage more than their own.” 

Suroso said that there were some 7,400 cultural heritage sites registered across the country, but only 1,600 of them were well maintained by local residents. 

He said the lack of maintenance was partly caused by the country’s decentralization, meaning the central government was no longer fully responsible for the protection of the sites. 

“But we still continue monitoring the protection of cultural heritage across the country,” he said. The state-run new agency Antara reported that Indonesia has allocated Rp 215 billion ($18 million) to maintain cultural heritage buildings across the country.

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