Festival sheds light on ancient culture, traditions

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

Bogor's historical Hotel Salak The Heritage recently played host to the Bonenkai festival, which gave local residents the opportunity to learn more about Japan's culture and traditions.

"We organized this festival to inform Bogor residents about the fact Japanese people have managed to maintain their traditions even though they have become a developed nation in terms of technology," festival committee chairman Cindy Posumah told The Jakarta Post.

The hotel enlisted in the help of hundreds of students from the Bogor Hotel Institute to organize and run the festival.

The festival featured various Japanese traditional dances, including the bon odori dance. It also featured several traditional performances such as the taiko, as well as a Japanese martial arts display, a samurai costume display and a bazaar.

Senior managers at Hotel Salak were inspired to organize the festival due to the fact the Greater Jakarta area is home to several Japanese communities, including a manga (Japanese comic) community and a cosplay (Japanese costume party) community.

The head of the Bogor Tourism Agency, Nur Hadiyati, said the Japanese culture was among Asia's oldest cultures.

"We know the culture of the Japanese people has made Japan one of the most developed and prosperous nations in the world," she said.

Nur said even though the emphasis of the festival was more on traditional foods, Bogor residents still flocked to the event in their hundreds to learn more about Japan.

"From the culinary and art products exhibited today, it can be seen that Japanese people have been persistent and disciplined in creating their work, and that was the idea we wanted to inspire visitors with," she said.

Cultural protection 'must engage public'

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Noted traditional artists said the government should further involve the public in preserving Indonesia's vast cultural heritage because its existence very much depends on the nation's people.

A traditional trans-gender dancer, Didik Hadiprayitno, or Didik Nini Thowok, said besides action taken by the government, public involvement was one of the most important measures to protect Indonesia's heritage.

"The next step the government should take after (making an inventory of) traditional culture is to hold an effective (public) campaign (with) artists and cultural experts," Didik said.

The government could compile cultural traditions and products found during the stock-take process so the public would better recognize and understand their own traditional heritage, he said.

"Through this, the government doesn't only promote the county's heritage but also holds a cultural campaign and preserves it at the same time.

"So it won't only be an act of cultural trace, whose products are later kept on an office shelf," Didik said.

The Cultural and Tourism Ministry and the Justice and Human Rights Ministry signed a memorandum of understanding last week covering the protection and development of the country's cultural heritage, as well as the protection of intellectual property rights on cultural heritage.

The memorandum was a response from the government because of further recent challenges to Indonesia's claims to its heritage and folklore.

Malaysia has made claims to the Rasa Sayange traditional folk song and several batik designs, as well as the angklung (bamboo musical instrument).

Traditional music composer Djaduk Ferianto said implementing the memorandum was crucial.

"As the art and culture were the results of people's movement and activities, their protection must involve those who are actively engaged in the sector," Djaduk said.

"We must also go through persuasive efforts to protect the cultural heritage.

"Holding a two-way communication between the public and the government can be a good start," Djaduk said.

Indonesian's well-known filmmaker Garin Nugroho said the government should first list regions prone to the cultural claim from other parties, especially those related to intellectual property rights.

"The government lacks an understanding of this new global trend," Garin said.

"Before involving the public in preserving the heritage, the government must first be skilled with issues around intellectual property rights.

"Then they can invite artists, cultural experts and the general people to act," he said.

Related Articles:

Bali urged to register cultural assets
Incentives needed to preserve heritage: NGO's
Bogor publishes heritage book

Indonesian Embassy Wants To Foster Closer Relations With Malaysian Media

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 27 (Bernama) -- The Indonesian embassy will take proactive action to get closer to the Malaysian media which would lead to closer relations between Malaysia and Indonesia.

The Indonesian acting ambassador to Malaysia, Tatang B. Razak, said the embassy planned to meet with media practitioners in Malaysia as soon as possible.

"We will contact the Malaysian media next week to set appointments for the meetings," he told the media after the launch of the new service by Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd and Bank Muamalat Indonesia, here today.

"InsyAllah, I will visit the newspaper offices in Malaysia in the near future. We will have `heart to heart' discussions," he said.

Tatang said the Indonesian embassy also planned to organise a dialogue between the Malaysian and Indonesian media next year.

The acting ambassador also planned to meet with the Malaysian authorities such as the Immigration Department and the police.

The move by the Indonesian embassy was perceived as an effort by Indonesia to improve ties between the two countries following the misunderstanding arising from several issues such as the song "Rasa Sayange" raised by the Indonesian media and the issue over Indonesian illegal immigrants raised by the Malaysian media.

He said it was time to look at the Malaysia-Indonesia relations realistically and sincerely so that greater benefits could be derived by both countries.

Related Article:

Indonesia and Malaysia, No brotherly love

Mixed feelings about tourist surge in Bali

Prodita Sabarini, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, October 19, 2007

After planning a relaxing day shopping at Kuta's Discovery Mall, Intan Indahsari spent a large chunk of her morning sitting in Jakarta-like traffic.

"The traffic has never been this bad," the Sanur resident said.

Bali was visited by thousands of domestic tourists during the Idul Fitri holiday, including many who decided to bring their own vehicles with them.

While tourism industry officials were happy with the rising number of tourists visiting the resort island, local residents were frustrated with the traffic chaos they contributed to.

"It is really frustrating. I wish tourists were not allowed to bring their own vehicles to the island," Intan said.

Traffic congestion at popular tourist sites has been an annual problem in Bali during Idul Fitri. This year, with an official period of leave set by the government until Oct. 19, traffic was worse than in previous years, Intan said.

At night, airport taxi drivers refused to take passengers to Kuta in fear of being caught up in traffic jams.

"Several drivers who went to Kuta a few hours ago have not returned yet," one taxi driver said Tuesday.

On ordinary days, the drive from the airport to Kuta takes about 15 minutes.

Holidaymaker Priska Siagian, 25, said getting a taxi from the airport to take her to Denpasar was a difficult mission.

"A taxi driver at first refused to take me. He asked me to wait for an hour because he was tired after being stuck in Kuta," she said.

Bali Tourism Agency head Gede Nurjaya acknowledged the problem, saying the island was facing a unique dilemma.

"It is very good for Bali to receive a lot of visitors. However, popular tourist places cannot hold so much traffic, which in the end results in traffic jams," he said.

"We definitely cannot stop people from bringing their own cars to the island, as some tourists come here after visiting other cities," he said.

Holidaymaker Yetty Priyono, 45, and her family said bringing their own car to the island was fun, despite the fact they had to deal with traffic jams.

The family spent the holiday traveling from Jakarta to Salatiga and Semarang in Central Java, to Surabaya and Banyuwangi in East Java and to Bali after crossing the Bali Strait by ferry.

"We have more freedom with our own car. We don't really mind the traffic jams, we just joke around in the car a lot," Yetty said.

She said her family would not hesitate to take the road trip to Bali again.

"It was really fun for us," she said.

Nurjaya said the traffic problem was caused by the fact most tourists visited the same few tourist attractions.

"Domestic tourists swarm to Kuta, Nusa Dua, Sanur and Kintamani. There are a lot of other places as well," Nurjaya said.

He said his agency was endeavoring to promote other areas of interest, especially in the Karangesem and Klungkung regencies.

"There are a lot of tourist destinations in these areas that are as beautiful as the well-known places. Ujung and Candi Dasa in Karangasem are examples," he said.

Klungkung regency is home to the islands of Nusa Lembongan, Nusa Penida and Nusa Ceningan, he added.

"If tourists were drawn away from the regular places and were spread out across the island, it would overcome traffic problems in Kuta," Nurjaya said.

Thousands of people meet President in open house

JAKARTA (JP): Thousands of people visited President SusiloBambang Yudhoyono during an open house held at the State Palace on Saturday.

Although the open house was scheduled to begin from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., the people have lined up since 1 p.m. in the State Secretariat compound, which is located in the same area with the Palace.

Makeshift tents were provided in the location to shield the visitors from heat.

The visitors were finally allowed to enter the Palace as the open house started as scheduled at 3 p.m.

They shook hand with Yudhoyono and his wife Ani Yudhoyono before leaving the Palace.

Aceh tsunami victims get Idul Fitri allowances

Banda Aceh (ANTARA News) - Some 1,300 tsunami victims in Banda Aceh municipality and Aceh Besar district have received Idul Fitri allowances from the Australian Red Cross, a spokesman said.

"The Idul Fitri allowances originated from the Australian Red Cross. We only distributed it among tsunami victims," the head of the Banda Aceh office of state-owned company PT Pos Indonesia, Salman, said here Wednesday.

He said the Australian Red Cross made available Rp3 billion in cash for distribution among the tsunami victims.

They received Rp500,000 each, he said.

The allowances were designed to enable the tsunami victims to celebrate the Idul Fitri festivities like other Muslims, he said.

Aceh bore the brunt of an undersea 8.9 magnitude earthquake and a subsequent tsunami on December 26, 2004 when more than 200,000 people perished and thousands of houses levelled to the ground.

Villa madness and the Bali recovery

Wednesday, October 10, 2007. 3:48pm AEST

By Samantha Stayner, ABC Melbourne

Balinese businessman Odeck runs a restaurant and small gallery in Ubud. He's seen great change in his community over recent years.

The terror attacks had a dramatic impact on tourism across all of Bali. Now he says, new challenges are arising from the economic recovery.

"After 9/11 it was a big change for us," Odeck says, "first of all losing 30 percent of our American market. Then in 2002 as we all know... losing most of our Australians. So it's been really hard for us."

Adding to the business woes, locals also faced a 150 percent rise in the cost of petrol on one day in 2005. It was October 1st, the same day bombs exploded at Kuta and Jimbaran.

Odeck is disappointed with the level of support from the Indonesian government, and says the banks showed little mercy.

"They didn't give us a break of restructuring our finances, our loans... and et cetera so some of our friends have to be forced to sell their land."

Financial recovery is a fine balance. On one hand, economic investment is much-needed. But Odeck says it also brings new challenges for locals.

"Now the business is coming back, but it's not actually done by the Balinese, because a lot of those assets are moved from Balinese owners," he says.

"While it's good the economy is going, it's not very good for some business people."

With overseas buyers paying more for land, there are also fears that locals will be priced out of the market and risk "becoming a guest in our own island".

"There is a lot of what they call 'villa madness' - a lot of Australian real estate companies building a lot of villas in Bali, and they are benefiting from this," Odeck explains.

"Bali's strength is the culture... culture coming from the sense of community. The people in Bali that produce the culture and art need land."

He agrees that tourists are returning to Bali in increasing numbers, especially over the past six months, but he also worries about the threat level reported for Indonesia on the Australian Government Smart Traveller website.

"Tourism has been good to us, we find a way to avoid conflict between tourism and our culture," he says. "But this event that's happening with terrorism and exiling the community in Bali from the rest of the world by form of travel warning is actually hurting."

"I don't think we need material support, we only need moral support, and a policy that is supporting us as a victim of terrorism... not exiling us from the rest of the world.

Ecotourism in 'Lord Jim' country

The Jakarta Post

Duncan Graham, Contributor, Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan

There's a lot of curiosity and much activity among the mud and mangroves at a Kahayan River inlet in Palangkaraya, the capital of Central Kalimantan.

Six carpenters are building cabins atop a stripped-down, 20-meter former cargo boat bought by two foreigners with a dream. They want to introduce serious ecotourism to the huge but almost empty province -- and by doing so save the forests and the Dayak who depend on them.

The inlet, with two primitive hand-cranked steel cable winches, is a local bush version of a dry dock though heavy rains have flooded the site.

That hasn't deterred the workers who are racing to get the craft looking presentable for the May 23 celebrations of Central Kalimantan's 50th anniversary (see sidebar).

When the cheering has faded and the bunting been pulled down the engine will be installed, heaved in by muscle power, for this open-air boatyard has few facilities. Then the fittings will be finessed to ensure they're of a standard to meet the needs of international clients.

The Dayak Hope will be a floating boutique hotel with five double cabins. It will be capable of sailing into the upper reaches of the province (known locally as Kalteng), giving ecotourists the chance to see distant Dayak villages, wild (not rehabilitated) orangutans scrambling through the treetops and tropical flora and fauna.

For businesswomen Lorna Dowson-Collins and Gaye Thavisin this is a major undertaking. They plan to put the Indonesian part of Borneo on the world map of discerning tourists looking for experiences they can't get in Amsterdam or Adelaide.

The couple have already sunk more than US$60,000 (Rp 550 million) of their own money into the plan, which includes development of a river port in Palangkaraya, more floating hotels and extensive marketing overseas.

"Gaye and I have gone beyond just ooh-ing and aah-ing and thinking how great it would be to open up the Kalimantan environment to others," Lorna said.

"We're now up to our necks in a venture that's driven by our vision to protect Kalteng's unique forests and create new sources of income for the local jungle-dwelling communities."

Up to their necks? An outside observer might think this a defective metaphor. Add the crocodiles of business envy, the leaches of bureaucratic interference, the everyday hazards of remote-area life made doubly difficult in the tropics, and the fickleness of the tourist industry -- and you can see that on the Richter risk scale this show is quaking.

Lose one visitor into the swirling brown crocodilian waters or have a hard encounter with a hornbill and the word will move at warp-speed through the Internet.

Fun in frontierland? Sure -- but only if it comes with air-conditioning and cell phone access.

Boat-based tourism

This is "Lord Jim" country, the land made famous in Joseph Conrad's classic. In the story, a disgraced young seaman shrinks from society to live with the Dayak. He helps better their lives but is killed after making a second error of judgment. (Read the book if you want to know the first.)

Fortunately, neither Lorna nor Gaye are dewy-eyed business maidens. Both have sweated long enough in Indonesia to know that foreigners giving birth to a new idea won't have an easy labor, whatever soothing sounds are made by politicians who say overseas money's welcome, but won't ease the traumas of investment.

Lorna grew up in Jakarta where her father was a doctor at the British Embassy until he was kicked out of the country. Before that happened the family went sailing most weekends through the Thousand Islands just offshore from the capital -- an experience that helped develop Lorna's love of adventure.

Dad was expelled allegedly for treating Indonesians and referring patients to Singapore surgeons rather than the locals. Whatever the reason it gave young Lorna insights into the way things are sometimes done in the Republic.

She went on to study anthropology and work in the UK on international development programs, but was soon back in the archipelago.

In Indonesia she's been a consultant with the Australian aid agency AusAID in Aceh, and with a non-government organization (NGO) in Kalimantan on training projects and developing business enterprises.

Gaye is an Australian who formerly managed the Kalimantan Meeting Center (KMC), a three-star hotel and restaurant at Rungun Sari, about 36 kilometers northwest of Palangkaraya. She now runs a foreign investment company, PT Kalimantan Tourism Development.

Both are members of the Subud community, a spiritual movement started in Java early last century. They live at Rungun Sari where a magnificent meeting hall has been built and is available to all faiths.

"My river journeys whilst working for the NGO took me to the heart of the local people's lives and their rapidly depleting forests," Lorna said.

"Rivers are still the main transport system linking remote villages, a fascinating but uncomfortable affair. This led me to think: What could be better than a boat hotel with comfortable cabins and a restaurant viewing deck to enjoy the passing, peaceful days of village and jungle life?"

Indeed. Great idea but nothing stands in isolation. The current investment buzzword is "infrastructure" meaning roads, ports, airports, hotels and other public facilities have to be fixed first.

Sustainability

There aren't too many roads in Kalteng -- the biggest province in Borneo at 154,000 square kilometers. However, by Indonesian standards the main links are in reasonable condition.

Borneo isn't jam-packed Java: There are only 10 million in the whole Indonesian section of the island, with maybe less than 250,000 in Palangkaraya.

The locust swarms of Hondas and Yamahas have yet to plague the highways and the air is breathable outside the smoke season when farmers set fire to the forests in defiance of edicts from Jakarta.

There's no international airport so connections -- frequently late -- have to be made through Jakarta or Surabaya. Foreigners remain a rarity -- only 2,000 visited last year -- and not all Palangkaraya hotels are either comfortable or welcoming to outsiders.

The plan is to run Dayak Hope from the river close to the KMC hotel while port facilities in Palangkaraya are upgraded. Then, if all goes well, boats two and three will be built. These will probably be custom-built rather than converted.

The original budget of Rp 280 million for the boat alone has already doubled. Other investors have come to the rescue so the project is still afloat and heading for commercial operation in September -- with a plan to break even by the second year.

Mike Johnson, a marine environmental anthropologist from East Java, has been hired to advise on the work, though the design came from a French marine architect.

Johnson reckons the cost of building a floating hotel from the keel up will be little more than buying and reshaping an old boat -- and a lot easier.

The proposed tariff is Rp 4.3 million per person for a three-day, all-found river trip. The partners reckon this will attract a market between backpackers who'll rough it anywhere, and the top-end tourists who want five star toilets.

Lorna put together a business plan entered it in an international competition and won a useful Rp 74 million for her proposal. Through this she met Dutch travel agents interested in supplying management skills, clients and maybe investment.

"Our first planned tours will be along the Katingan River into the newly established Sebangau National Park, one of the last surviving peat swamp forests in Kalimantan and home to the largest known remaining orangutan populations in the world," she said.

"Unfortunately, illegal logging and forest fires continue to threaten the survival of the park.

"Our overall aim is to promote ecotourism in Kalteng as a viable way of protecting the forest and promoting the welfare of local communities through creating an effective strategy for economic growth.

"We'll provide 25 per cent of our boat tour profits to finance village ecotourism and conservation programs using microfinance loans to establish home-stays and train guides.

"The communities depend on the natural resources for their livelihoods. When use is sustainable the balance in the ecosystem is maintained. But where income is low the local people are forced to exploit.

"Poverty is a large threat to biodiversity. To conserve nature it's important to deal with poverty alleviation.

"We believe that our boat will be the vehicle to develop a social enterprise that can make a real difference."

Lombok tourist island no paradise for full-time residents

Panca Nugraha, The Jakarta Post, Mataram

Many residents of Gili Trawangan, off Lombok Island in West Nusa Tenggara province, lack access to such basics as education and healthcare, despite the rapid growth of tourism in the area.

Gili Trawangan, an exotic island of some 360 hectares, is famed for its natural beauty and friendly people. Administratively, the island, situated in the waters north of Lombok, is part of Pemenang district in West Lombok regency, along with two smaller islands -- Gili Air and Gili Meno.

"Trawangan has become a major tourist destination in West Nusa Tenggara. More and more foreign tourists are spending their vacation on Trawangan rather than at Senggigi in Lombok or in Bali, despite arriving by plane in Bali," said Akmal, a spokesman for a hotel on Gili Trawangan.

The island offers tourists white-sand beaches and clear seas, where they can dive, snorkel or simply swim.

It also offers visitors tranquility, with motorized vehicles banned from the island. People get around by bicycle or horse-drawn carriages called cidomo.

"This has actually been regulated in the awiq-awiq traditional ordinances. This is one of the reasons why tourists like it here -- the tranquility and no pollution," said a cidomo driver, Nasri.

In many ways, the expansion of tourism on the island has benefited residents. Nasri is one of some 2,900 residents on the island making a living directly from tourism. He can earn up to Rp 150,000 (about US$17) a day as a cidomo driver, far more than he would make doing the same job on Lombok Island.

Despite this, residents do not have the same access to healthcare they would if they lived on Lombok. Nasri, for example, said he and his wife did not know what to do when they were going to have a baby, because there are no midwives on the island.

"There is an auxiliary community health center, but it is seldom manned by health workers. Moreover, they are incapable of assisting in deliveries," he said.

Residents have to cross to Pemenang village on Lombok, where there is a community health center.

"Stories abound of mothers delivering babies on the boat or the moment they arrive at Bangsal jetty in Pemenang. It's bad luck if deliveries occur at night or during bad weather," said a neighborhood chief on Trawangan, Muhammad Alex.

The local administration did build a community health center on Gili Air. However, residents still have to cross in boats from Trawangan, so most prefer just going to Pemenang, because it is easier from there to get to a hospital in the provincial capital Mataram in the event of difficulties.

Healthcare has seemingly been neglected on Gili Trawangan. According to Alex, a floating clinic was operated in the area for a time in 2004, providing services every three days to residents on the three islands, including Trawangan. However, the service only lasted for a few months.

Trawangan residents say officials also have neglected education. There is an elementary school and a junior high school on the island, with the two having been merged to form the one-roof Basic Integrated Education System.

The elementary school was established in 1989 and the junior high school was only opened three years ago. The island also faces an acute shortage of teachers.

"What makes it more difficult is that we only have four teachers, one assistant teacher and two contract teachers, despite the fact that there are 10 classrooms and 390 students. We have never had a religion teacher or a sports teacher ...," said the school's vice principal, H.M. Laduni.

Laduni said the nine employees from hotels on the island helped out by acting as honorarium teachers, for which they are paid Rp 150,000 a month from contributions collected by the hotels.

"However, we still expect the government to look into this matter immediately because we should have at least 16 teachers. We have sent several proposals but still have not received a reply," he said.

According to Laduni, hotels on the island only hire local residents as security guards and gardeners, with the higher-paying positions being filled by people from outside the area.

"We cannot blame anyone because our human resource development is still poor. However, without attention from the government, when will we be able to fill higher positions?" asked Laduni.