Jakarta – Indonesia is one step away from having its own Cultural Trust Fund, as mandated by The Law number 5 of 2017 on Advancement of Culture. The scheme – which is long awaited by art activists – has been allocated in the State Budget (APBN) 2020 for Rp 1 trillion.
“As one of the parties who actively advocate the draft of the Law on Culture since 2014 until it is enacted as the Law on Advancement of Culture in 2017, the Indonesian Arts Coalition (Koalisi Seni) wants to harness public aspirations regarding utilization of the Cultural Trusts Fund. For instance, regarding strategic programs to guide, protect, develop, and promote the culture. Moreover, regarding access and fund disbursement mechanisms that are suitable for artists and cultural activists,” said Executive Chairman Koalisi Seni, Kusen Kalipah, in the event, on Monday, 7 October 2019.
The discussion is a part of the series of events in National Cultural Week, held by Koalisi Seni in collaboration with the Directorate General of Culture of the Ministry of Education and Culture.
The discussion was held with three speakers. First is Deputy of Institution and Governance in the Ministry of State Apparatus Utilization and Bureaucratic Reform (Kemen PAN-RB), Rini Widyantini. She talked about form and mechanisms for managing the management of Cultural Trust Fund, followed by procedure and accountability for fund disbursement from state budget (APBN).
Director of Akatara, Agung Sentausa, shared his perspectives regarding potential utilization of the fund by the movie sector. “We still don’t have a proper movie ecosystem chain, especially related to the educational sector. Therefore, instead of putting the film as merely artworks, we have to put it as a medium to develop and promote other cultural objects,” he said.
“The fund management institution should consist of representatives from movie sector stakeholders, including the digital sector. The priority of the disbursement should be in line with the movie sector advancement trajectory and achievement should be rewarded, directly or indirectly,” said Agung in his speech about ideal mechanisms in managing the Cultural Trust Fund.
Director of Indonesian Visual Art Archive, Lisistrata Lusandiana, shared her experience on the matter of arts and culture protection, focusing on exploring visual archives of artworks.
“To develop a well-targeted cultural trust fund management model, we should not limit ourselves with certain definitions regarding cultural documentation or archives. We have to take a closer look, and open our eyes to various initiatives of arts and cultural documentation by activists all over the country,” she said.
“We shouldn’t rush to coerce standardization or uniformity. We need to be cautious in avoiding extractive models of documentation, this could happen when we retract knowledge transformation from its communities or places. We also have to take precautions against tourism perspectives that only view culture as a brand that brings economic benefits. Article 47 of The Law No. 5 of 2017 highlighted investment activities as one of the sources of cultural advancement funds. Those activities should be understood as historical, ecological, and social investment,” she added.
The discussion gathered public input to enrich the concept of Cultural Trust Fund Manager which has been developed by the Ministry of Education and Culture in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance.
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