Many aspirations and views emerged during the 2018 Indonesian Culture Congress. The congress will outline a culture strategy to be handed over to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
As the Education and Culture Ministry’s culture director general, Hilmar Farid, has put it, the outline of the culture strategy is the culmination of a long journey. However, for this republic, it marks the beginning of the action. We underline the statement that, now that the event is over, it is time to work to become an Indonesian nation with a culture.
From what we read in this daily on Monday (10/12/2018), the head of state has mentioned the importance of a stage or space for the diverse expression of our culture, and what the President meant by stage was tolerant interaction. That the theme of the President’s speech revolves around tolerance, among other things, is because the many expressions of hatred that are rife lately underline the fact that becoming a cultured nation is not only necessary for the Indonesian people, but also urgent.
In general understanding, a nation of high culture, moreover one with high culture, will create a great civilization. European nations, for example, are highly cultured because of their real cultural heritage, both artifacts and civilization. In Asia, China and Japan also leave a trail of high culture and civilization. The Americans, although younger than the Europeans, have left a mark of high culture.
If culture, other than religion, there is also art, science, technology and language; maybe we can only be proud of our art and language, while with regard to religion we still ask, have we become cultured? If so, why on various occasions do the President and community leaders still call on the people to maintain tolerance?
In science and technology, we must admit we are lagging behind the developed nations. When the Americans will commemorate the 50th
anniversary of the man’s landing on the Moon and explore a mission to Planet Mars, we are still engrossed in playing with electronic devices with little knowledge of the content and functions of their components. We admit, we are still at the level of consumers in science and technology.
In his opinion expressed in this newspaper, Surabaya State Islamic University professor Akh Muzakki gave a number of critical notes related to infrastructure development in a cultural context. His thesis was without the superstructure development, which includes touching the development of shared noble values, strengthening social character, mental-spiritual development and social affection, as well as building a social spirit; the massive infrastructure development only seems physical-material and clearly inadequate.
With due respect to the government’s performance and increased connectivity, we observe that the morality of society is far from the ideal level. Have we become a nation of high culture if corrupt behavior continues to spread? Are we of high culture when we see many traffic violations on the streets?
We are of the view that culture is civilization. We hope civilization will emerge as a fruit of culture. The higher the civilization, the more cultural we become.