Indonesian Must Be Creative and Culture Based

By Barrie | July 12th, 2007 | No Comments

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says the time is high for the country to switch its economic development strategy from being technology intensive to creative based.

Citing American futurist Alvin Toffler, Yudhoyono said on Wednesday that Indonesia must develop its economy by utilizing the people’s creativity and the country’s artistic and cultural heritage according to the article in the Jakarta Post.

“Let us develop a creativity-based economy by putting together ideas, art and technology. We can do it, we must be able to compete with other nations in developing this creative economy,”
Yudhoyono said in a speech to open the Indonesian Cultural Products Exhibition at the Jakarta Convention Center in Central Jakarta.

In the speech, Yudhoyono emphasized Indonesia’s rich cultural heritage, insisting it could become the biggest contributor to the country’s economy.

“We must also develop this heritage-based economy. We have countless numbers of historical artifacts. Let us develop this, including the traditions and customs, and use them to boost our competitiveness,” Yudhoyono said.

The President’s message rang hollow, however, especially after the failure of the Buddhist Borobudur Temple in Magelang, Central Java, to be included among the new Seven Wonders of the World compiled by a private Swiss foundation.

After tallying entries from over 100 million online and telephone voters, the foundation selected seven out of 21 sites short-listed from an original list of 77. Borobudur failed to make the top 21.
Finalists included New York’s Statue of Liberty and the Acropolis in Athens.

Among the new seven wonders are the Christ Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the Taj Mahal in India.

Responding to the failure of the Buddhist temple to make the short-list, State Minister for Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik said the polls gauged only the popularity of the sites as tourist attractions.

“The polling only concerns the objects’ popularity and the most frequently visited objects,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the exhibition opening.

He said that even among Indonesians, the Borobudur temple was not considered the most popular tourist attraction in the country.

“Not all of this country’s 220 million people ever visited Borobudur. If that is so, how can we expect it to be famous around the world,” he said.

Jero said, however, that Borobudur remains among the Seven Wonders of the World according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco).

“Yes, Borobudur is still recognized as one of the world’s seven wonders,” he said.