By Rosli Abidin Yahya
Bandar Seri Begawan - Poets from Brunei Darussalam recently joined their counterparts from Indonesia and Malaysia in reciting poetry highlighting contemporary world issues at the Indonesian Poets Festival in Sumatera.
Held from May 25-28 at the Taman Budaya, Medan, the event entitled “The 1St International Poetry Gathering” managed to group together more than 60 regional poets.
Three poets from Brunei - Adi Swara, Camar Putih and ZA Brunei - joined Indonesian poets such as Viddy AD Daery, Dini Usman, Idris Pasaribu and Ahmadun Yosi Herfanda. Some 15 poets from Malaysia also attended the event including renowned literati Khalid Salleh, SM Zakir, Dr Ahmad Razali, Dr Ibrahim Ghafar dan Salleh Rahmad.
Held for the first time in Indonesia, the festival was declared open by Medan Head of Culture and Tourism Department, H Syarifuddin SH, as a representative of the Medan governor.
According to poets from Brunei, the four-day event was filled with poetry recitals, discussions, exhibition of posters, and sale of literature books and screening of short films.
Meanwhile, Dr Mukhlis Pa’eni – the Director General of Values of Culture, Arts and Film, Department of Culture and Tourism, Republic of Indonesia – attended the Regional Literati Forum (Musyawarah Sasterawan Nusantara) at a leading hotel in Medan last Monday (May 28).
A resolution passed during the forum was to organise the festival on an annual basis with next year’s event to be held at Kediri, East Java.– Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin
Brudirect.com News
June 18th, 2007
Hundreds of dancers clad in brilliant colors rush into the middle of a field while thousands scream their approval in the background.
Drums sound across the stadium like thunder over a Borneo rainforest, and dressed nearly as prettily as the dancers, government officials from Central Kalimantan’s 14 regencies enjoyed the spectacle from their front-row seats.
The spectacular May 19 opening of the week-long Isen Mulang festival at Palangkaraya stadium offered the kind of excitement and mass appeal typically reserved for pop stars.
Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the founding of Central Kalimantan province, this year’s festival aimed high.
The events to follow over the week featured more of the beautiful and the bizarre, a real cultural buffet from across the province. Blow-pipe contests, canoe races and traditional music competitions were on offer, but for sheer audacity few performers could match the antics of the “fireball soccer” players.
Playing on the first night with a coconut soaked in kerosene and set alight, they succeeded in alternately delighting and scattering the crowd whenever the ball came off the field. Suffering athletes with blackened feet were later seen limping off into the night.
The point of the festival is twofold — celebration and promotion. Isen Mulang is held in Palangkaraya, or Pahandut as it was originally called, a city designed by founding father Sukarno to be the capital of the new Indonesia.
It never made it however, and despite its virgin rainforests, orangutans and Dayak culture, Central Kalimantan has since had a fairly a low profile.
This may explain why the province is taking its golden anniversary to highlight Isen Mulang. Aside from primary industries, one sector as yet untapped is tourism — only 2,000 visitors came to Kalimantan last year.
“This year is very special for us,” said Central Kalimantan governor Teras Nerang. “Fifty years, golden years, and now we can show how we can develop this province.”
Lily, regent of Murung Raya in Central Kalimantan, said the festival was an important opportunity for the regency to showcase its potential for tourism and industry, with local teams performing in all events throughout the week.
But how can one regency stand out from among its 13 siblings?
“We have the largest area of any province,” said Lily. “Other regencies have some natural resources, but we have them all: mining, palm oil plantation, fuel.”
Isen Mulang is part of a larger story, the ongoing search for identity and development that continues here as it does across the rest of Indonesia. One man who has been key to that path is Abdul Salam.
The former House of Representatives member who served from 1982-87 sat back smiling in the front row among the cheering locals. He watched one of the floats pass by.
The float was named “Good Governance”, an oddity against the rest of the cultural vehicles, its banner proclaiming “Accountability, Transparency, Participation” to those gathered, who may or may not have noticed such a political declaration amid the gaiety of the cultural celebration.
Abdul now teaches exactly that — good governance — to civil servants in Central Kalimantan. He called the festival a celebration of national unity, yet he was in two minds about government itself.
“I think I don’t agree with democracy. Pancasila is our way of life,” he said, referring to the five-pronged state ideology established by Sukarno. “Governance? Not yet. It is a nice dream.”
Abdul said the lack of professionalism and legal regulation, combined with low pay and weak government systems, hampered self-government.
“Democracy in Indonesia is compromised by factions,” he said, adding that America needed 250 years to build what Indonesia had only just begun. For example, in every election money had to be given to an excessive number of contenders at high cost to the province. “Everyone is a candidate!” he said.
But while the old guard is ambivalent about the system, the new guard is set on the future.
Governor Teras, who is in high demand during this golden week, indicates the need to build infrastructure, health, education and the economy. He also says the province is well aware of the environmental pressures that loom in its future.
“We have a green government policy… We review plans, especially (on) palm oil plantations. We don’t just want palm oil, we want to look at other resources.”
What exactly this means for the province remains to be seen.
But whatever dance partners it finds, Central Kalimantan looks determined to build on its resources and bring development to its 1.8 million people, beginning with cultural tourism.
Cameron Broadhurst, The Jakarta Post, Palangkaraya, C. Kalimantan
June 18th, 2007