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International News, Green Left Weekly
Issue #406.

INDONESIA: The movement for people's art and culture

24 May 2000

REVITRIYOSO HUSODO and SRI WAHYUNINGSIH of the People's Cultural Network (JAKER) in Indonesia spoke to Green Left Weekly's JULIA PERKINS during her recent visit there.

 JAKER is sustained by a belief in socialist realist art and was initiated in 1992 by Wiji Thukul, Semsar Siahaan, Moeljono, Linda Christanty, Raharjo Waluyo Jati and Antun Joto Susmono, the activists explained.

After Wiji Thukul's disappearance JAKER disbanded. However, in 1998 some artists decided to rebuild the organisation. To survive, the organisation focussed more on middle-class students who already considered themselves to be "artists" and gathered them around JAKER. This diverged from Wiji Thukul's strategy of using art and culture to organise and politicise the lower classes.

However, Husodo and Wahyuningsih told Green Left Weekly, the JAKER congress in May is to return to the organisation's original strategy of working with people at the oppressed grassroots (turun ke bawah).

The activists explained that under capitalism, art's worth is measured by how valuable it is for capitalist interests. For example, the advertising industry is concerned with how to use art to tempt people to buy products that are not needed.

In the 1950s and 1960s, there were major debates between left-wing and liberal artists in Indonesia over what was appropriate subject matter. Artists influenced by the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) formed LEKRA, the People's Cultural Organisation, which argued that artists should concern themselves with political struggle.

LEKRA debated the authors of the "universal humanist" cultural manifesto, who argued for "art for art" rather than art being "compromised" by being overtly political. After the brutal rise to power of Suharto in 1965, many of the artists around LEKRA and the PKI were killed. Those who survived, such as writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer, were sentenced to lengthy spells in jail.

Husodo and Wahyuningsih explained that the authors of the manifesto had argued that art must be good for human culture. Ironically, one of its spokespersons, Goenawanan Mohammad, has become one of the elitist artistic community. If art is to be good for human culture, it cannot be divorced from the political situation and social conditions.

In the LEKRA-era, socialism in art tried to solve peoples' problems by using Marxism to see what was really occurring in this country, said Husodo and Wahyuningsih. After the tragic events of 1965, there seemed to be no progressive movement in art.  

In the early 1970s, an art movement developed led by people like Moeljono that attempted to question social and political conditions. But by the 1980s, the movement had become preoccupied with selling their products. Only Wiji Thukul remained true to this movement's principles.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Thukul worked with workers and the urban poor to develop the consciousness that good art has to be from and for the people. Husodo and Wahyuningsih told Green Left Weekly that JAKER is trying to redevelop a view of the role of art like that which existed around Thukul. The worker is the most important agent in the socialist movement so JAKER has to work with them, they said.

Husodo and Wahyuningsih explained that the JAKER congress in May was likely to see the organisation become independent of the radical People's Democratic Party (PRD). JAKER is currently a "subset" of the PRD. The activists said that the move was intended to reduce sectarianism on the left and to spread the ideology of socialism as widely as is possible. That is made more difficult if JAKER is seen to be aligned to one party. Many artists agree about the need for socialism but are already members of other parties, or are not ready to join the PRD.

Husodo and Wahyuningsih were quick to point out that the PRD, of which both are members, is the only party in Indonesia that fights militantly for socialism. In the past, they added, LEKRA also said there was no organisational relationship between it and the PKI. Only one LEKRA member ever openly declared his membership also of the PKI. But PKI members were able to win support for their party's program within LEKRA.

The activists conceded that a weakness of JAKER was the participation of women. Presently, there are only two women in JAKER. This is due to women being "a repressed sector" because of Indonesian society's attitudes, inherited from a feudal culture, see women as being below men.

JAKER is a big and vibrant organisation, in particular in Palembang, Yogyakarta, Lampung and Jakarta. In Palembang, JAKER is part of an underground cultural movement which has just recently taken over the government art council.

In Yogyakarta, theatre is used a lot as a political and cultural tool with farmers and students. There is a well-established "Red Star" theatre group there. JAKER is also part of a broad front of cultural groups, the Yogyakarta People's Cultural Forum. In Jakarta, there is the JAKER-initiated Wall Street Committee, involving mostly urban poor people.

Most recently, JAKER organised an action to raise consciousness about Wiji Thukul's disappearance. JAKER members read out Thukul's poetry in the street and they gained considerable media attention.

Husodo and Wahyuningsih said that the JAKER congress will gather together all those interested discussing the future of Indonesian national culture. The JAKER congress will also discuss the national political situation, the organisational structures of JAKER, a program of action and the organisation's strategies and tactics.

JAKER will also propose that a much broader national congress on Indonesian culture be convened to broaden the discussion. The aim, the activists said, was to build a bigger and wider movement for a people's art and culture.

They said that what is currently described as Indonesia's national culture must be countered, everyone must be involved in a discussion about the national culture. JAKER is just one element in that discussion -- the socialist element.

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