World Culture Forum (WCF) was a forum held by the Ministry of Education
of Indonesia, starting from 10 October to 14 October in Bali. The
forum was attended by government officials, ambassadors, and international and
public participants. The theme for WCF 2016 was about Culture for Inclusive
Sustainable Planet. Cultural visit, symposiums, cultural performance and
International Youth Forum were some of the activities in WCF 2016.
I was lucky because I was chosen to be one of public participants to
join this forum. Every participant was given the choices to join what
symposiums they were interested in. I joined two symposiums which are the most
interesting for me. The first symposium was Reviving Culture for Rural
Sustainability and the second symposium was Cultural Diversity for
Responsible Development. In this writing I will try my best to share the
knowledge that I had gained from this forum, hope it can be useful and will
inspire many people as well.
Reviving Culture for Rural Sustainability
The first symposium was opened by the first speaker, Aleta Baun, who is
familiar to be called Mama Aleta, a lady from NTT who struggled and strived to
save her land from the destruction of mining. A very touching and breathtaking
presentation started by her quote which said “We do not sell what we cannot
create”. Mama Aleta was one of the people in NTT who rejected the coal
mining in NTT, as she witnessed how mining is so destructive and dangerous for
the nature. Together with other activists she fought against the mining company
(and unfortunately also the government) to save the nature. The struggling
wasn’t easy though, Mama Aleta was threatened to death by the company, and her
family was also physically and mentally harm. She mentioned how she had to hide
and survive in the forest for months only with her 5-month baby because the
people from mining company tried to kill her. But all the anguish, threats, torture,
and fear did not stop her and other activists. After 13-year fight, they
managed to close the mining, and now Mama Aleta is one of DPD members for NTT.
Culture which teaches people to save the nature because nature is created by
Almighty God, is what has inspired Mama Aleta to keep fighting. She knows that
people have no right to sell what they cannot create, if people cannot create
the life, then do not try to sell and harm the life. If only every human in the
world were like her, I am pretty sure world will not face climate change now
and no one needs to suffer because of the disaster created by human.
The second speaker, Prof. Lanying Zhang, Director for Liang Shumning,
talked about rural reconstruction in China. The problem of urbanization and
remote rural areas happens as well in China. Urban cities seem so promising for
a better life, thus more and more people move from rural areas to urban cities.
The reasons are mainstream and common, because people do not want to live a
hard life, especially to be a farmer. Other problems are inequality gaps,
conflict between human and nature, and lost balance between human capacity and
needs. Human and nature become two different things which cannot live in
harmony. People destroy and exploit nature for the sake of living. More and
more people are also lack of capacity because of the imbalance distribution of
education which leads to even more complex social problems.
The last speaker for this symposium was Mr. Lee Soon Tak, from Yeungnam
University, South Korea. His presentation was focus with the water issue which
has also become a problem. Water as a basic for life survival needs more
attention thus we can reach SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) which foster
the usage of water for drinking, sanitation and hygiene, water quality, water
use, water resources and eco-system. He talked also about Saemaul Undong, a
political movement for a sustainable rural development. Saemaul Undong is
originally from South Korea and has been adapted in many countries. Its main
objective is to boost village economy by instilling the diligence, self-help
and cooperation. Saemaul Undong is a huge success as it could bring the
villages in South Korea to rise from poverty as the post-war effect.
It can be concluded that the main idea from first symposium is to
convince people that culture can be a main source for sustainable and safe
economy development in rural areas. Industry is not the only way to build an
economy development, culture with its value can be also the main source for the
income also. Bali is one of the good examples where culture is mingling
together with its development.
Cultural Diversity for Responsible Development
The second symposium I attended was Cultural Diversity for
Responsible Development. The first speaker was Din Symasudin, former
President of Majelis Ulama Indonesia. He talked about how pluralism is
important in a diverse country like Indonesia. Din Syamsudin also mentioned how
Islam teaches about pluralism which consists of three basic teachings, they are
respecting the differences; competing in goodness; and unity and inclusion of
society. He took Medina Charter as an example about how pluralism is supposed
to be. In Medina Charter, every single community, ethnic, and religion is
entitled as umma, and everyone shares the same responsibility and
rights. However what becomes problem now is people focus a lot with human
rights without even aware about their responsibilities, he mentioned. People
compete to yell louder about human rights but they do ignore their
responsibilities as God’s creature and also as part of society. Din Syamsudin
also instills the audience not to enter the sacred zone, because it is vulnerable.
Thus pluralism will not make us lose our own identity, regarding our religion,
culture and nationality.
The second speaker was Ahmad Fedyani Saifuddin, Professor Anthropology
from University of Indonesia. After Din Syamsudin talked about how pluralism
can be a solution of peace in diverse society, Ahmad Fedyani discussed how
multiculturalism actually has “limits”. The limits of multiculturalism are the
realities of social, politics and also economy. People will prioritize what’s
related to economy and power even when it often harms the multiculturalism and
pluralism. Multiculturalism also often leads to friction, conflict and
radicalism, which can happen anytime because of its limits. However,
multiculturalism also brings the positive impacts which can enhance democracy,
accelerate human rights and promote equality.
The third speaker of this session was Moncef Ben Abdeljelil, a Professor
of Anthropology from University of Sousse, Tunisia. Before beginning his
presentation about challenge of culture seen from few reflections with
reference to Muslim contexts, he firstly mentioned what has been delivered by
Din Syamsudin about pluralism all can happen in Indonesia, but not in Tunisia,
one of the countries in conflict in Middle East. He also mentioned, if
pluralism is such a solution, then why wars are everywhere? Moncef Ben
Abdeljelil came up with a concluding perspectives which propose four
orientations to reach a responsible development, they are: dealing with
education, relating to artistic production, concerning the legal reforms, and
interests political leadership. Seeing in Muslim societies the common ground
needed is to rethink the issue of truth.
It can be concluded that a responsible development needs involvement
from every aspect and party to boost the peace as the main foundation of
responsible development itself. Respecting others and being tolerant are the
keys to avoid the conflicts. Diversity is just like culture, can be a very
useful resource for the prosperity.
NB: This writing hasn’t covered all things discussed in the symposiums.
I apologize for any missing information; any inadequacy is purely my mistake.
Thank you
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