A Show Of Solidarity Ahead Of The Ubud Writers Festival In October

Ro King, chairman of the Indonesian Heritage Society, addressing a fund-raising lunch in support of the Ubud Writers & Readers festival in October. (Titania Veda, JG)

Jakarta- The sixth Ubud Writers & Readers festival, or UWRF, will be held in Bali from Oct. 7-11, under the theme of “Compassion and Solidarity.”

Kadek Purnami of the organizing committee said it hoped to secure the attendance of Indonesian writers such as poet W.S. Rendra and novelist NH Dini at the 2009 festival, as well as Nobel laureates J.M. Coetzee and Wole Soyinka.

The festival, which provides a showcase for emerging Indonesian writers, is funded principally by ticket revenue, sponsorships and donations. And at times of economic uncertainty, it becomes even more important to generate funding sources.

On Tuesday, the Indonesian Heritage Society, which has been supporting the writers festival since 2006, held a fund-raising lunch at the Singapore ambassador‘s residence in Menteng, Central Jakarta.

Proceeds from the lunch will be used to sponsor emerging Indonesian writers and university students to attend the festival, the society said. Further fund-raisers are to follow.

“The reason we started supporting the UWRF is because Janet de Neefe [founder of the UWRF] said it isn‘t difficult to get funding for international writers,” said Ro King, the chairman of the heritage society. “But that isn‘t the case with local writers, who are the people the festival is trying to highlight.

Indonesian novelist Ayu Utami, who was also at the fund-raiser, agreed: “What we see in the UWRF is a good opportunity to meet international writers without going overseas, only to Bali. But even then, for some students, it is still too costly.”

Gouri Mirpuri, wife of the Singaporean ambassador, said she was “only too happy” to kickstart the fund-raising efforts because the money was going directly to Indonesian writers.

But despite generous contributions from the audience, according to Ayu there continues to be a lack of support from the general public and the government.

“Policies in Indonesia don‘t support the arts,” Ayu said.

She said that in developed countries, the national government, local government, and businesses shared equally in funding the arts.

“Indonesia doesn‘t have a system like that.

“Here, if you make a donation to a sports activity, you will get a tax break. But if a corporation did that for the arts, they don‘t receive that benefit,” Ayu continued.

The lunch also featured a talk by author Elizabeth Pisani on the subject of sex, politics and AIDS in Indonesia.

“I feel a lot more effort could be made to include Indonesian writers, artists and audiences,” Pisani said.

“And I hope that this will contribute to that initiative.” Titania Veda

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