Ministry Pushes To Step Up Efforts To Reclaim Heritage

Jakarta - Indonesia`s efforts to win back the rights to unique cultural products from abroad are hamstrung by inexperience and a lack of clear claims, an official with the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights said on Thursday.

Ansori Sinungan, the ministry`s director of cooperation and development, told the Jakarta Globe that Indonesia has been waging an uphill battle to protect cultural heritage, biodiversity and traditional technologies.

“Torajan coffee is patented by Japanese scientists. The same goes for our Jepara wood carvings, patented by an unknown party in the Netherlands,” he said. “There are countless other [examples of] Indonesia`s cultural heritage that have been `stolen.`”

The foreign patents for domestic products, he said, not only brought shame to the country but also affected trade and exports to those countries. “Our coffee could not enter Japan, and so is it with our Jepara carvings to the European Union,” Ansori said.

He said trying to inventory Indonesia`s unique products, given the country`s vast ethnic diversity, with each group possessing its own traditional houses, costumes, folklore, dances, songs and crafts.

“We do have such inventories but they are sporadic, local and sometimes conflicting,” he said.

“Our ministry has its own list, but so does the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The same goes for every province and district, each with their own findings and data. We are trying to establish a uniform system for the inventories and have them compiled on a national scale.” The list, he said, would be registered with Unesco and the World Intellectual Property Organization, which would lay down a legal foundation for the country to protect its heritage infringement and exploitation.

The deputy attorney general for civil and state administrative affairs, Edwin Situmorang, said the list would help to invalidate patents for “stolen cultural heritage.”

“However, the problem is our government, particularly the Attorney General`s Office, as lawyers of the state, don`t have any experience in handling international arbitration on intellectual property rights violations and disputes,” Edwin said. “But we are catching up.” Nivell Rayda

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com (21 May 2009)
Photo: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=484132&page=24

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