The Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendy welcomed the arrival of the Reog Ponorogo Cultural Parade which was attended by approximately 1000 participants with various artistic performances on the Front Page of the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture, on Sunday (27/8).
Muhadjir said that the spread of the Reog Ponorogo art in various regions to foreign countries marked the right for this art to be recognized as a World Intangible Cultural Heritage (WBTB) by UNESCO.
“The Reog Ponorogo Association is spread across various regions, even to Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, all of them are there. Anyway, Reog Ponorogo has gone global. UNESCO should have recognized it as a world cultural heritage from Ponorogo,” Muhadjir said while giving a speech in front of the parade participants.
Muhadjir added that UNESCO’s recognition of Reog Ponorogo as WBTB would later give a sense of pride to all Ponorogo residents and the people of Indonesia. It also complements the 12 Indonesian cultural heritages that have been recognized by UNESCO before.
During a dialogue with representatives of SMA Negeri 1 Jakarta Budi Utomo who participated in the parade, Muhadjir said that the submission of arts and culture was a very high concern and form of concern from the government to preserve, develop and promote Indonesian culture.
“Culture is the most effective tool of “soft diplomacy” to deal with other countries. A country will be considered civilized or not, it will be seen from how superior, how noble its culture is,” he added.
As is known from the press statement submitted earlier on Thursday (24/8) at the Office of the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture, the agenda for the Reog Ponorogo Exhibition is an effort to encourage the recognition of Reog Ponorogo art by UNESCO. The parade started its route from the National Library via the Jalan Medan Merdeka Barat route until it ended at the office of the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture. The parade agenda was closed with various performances such as the Saman Dance, Reog Ponorogo performances, the Movement to drink Jamu together, play Angklung together and Dangdut music performances.
On this occasion, the most important thing was the symbolic handover of the Reog Ponorogo WBTB submission document from the Secretary to the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs as Chair of the Reog Susiwijono Moegiarso Association to the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture which was forwarded to the Director General of Culture of the Ministry of Education and Culture Hilmar Farid and will be submitted to UNESCO for trial in December 2024. Adv/Man
