HEALING THE PAST
Indonesia is busy dealing with a lot of economic and social problems at this moment. I am hesitant to inform you of what I thought a milestone in the cultural sector today. But there is never a right moment if I wait. So I put forward what I think the Indonesians should know. In colonial times, there were many cultural goods were looted by the Dutch. The current Minister of Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands, Ingrid van Engelshoven, would like to have a policy on what to do with those looted cultural goods. The Colonial Collections Committee was established about a year ago with the main task to provide advice to the Minister. I was humbled to be asked to join the Committee, together with the other nine members. On Wednesday 7 October 2020, we officially handed over our advice to the Minister. Later this advice will be disseminated in English and Bahasa Indonesia. For now, I share here the summary of the advice in English. I think it is worth reading since it is abo