There was something inordinary that happened in the Hermitage Garden on Saturday, August 20, 2016. Since 10 am at local time, the park that been located in Moscow was already crowded by thousands of citizens. Apparently, the citizens came to the park in order to see the excitement of the first Indonesian Festival in Russia. The festival that been organized by the Embassy of Indonesia to Russia and Belarus taking the theme of “Visit Wonderful Indonesia: Bali and Beyond”, with the main agenda to promote culture and tourism in Indonesia to the Russian public.
The festival that takes place for over two days can be said to be very festive. Preceded by the opening ceremony on the first day, the Russian public was amazed to see various Indonesian dances that had been performed one after another. Once satisfied to see the opening ceremony, the citizens immediately took to came to the booths filled by the Embassy and various Indonesian businessmen. Among the booths, there are a lot of handicrafts and souvenirs from various regions in Indonesia, batik, even a variety of typical Indonesian food products such as chocolate, coffee, and more. In fact, the booth that provides a variety of Indonesian cuisine such as satay, nasi padang, etc were more crowded by visitors. Seeing the enthusiasm that is very high, the embassy was optimistic that the festival will provide a positive implication towards Indonesian tourism.
The embassy’s optimism is reasonable. Reflecting on the course of the festival in the first and second day, the Indonesian ambassador to Russia and Belarus Wahid Supriyadi proud to announce that the results of the festival is very satisfying. Many positive benefits can be felt immediately. For example, many local entrepreneurs Indonesia who have understood the “tastes” that of Russians like. Thus, the businessmen have gained market opportunities in Russia, which in turn will give a positive effect on trade between the two countries.
The excitement of Indonesian Festival in Russia adds to a long list of successful Indonesian cultural festival in various countries. Those success festivals certainly will provides a lot of tremendous positive effects for Indonesia, including the aspect of diplomacy. In the eyes of the world of diplomacy, holding a cultural festival can be fairly effective as a media for diplomacy, thus giving birth to a term called “cultural diplomacy”.
According to an Indian diplomat who is quite well known, K.M. Panikkar, cultural diplomacy can be defined as the effort of a country to fight for its national interests through cultural dimension. Thus, the current diplomacy is not just merely only associated with the “negotiations between officials of the state”, but can also be cultural performances. With the cultural diplomacy, diplomacy front became wide open and all of Indonesian citizens can be involved in it.
Taking the Indonesian Festival in Russia as an example, it appears that cultural diplomacy plays an important role in promoting the national interest, especially in the economic aspect. Therefore, the cultural diplomacy should be used as one of the main weapons by the government when it wants to take a larger role on the international stage. However, cultural diplomacy initiated by the government would only be “tong kosong nyaring bunyinya“, if not supported by active participation of Indonesian society. In other words, the synergy between the government and the public is the main factor to have such a successfull cultural diplomacy that needs to be promoted by the government.