REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - The Indonesian government was preparing short-, medium-, and long-term strategies to head off future claims by Malaysia to Indonesian culture, Deputy Education and Culture Minister Wiendu Nuryanti said. "The short-term strategy is to prepare diplomatic notes expressing our objection to Malaysian claims over Tor-Tor dance," she said here on Tuesday.

Five ministries, including the Education and Culture Ministry, the Law and Human Rights Ministry and the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry, were drafting the diplomatic notes, she said. Through the medium-term strategy, Indonesia is preparing bilateral negotiations with Malaysia, particularly to discuss cultural ownership.

"At the negotiations, both countries will come up with their respective list of intangible cultural heritages. If there is similarity in the list, we will discuss it," she said. The strategy was medium-term because both countries still had to agree on the proper time to discuss cultural issues, she said. 

"In the long run, the government will file the cultural claim with the international court of justice (ICJ). This step will need a long time and huge funding," she said. Yet the long-term strategy would be able to resolve the cultural claim, she noted. 

"We are trying to avoid an instant step which seemingly settles cultural issues but, in reality, there are many latent problems that may surface any time," she added. Further, by referring the cultural issue to the international court of justice, there would be no claim over cultural heritage in the future, she said. 

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