By Faisal Al-Johani
Recently, the Council of Ministers approved the organizational structure of the newly formed General Authority for Culture. It is the realization of a decades-long dream of intellectuals, men of letters and academics in the country.
The Cabinet revised the authority’s structure and strategy in line with requirements of cultural development and the knowledge-based society. Its ambitious programs are likely to deepen national cultural heritage, benefiting all groups of people in the society.
Actually, showing importance to culture and related activities and making serious efforts to spread knowledge, literature and art are essential for the development of civilization, which covers all groups of people and government institutions.
Tolerance, justice and progress are the hallmarks of a cultured and educated society, which would not give any chance for the emergence of extremist ideologies and intolerant thoughts and ideas that have pushed our youth to terrorism and violence in recent past.
Such an open and educated society would not produce racist and intolerant people who pose a huge threat to national security and unity. On the other hand, it would provide people of different thoughts and views the right to peaceful coexistence.
I have noticed that the lack of cultural content has been the main reason for the spread of evil and negative thoughts in our society and for the promotion of corruption. Cultured people understand that corruption would threaten fairness, national security and progress.
So, culture is very important and we should make it part and parcel of our daily life in order to foster love, beauty and national commitment among people of our nation.
I don’t know how the various cultural institutions work together. A kind of harmonious coordination is required between libraries, literary and art clubs as well as information and publishing offices with all of them working together to achieve the lofty cultural goals of the country.
There is a strong relationship between the three authorities for culture, entertainment and tourism, which cannot be separated. If we organize a musical program, for example, it cannot be considered just as an entertainment event. It’s fundamentally part and parcel of fine arts and will contribute to boosting domestic tourism.
Some people fear that overlapping of objectives and activities of these authorities would weaken their existence. I strongly believe that the culture authority is capable of realizing the entertainment authority’s mission. Dramas, musical programs, poetry recitals and cinema are globally considered cultural activities. These cultural programs are important as they satiate human feelings of beauty. This is the real meaning of entertainment.
When we talk about the Cabinet decision approving organizational structure of the General Authority for Culture, I would like to stress that we should organize various edutainment programs in villages and cities addressing both selected and ordinary people.
The rules and regulations of the cultural authority insist that its activities should not clash with the dominant religious authority or educational principles. At the same time, we have not yet taken a popular stand on cultural products such as cinema, drama, music and photography.
I believe that we have to create a suitable environment for the development of fine arts in order to encourage people to express their creativity freely without being obstructed by individuals or authorities. Our society needs enjoying various cultural activities after it was suppressed by extremist religious groups over the past several decades.
I also believe that the activities of the new cultural authority should go beyond the traditional and conventional ones, represented by the literary clubs and cultural societies in the country. Its officials should open their windows to welcome new thoughts and ideas. They should also invite new names at their stages in order to encourage them and value their creativity.
Like the leaders of extremist groups who caused violence, deaths and destruction across the country, there are some cultural leaders who used their influence and authority to prevent modern writers, poets and thinkers from expressing their thoughts and ideas for several years.
