What is happening to Jakarta’s Old Town?

Also in The Jakarta Globe

Yesterday I toured Hwaseong Haenggung, a sojourn palace in Suwon, South Korea, originally built in 1789-1796. Most facilities were demolished under Japanese imperialism in 1910-1945. Reconstruction started in 1996, by first demolishing new buildings that had been built over time on the site. The complex was opened to public in 2003. The only restored original building in it is the tiny Naknamheon annex at the northern  corner of the western part of it. It is now a UNESCO’s World Heritage Site.

Timely I was recently asked by a TV station: What is happening to Jakarta’s old town, the Oude Batavia?

Well, it has several original buildings of 17^th, 18^th, 19^th , and the first half of the 20^th centuries all together in its original gridiron pattern. Each represents a unique architecture and splendor of its epoch.  The gridiron pattern represents renaissance rationality that later influenced the expansion of medieval Amsterdam with the three canals. The streets were of course originally canals.

But It is not a Word Heritage Site. Almost all experts have said to me that it could easily qualify as a World Heritage Site. But some one needs to propose it to UNESCO, and a restoration program must be implemented.  Talks about this have been around for decades. So, what are we waiting for? What went wrong?

There have been a dozen or so physical plans. At a time, there were even two plans by two different consultants assigned by two different departments of the city. What is lacking in my opinion is a business plan, that should consists of the city’s commitments on infrastructure and incentives it wants to give to investors who would like to restore the old buildings and retrofit them with contemporary uses. Private investors, builidng owners, also need to be able to make their individual business plans. For that, they need some clarity about the risks they are taking. They need to know the mix of uses that will be introduced into the area: how many restaurants, hotel rooms, dwelling units, souvenir shops, etc?  They also need to be convinced that once they decide to invest based on the announced plan, it will not change arbitrarily without their consent.  And they need to be sure that the government’s commitments on infrastructure and other investments will be realised within committed schedule. To that purpose, the government needs to coordinate a clear legal framework and a unified authority (the old town falls into two municipalities of North Jakarta and West Jakarta). A solid management team is required and should be led by a highly competent CEO with business background and unshaken conviction about the value in restoring this heritage. Income need to be carefully projeced to justify the investments.

Whatever the government has done or going to do, I think, need to be evaluated against those premises. We need to make up our minds to produce one plan and one management with the highest efficiency and effectivity. Unfortunately, this is what seems to be lacking compared to the Koreans or others that have advanced ahead of us. We are slow in coordination and in making right, effective decisions. We are having what economists call “resource curse”. Korea imports 96 % of their energy. Gas costs 1.5 USD per liter. They have to be efficient with every energy unit they use. Perhaps we need that kind of pressure to succeed?

Seafront, our public space

A seafront is not just a waterfront. Open sea has been bringing people to and from distant lands and cultures for millenia. It shows us horizon,too. Most cities evolved from this disposition into a cosmopiltan nature. They owe their seafronts for open mindedness through meetings of different peoples, and for wealth gained from trade. It is a blessing for a city, when it still offers a daily touch with the sea to its population.

One of such city is Manado. I first visited it in early 1990s, when they were starting to reclaim its seafront. There was then a promise of a modern waterfront to replace the old, gently curving, publicly open Strand Boulevard, now named Jalan Piere Tendean. Strand is a dutch word which means beach. The proposed new waterfront was a developmentalist malvision which was difficult to resist back then. Then was the time when the term public-private-partnership was introduced.

Enter the Governor Candidates

Also in the Jakarta Globe.

One morning last week, my Twitter timeline was suddenly full with series of tweets by a new account. I later found out it belongs to a campaign team of a certain Jakarta Governor canditate.

Looking back into the last few weeks, there had been actually some candidates hopeful  that signed up  at Twitter, and perhaps also with Facebook.

They are competing for attention, “followers”, “friends” and “like”, of course, with different degrees of aggresiveness or kindness.

Some friends very promptly got cynical, understandably. But, I may have disappointed them by actually advicing them to follow all the candidates. “What, who are they? Are they worth following? What do they know about Jakarta? What have they done?” My answer is “Well, if you want to find out about them, follow them!  At least for a while until you realy cannot stand them anymore, if that would be the case.”

Transform Satpol PP into friendly bobbies.

Also in the Jakarta Globe

I am realy worried about street life in Jakarta. It is heading into chaos, not anarchy.

Anarchy refers to a well-thought philosophy of self-governing society with highest trust and capacity for consensus making that it does not need any authority to run it. But chaos is about the collapse of rules and order, deliberate ignorance and deviance.

There is no more walking culture. No one stops for people crossing on zebra crosses.  I was once scolded by a man because he had to stop his BMW suddenly as I crossed before him on the street between the expensive Plaza Indonesia and not so expensive Grand Indonesia. He only shied away after  I approached him, knocked at his window, and told him that he is required by law to give me priority, and that if he hit me with his car, he would be charged wth meditated murder attempt.