Benyamin fund set up

Benyamin fund set up

JAKARTA (JP): Starting next week, the private-owned television
station ANteve will open bank account No: 011.005.0224 at Nusa
Bank for those who want to make donations for the establishment
of a Betawi (Jakarta's native people) cultural center.

The donation-collecting drive, called Dompet Cite-cite Bang
Ben (Fund for Benyamin's Dream) is aimed toward remembering and
appreciating the late comedian and actor Benyamin Sueb, also
known as Bang Ben, who contributed so much to the preservation of
the Betawi culture.

Since the early 1970's Benyamin, who was considered a symbol
of Betawi society, had expressed his dream to set up a Betawi
cultural center. Unfortunately, until he died on Sept. 5 this
year, his dream was yet to come true.

The idea for the fund came as a spontaneous move during a
shooting of one of ANteve's talk shows called Bincang Bincang
(Chit-Chat), which featured a Betawi leader, Ridwan Saidi, critic
Salim Said and the program presenter Soraya Perucha early this
week.

The idea, according a statement issued by ANteve, is supported
by South Jakarta's Mayor H. Pardjoko.(als)