Bosscha gets ready to fight for its survival

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung, West Java

Bosscha Observatory in Bandung is slated to hold a seminar today, which is aimed at saving the observatory from the wrecking ball.

Moedji Rahardjo, the head of Bosscha Observatory, asserted on Thursday that the observatory was now on the brink of eviction, because "certain interest groups" were trying to buy several plots of lands surrounding the observatory, in order to turn it into a tourist/entertainment site.

Lembang, north of Bandung, is a hilly area where the Bosscha Observatory has been standing for 80 years and also a famous tourist resort.

"They are either businessmen or bureaucrats, and they've even been asking about the possibility whether the observatory can be moved to another location," Moedji told The Jakarta Post.

Moedji said it was unfortunate that there were such narrow- minded people in positions of power.

Moedji said that Bosscha Observatory had fought in the last meeting with local government officials over the planned construction of a 75-hectare tourism project in the area close to Bosscha.

Moedji said that he had told the local government officials, including the regent of Bandung regency, that any construction within a radius of one kilometer from the observatory would sharply reduce the performance of the telescopes in the observatory.

"Even, a study in 1989 showed that ideally, there should be no buildings within a radius of 2.5 kilometers from the observatory," said Moedji.

The presence of buildings in this radius would increase the intensity of light in the area, and would thus undermine the ability of the telescopes in the observatory, he added.

"We have been here for 80 years. Don't push us out of here," he pled.

In order to prevent the eviction, Moedji said that the observatory had pursued several tacts, including by staging a seminar on the protection of the environment surrounding the observatory.

The seminar, which is to be held today, will feature Otto Soemarwoto, the expert on environmental issues from the Bandung- based Padjadjaran University and Denny Zulkaidi, a planetologist from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).

He said that the outcome of the seminar would be conveyed to the Minister of Environment and the Minister of National Education, in a bid to stop the planned tourism project from encroaching on the land, that could both endanger the environment and the existence of the observatory.