Building owners to revive old Batavia

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Formerly the center of trade and business activities in the Dutch colonial era, the Kota area in West Jakarta is in dire need of conservation as it crumbles away due to the ravages of time and neglect.

The absence of any progress in the planned restoration programs of the city administration has prompted several residents, who own heritage buildings in the area, to team up to establish the Batavia Advancement Committee as an effort to revive the historical area.

"We are really impatient considering that there has been no progress made by the administration to revive the Kota area... That's why we established this group, comprising of heritage building owners, to push the administration to conduct its program to restore the area," Ella Ubaidi, one of the owners told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

At least seven people, who owns properties in Kota, have joined the group to push the revitalization program.

"Of course, we will invite more 'neighbors', who own heritage sites in the area, to join the drive. We want to restore the area so that it will be worth seeing as a tourist attraction, like other old cities in the West," she said.

The group will organize a ceremony on Sept. 26 at Kali Besar River as a public campaign to clean the river so that the people will not treat the 13 rivers flowing through the city as their garbage dump. Foreign ambassadors and Governor Sutiyoso are expected to attend the ceremony.

In preparation for the ceremony, the City Public Works Agency and the City Sanitation Agency cleaned up the river last week.

The committee, led by Miranda Gultom representing Bank Indonesia, which owns one of the buildings located in the zone, met with Jakarta officials to discuss the future of the restoration program.

Critics have repeatedly said that the administration's poor attention to heritage sites has left many buildings in poor condition.

Jakarta is home to hundreds of heritage sites, most of which are in a poor condition since their owners refuse to fork out the huge funds needed to preserve the old buildings, arguing that the buildings have no economic value.

The administration declared Kota as a city tourist destination as well as a conservation zone in 1972 when Ali Sadikin was governor.

Most Jakarta governors after Ali from Tjokropranolo up to Sutiyoso have also announced programs to revitalize the area, however, none have materialized so far.