Cibubur camping ground to become history

By Maria Endah Hulupi

JAKARTA (JP): The majestic trees shade a vast green area under which stand some small chalets and huts, where scouts and other youth groups often hold gatherings and conduct various educational activities.

This unspoilt location is the Cibubur camping ground in East Jakarta. It's not like other parts of the capital where dense crowds and heavy traffic congestion are commonplace. Here you can find peace.

However, this quiet location and the activities conducted here may soon be affected if the city administration goes ahead with its plan to construct a major shopping mall on a former parking lot near the camping ground and the Wiladatika flower garden.

Secretary-general of the Indonesian Scouting Association (Pramuka) Syaukat Banjaransari hopes that the administration will reconsider its plan as it is not in line with the Jakarta master plan which reserves the area for outdoor and educational activities.

"The complex is zoned as an urban green area. It is a vast site for conducting of educational and other constructive activities for scouts and the public in general. We hope that it will remain that way for the sake of our youth," he said.

The Cibubur complex, established in mid-1981, stands on some 234 hectares, which has been developed into the camping ground, recreational park and, of course, the national education and training center for the members of Pramuka.

The camping site was established to provide scouts and other youths from all over the country with a place where they could foster their appreciation and fondness for a green environment and nature, as well as participating in treks and other outdoor pursuits.

In this area, scouts are given training in trekking, rescue techniques, first aid drill, etc., and are allowed to hold sports events and other informal gatherings, aimed at fostering brotherhood among them.

Meanwhile, its recreational sites comprise a flower garden that presents a profusion of colors to the beholder, with its various flowering and other decorative plants, a swimming pool, a gymnasium, an arts building, a hall and a library, dormitories and a public kitchen.

The Cibubur camping ground had always been associated with the late Mrs. Tien Soeharto, wife of former president Soeharto. More than 20 years ago, the city government lent some plots of land in the then semirural area of Cibubur to the former first lady, herself a devoted patron of the scouting movement, and the National Scouting Board, to be used for Pramuka's activities.

Since then, the area has been developed into an integrated public park with comprehensive youth facilities. Some 150,000 people, most of them young, visit the complex annually. This figure doesn't include other members of the public who rent the affordable facilities the complex has to offer for their own purposes.

In l997, a year before Soeharto's fall, he dedicated the camping ground to his late wife and named it after her.

Since the Soeharto luster faded, the city government has been trying hard to recover the land and plans to sell part of it to private investors in order to repay its debt to the Central Bank.

Syaukat admitted that the scouting movement had no say in the administration's plans for the 3.2 hectares of land that had been used as a parking lot since the 1986 Jamboree.

"In this case, we want the administration to reconsider its plan to build a hypermall complex because the project is not in line with the original concept for the site," he said.

The meager funds collected are used to conserve the existing facilities.

Schools, corporations, production houses and other firms take advantage of this green environment for training, increasing the awareness of and affection for nature, filming soap operas and video clips, and sports competitions.

"We are worried that the construction of new buildings near the complex which are not in harmony with its general mission, may jeopardize the continuation of the current positive activities," Syaukat said.

However, some of the visitors to the Cibubur complex said that the presence of a hypermall outside the complex would be convenient for them to buy things that they needed but which could not be found in the shanty stores within the complex.

"We will only have to go to one location to find all the things we need," said Iman of an outbound firm, adding that the mall would not affect the activities inside the complex as it was not part of the complex.

The Indonesian Scout Movement can only hope and pray that it will be invited to attend a discussion prior to the implementation of the project so that it can fight its corner.

"We have a concept to further develop the Cibubur complex in the future, a plan that will hopefully encourage more youth to join the scouting movement," he said.

Separately, an official at the complex said that sticking with the original purpose of the complex was necessary, but he personally believed that as long as the hypermall development project was not actually in the camping ground, the youth activities, although slightly affected, could still continue as usual.

The fate of the camping ground, he said, was in the hands of the people at higher levels.

"I'm just a staff member here and I don't really know what plans have been discussed at the higher levels," the official, who is a senior scout, said.

The Indonesian Scouting Association claims to have 22 million scouts nationwide, with 10 million of them currently being registered scouts. This figure makes it the biggest scouting movement in the world, followed by that of the United States.

Membership is voluntary and the movement is positively welcomed in most areas, except, it would seem, in the capital.

Here, students and pupils are frequently unwilling to join the movement mainly because they are exposed to other more interesting entertainment activities.

Despite losing its appeal to potential young scouts in the capital, the movement is still trying to attract more members from Jakarta to participate by showing that the activities are fun and useful.

"Basically we want to improve our image and to show local youth the benefits of joining the scouting movement. We highlight the noble things that our members do and award them medals of honor, books and scholarships" Syaukat said.

Recently, the Indonesian scout movement rewarded two scouts, namely 15-year-old Taufik Dimira, a shepherd who found three live grenades on a railroad track, thus preventing any fatalities, and Agus Tambuni, who found wreckage from a missing helicopter in the Irian Jaya jungle.