City plans to raze school for blind
City plans to raze school for blind
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
An internationally acclaimed training center for the blind in
East Jakarta, may soon be demolished by the city administration
to make way for the expansion of a city-owned hospital.
Panti Taman Harapan's spokesperson, Rojiin Faqih, said on
Friday that the center would be relocated to Cengkareng area,
West Jakarta.
"The Budhi Asih Hospital management is going to provide more
wards for its upmarket patients," he told The Jakarta Post.
The 2,911-square-meter Panti Taman Harapan is located at the
back of the hospital in Cawang, East Jakarta.
Faqih said that two orphanages had already been demolished by
the city administration for the expansion of the hospital. A
banner hanging at the front of the hospital states that the
orphanages have been moved to Tebet, South Jakarta.
The city administration had earlier issued an order for Panti
Taman Harapan to be vacated by Nov. 3, 2002, but due to steadfast
resistance, the planned eviction was postponed until 2005.
But despite the postponement, Faqih suspects that a plan is
afoot to vacate the center earlier.
"After the Jakarta Social Affairs Agency delayed the plan, the
center management stopped receiving new students. We're afraid
that eventually there will be no more new students, so the agency
could do anything before 2005," he said.
He added that several people on the centers managing
committee, and teachers who had opposed the plan, had been
threatened to comply.
Panti Taman Harapan, established during the Dutch colonial era
in the early 1900s, was formerly owned by the Ministry of Social
Affairs. The city administration took over its management with
the regional autonomy policy in 2000.
The center provides blind people with education, and training
in a variety of skills. Currently, over 40 people spend most of
the day there.
Tubagus Haryo Karbyantoro of Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH
Jakarta), who provides advocacy to the opponents of the
relocation plan, said relocating the center to Cengkareng would
only cause its regulars a myriad of problems.
He said that the new location was not suitable. Furthermore,
the blind students, and other regular visitors to the center,
were well liked among their current neighborhood.
Contacted separately, head of the Spiritual Development and
Social Welfare Agency (Bintalkesos) Syarifudin Mahfud gave a
contradictory statement to the city administration's move. He
said there was no plan to relocate Panti Taman Harapan.
"We want to move students from the center for the blind in
Cengkareng to Cawang instead," he told the Post.