Diponegoro to give Kartini the shove

JAKARTA: The administration plans to replace the statue of women's emancipation figure Kartini on the median strip of Jl. Diponegoro, Central Jakarta, with one of Diponegoro, the Javanese prince who fought the Dutch in the 1800s.

"The Kartini statue is too small for the park. Moreover, the placing of the Diponegoro statue there will match the name of the street," Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo was quoted as saying by KompasCyberMedia on Saturday.

The statue of Diponegoro is one of several statues being offered by property magnate Ciputra to the Jakarta administration to be placed in city parks for free.

Last year, the administration installed a statue of Indonesia Military (TNI) founder Sudirman on the Jl. Sudirman, the city's main thoroughfare. The companies that paid for the statue were rewarded with Rp 3.5 billion (US$380,434)'s worth of outdoor advertising spots. -- JP