Do Jakartans actually need more shopping centers?

Iqbal Widastomo, Researcher, South-East Asian Division, Global Link Business Consultancy, London

They are everywhere now in Jakarta! On every corner of the city there they are: massive and often overpowering in size, they are powerful presences in the city. They have changed the way millions live and they consume on a scale that should concern us all because it is unsustainable.

In reading the above paragraph, one might think this was a discussion on some alien takeover of the capital or on some fantastical creature from one of the Lord of the Rings films that had chosen to take up residence in the city.

But no, these new giants of the city are the shopping malls that still seem to be rising, despite the fact that there are already dozens of shopping centers all over the urban sprawl that is the nation's capital.

The introduction may seem rather dark and foreboding in its picture of monstrous entities, the presence of which is unsustainable. However, the excessive number of malls that have risen -- and continue to rise -- in Jakarta over the last decade or so is so great that concerns and even menace can readily be seen in their growth.

This growth is made all the more perverse when we consider that, as these vast vestiges of consumerism have been erected, Indonesia was going through its worst economic crisis.

It is almost as if the economic crisis had only a small impact, if any, on consumerism. This too is reflected in how people are clearly flocking to the new shopping malls. However, it must be questioned whether visitors to these malls actually have any spending power to sustain the retail turnover for the shops in these malls.

Jakarta is following a path of consumerism that is by now familiar all over the world. Consumerism has been taking over and has changed the way in which millions upon millions of people live. People have come to see it as reasonable to name shopping as one of their hobbies.

What an odd idea that the idea of going out and spending money, most likely on something unnecessary, has become a reasonable and self-fulfilling thing to do. Sometimes, people even do not have to go so far as buying something; even window- shopping, gazing at the latest fashions or the latest electronic gadgets on offer, is seen as a fruitful and engaging way to spend leisure time.

Perhaps the concept of "leisure time" is part of the problem here.

Leisure time is seen as a time during which we do things we want to, as opposed to doing things that we really have to or need to. The idea of leisure time as a time to do things that are constructive and useful is most likely fading from our collective mind-set; society is becoming superfluous, unnecessary and wasteful. Instead of being useful and resourceful, we allow ourselves -- and are even encouraged -- to do things that are either useless or are not particularly constructive.

This model of leisure time complements the world of consumerism and shopping malls. People are being encouraged and are allowing themselves to be fairly mindless consumers of whatever on offer. From the clothes we wear to the films we watch in the cinemas that are nearly always part of a shopping complex, we are being served up with, and are gladly feeding on, things that are not necessarily good for us nor necessarily beneficial to us in nourishing or stimulating our intellect.

For example, on a recent trip back to Jakarta, when I asked a friend what she would be doing at the weekend, her automatic reply was, "I'll be going to the mall and probably see a film."

Naturally, I followed up with the question, "Oh really? What film do you plan to see?" To which she replied, "Oh, I don't know. Anything -- I don't really mind, whatever is on."

Now, this person is not unintelligent. She has a good job at a bank that requires her to use her brain, but when it came to thinking about her leisure time and choice of entertainment, she didn't really to be using it.

This seems to be the general direction in which we are heading. The world of marketing and product promotion would call this a no-brainer situation -- that is, the consumer does not really think, and instead mindlessly buys and consumes what is offered with little or no consideration of benefits or consequences.

Jakarta now has an excess of malls that are ready to capitalize on the potential for mindless consumerism that is on the rise not just in Indonesia, but all around the world. Capitalism is based on the twin passions of buying and selling. When the passion of buying is uninhibited by thoughtfulness and considerations of the value and usefulness of the purchase, of course, selling becomes easier.

In Western countries, there is much lamenting of the loss of values and society's deterioration into valueless consumerism. In the United Kingdom, for example, it is common knowledge and experience that people will sooner choose to go to a shopping mall on Sunday than they would attend a church service. The encroachment of the consumer society and materialism has led to a condition in which people feel that they must shop simply to justify their existence. Perversely, people have even been heard to say that shopping is a basic human right.

Shops in the UK promote themselves with slogans that appeal to this odd mentality, such as "I shop therefore I am"; as if human worth and the moral validity of life is a product of the things you buy and the material objects that you can claim "mine".

This is not only morally wrong; it is obscene and offensive to any ideal of a caring and sharing society. Indonesia should not go in this direction and should not fall into this trap.

Shopping malls have their place in any city and any society, but they should not come to dominate a city and reduce the moral values of a society. Shopping malls in Jakarta are consistently not representative of Indonesian society, with mostly Western styles and trends on offer and American culture predominant in movies shown.

The city does not really need any more malls; it is already well served by malls. Malls do add to the variety and complexity of our city and are significant contributors to the make-up of any modern city, but we should consider how many we need and how much we need them. The "mall-mania" is surely going too far.

The city is in need of so many other things to truly develop its infrastructure as a world metropolis, such as a public transportation network, better housing and art and cultural centers. City planners should explore these needs more and consider with more scrutiny the social value of malls.

Not least, they should consider how malls accentuate the gap between the haves and have nots, the rich and the poor.