Festung Bintaro?

Festung Bintaro?

I would like to comment on a new development in that characteristic feature of Jakarta's suburban dwellings -- the surrounding prison wall. Unseen on such a scale in other countries in the region, in Bintaro the concept is now being extended to embrace entire communities.

High, castle-like ramparts, coupled with flanking towers styled after Troy but with a hint of Vauban, tightly surround many of the rural areas creating protected enclaves isolated amidst seas of freshly churned mud.

But for what purpose? Someone with a fortress mentality on the local architectural planning committee? An excessive security measure to discourage criminal trespass? Or, from the opposite point of view, a cordon sanitaire to contain those within?

Or is it a defensive gesture to preserve the fast-disappearing pastoral charm of traditional kampong life? A proletarian last stand against the encroachment of middle class vulgarity? A final bastion against the unwelcome assault by earth-moving regiments of nouveau riche developers with their tasteless mixture of Corinthian capitals, shallow dish antennas and belle epoch cast- iron gates?

I'd be interested to know.

JULIAN D'ARCY

Jakarta