Historical Somba Opu Fort, a story of sheer neglect

Hasanuddin Hamid, Contributor, Makassar, South Sulawesi

Originally, the excavation of the Somba Opu fort, which began in 1986 and was completed in 1990, was intended to make this a historical legacy from the 16th century at Gowa Kingdom South Sulawesi in Miniature park.

However, after the excavation was completed, the provincial administration of South Sulawesi used this fort as the venue for the region's cultural week only three times.

The project is in great neglect today. In fact, you can find in the 540-hectare fort area traditional houses of the Buginese, Makassarese, Mandarese and Torajan ethnic groups. Several houses are in good repair, while others are not. The Mamasan traditional houses, for example, have damaged roofs and main columns damaged.

In late 2001, the provincial administration handed over the management of the Somba Opu fort to the regent of Gowa, Syahrul Yasin Limpo, who said that he would put in order the historical asset, which has been in a state of neglect over the last five years.

Syahrul said that he would rearrange the infrastructure related to the fort and then restore the function of the Somba Opu as originally planned, namely as a historical, cultural and tourist site.

In developing this area, Gowa regency administration will cooperate with a subsidiary of the Lippo Group, namely PT GMTD (Gowa Makassar Tourism Development), a company developing the Tanjung Bunga area, a self-supporting city connecting the Losari Beach area and the area around the fort.

Syahrul said that negotiations had yet to be finalized because the joint management of the area could begin only when the provincial administration got the go-ahead from South Sulawesi legislative council.

The Somba Opu fort, which used to be the seat of the Kingdom of Gowa, was built at the instruction of the first king of Gowa, Daeng Matanre Karaeng Tumapa'risi Kallonna, who ruled between 1510 and 1546. Later King Gowa X, I Mariogau Daeng Bonto Karaeng Lakiung Tunipallangga, instigated some improvements to the fort.

In historical records, before the construction of this fort, the seat of the Kingdom of Gowa was located at Tamalate Hill. Then the seat of this kingdom was moved to the fort of Somba Opu, an area surrounded by the River Jeneberang to the north and the River Ujung Pucu to the south in anticipation of an attack by the Portuguese forces, which controlled Malacca in 1511.

Gunadi, head of the South and South-East Sulawesi office of historical and archaeological relics and concurrently the Ujungpandang Fort Foundation chief, said meanwhile that once the Somba Opu Fort became the cultural center of South Sulawesi, two things had to be taken into account, namely its preservation as a an object of cultural interest and its utilization.

The idea of establishing a South Sulawesi in Miniature park was inspired by the development of the Borobodur Temple Tourist Park in Central Java and a similar park for the Prambanan Temple near Yogyakarta.

Gunadi argued that the remnants of the Somba Opu Fort would have to be included in the nucleus zone in the context of preserving objects as they would later be utilized as objects for cultural tourism.

But he regretted that nothing had been done regarding the badly damaged Mamasan traditional house, an indication that it was not yet clear which government institution was responsible for dealing with the problem.

Recently, no activity has been seen at Somba Opu Fort. Even those assigned to guard some traditional houses, when interviewed by The Jakarta Post, said that only small groups of people made use of the fort, for example for working meetings of some students' organizations.

"They usually select one of the traditional houses to their liking and then make a donation toward the maintenance," said Abd Kadir.

Assigned to keep guard at a Bugis traditional house, Kadir said he earned Rp 150,000 every month, a meager amount far from sufficient for him, but certainly not discouraging him from sticking to his job, as he was really fond of it.

At present, the entry fee to Somba Opu Fort for an adult is Rp 1,700 while for a child it is only Rp 1,000. Entrance fees cannot be expected to be enough for the maintenance of the fort because there are only a few visitors, as it has still to present attractive events.

As the fort is actually an attractive historic site, Gunadi hopes Gowa regency administration has thought of proper ways to develop and save Somba Opu Fort.