Hotels, businesses gear up for Independence Day

An atmosphere of national pride and tradition prevails not only in Jakarta thoroughfares and in residential areas, but also at major shopping malls, restaurants and hotels.

In commemoration of Independence Day on Aug. 17, many of the capital's restaurants are offering traditional dishes for guests.

Le Gran Cafe at Hotel Gran Mahakam, South Jakarta, for example, offers a thematic menu called The Beauty of Indonesia, with fares such as nasi gurih ala Gran Mahakam, rice cooked in coconut milk specially concocted by the restaurant.

"Traditional dishes on offer during the special national food campaign include different appetizers, such as fish head soup ala Kalimantan, serani Jawa pindang soup, soto sulung soup and tekwan soup ala Palembang," said head chef Dicky.

Sari Pan Pacific Hotel in Jalan Thamrin, Central Jakarta has also designed a menu with traditional dishes, the Archipelago Cuisine Extravaganza, featuring an array of indigenous foods across the country.

Several other hotels, such as Hotel Aston and Hotel Mulia Senayan, are launching similar thematic campaigns to observe Independence Day: Aston, with its Red and White Festival, and Hotel Mulia, with its Nusantara Fiesta Promotion.

Corporations also make an effort to mark Independence Day, for example, state telecommunications company Telkom is offering a special discount package for subscribers.

Under a discount package valid from Aug. 1 to Dec. 31 for its Telkom Instant Internet connection customers in West Java and Banten provinces, customers receive a 20 percent discount on Internet usage bills of at least Rp 100,000, 30 percent for between Rp 200,000 and Rp 300,000, and 40 percent for over Rp 400,000.

"Those who connect to the Internet through Telkom Instant between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m. will also receive a special type of a discount," said Dodi M. Gozali, public relations manager of Telkom Division III overseeing Banten and West Java.

Besides discounts, Telkom III is marking Independence Day with the launch of the second series of its Internet Goes to School Program, a free Internet training course for high school students of the two provinces.

Meanwhile, major tire producer PT Gajah Tunggal is taking advantage of the occasion to improve internal relations through a series of sporting events, games and a singing contest, as well as charity programs, such as blood drives.

Sporting events started in mid-June and will last until mid- August, and the company expects at least 3,000 employees to take part in soccer, volleyball, badminton, table tennis and cycling competitions.

While the anniversary of Indonesian independence is an annual event, many businesses view this year's to be a little out of the ordinary, as it falls ahead of the Sept. 20 election runoff, when the people will elect their president directly for the first time.

As Gajah Tunggal said, it is generally hoped that this year's Independence Day would provide a good momentum for the people to continue their struggle to overcome the prolonged multi- dimensional crisis. -- The Jakarta Post