Jakarta anniversary date must be changed: Historian

Jakarta anniversary date must be changed: Historian

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A prominent Betawi -- or native Jakartan -- observer, Ridwan
Saidi, said on Tuesday that Jakarta's anniversary, which has been
celebrated every June 22 since 1958, must be changed.

"The commemoration on June 22 is wrong. How can we commemorate
the day that Fatahillah attacked Jakarta as the city's day of
birth?" he said.

According to Ridwan, Fatahillah, also known as Faletehan, was
asked in the early 16th century by King Cirebon to invade
Jakarta, then known as Jayakarta. During the attack, Fatahillah
destroyed buildings and homes belonging to the Betawi people.

The National Encyclopedia of Indonesia says Fatahillah came
from Pasai, Aceh, and helped Banten reclaim part of its territory
from Dutch colonists. In 1527, he conquered Sunda Kelapa -- as
Jakarta was known then -- and the surrounding area.

However, Adolf Heuken, a historian who has written much about
the capital, said it was nonsense that "the year of the city's
founding is simply the same as the year when its name was
mentioned for the first time in historical documents on Jakarta".

He added that the name of the city must have existed before it
was first referred to in a document written by Portuguese traders
that dates back to 1560.

"Maybe the city's name existed 30 years before it was
mentioned in the document. That would make sense," he told The
Jakarta Post earlier.

Heuken said some older documents were written by the
Portuguese in 1513, but the writers still used the name Sunda
Kelapa or merely Kelapa.

Alwi Shahab, author of Robinhood Betawi, said a heated debate
arose in 1958 when the government was setting the date of
Jakarta's anniversary.

He said historians Djajadiningrat and Sukanto proposed June
22, which was approved.

Ridwan called on the government to revise history, as "The
wrong history could have been revised", he was quoted by Antara.

Jakarta celebrated its 477th anniversary on Tuesday with
numerous events, including a laser show at its landmark, the
National Monument (Monas).