Jakarta Fair remains attractive for both adults and children
Jakarta Fair remains attractive for both adults and children
By Arif Suryobuwono
JAKARTA (JP): From a distance, as dusk was falling, the red
neon lights of "Arena Pekan Raya Jakarta", or The Jakarta Fair,
shone from their perch atop of the six-story trade mart building
in the 44-hectare trade fair complex at Kemayoran, Central
Jakarta.
As evening arrived, more and more people came in like ants
attracted by sugar. Though clad in their casual wear, they were
urbanely dressed. Very few white men but quite a lot of Chinese
were seen, perhaps because of the fair's trade element.
The vast compound of the fair ground, however, was not
overcrowded and neither were its large parking lots, apparently
because that night was Wednesday. Last Saturday, the day the fair
was opened by Vice President Try Sutrisno, the visitors totaled
almost 72,000. Everything looked neat, new, clean, modern and
well organized.
Policemen were seen patrolling here and there. Mulyono S., the
chief of the fair's command post, said that during the first
three days of the fair 44 people reported being pick-pocketed.
Inside the exhibition halls it was quite difficult to find
food stalls. The stink of urine from wheeled public toilets.
Blaring lights. Rock music. Coca-cola girls.
No children seemed to be attracted to buy sticks for making
bubbles as well as toy parachutes, still popular among children
ten to fifteen years ago. The children now rushed to the Dinosaur
Park, where they can experience being with robot replicas of the
extinct giants for Rp 4,000.
There was also an exhibition of hundreds of rare reptile
species coming from all over the world. The exhibition committee
had earlier said that it needed 5,000 crickets a day to feed
them.
Australia Today
A white-dressed man guarding the entrance to the Australia
Today exhibition was calling to passers-by, inviting them to come
in. "Advanced technologies inside! See for yourself! Computer
monitors which respond to your touch!" the man promoted "Vision
of the future".
However, only a few people went in.
Then, the spacious pavilion echoed like a museum, perhaps
because the "vision" was no longer new as it was already
presented at the 6th Research and Technology Exhibition which was
also held there last month.
Next to it was the Taiwan pavilion, featuring various
machinery and light industrial products under the auspices of the
Taiwan World Trade Center.
The visitors to the Taiwanese chamber were so many that two
security guards had to close the entrance door and open it every
ten minutes.
The guards told The Jakarta Post they were commanded to do
this in order to avoid overcrowding and keep the pavilion
comfortable. Why were there so many visitors to the pavilion?
Perhaps it was the policy of the Taiwanese chamber to regulate
the flow of visitors, which added curiosity and created a crowd
in front of the pavilion's entrance.
Some young visitors to the Taiwanese pavilion, when asked why
they wanted to see the pavilion, replied flatly they were just
sightseeing.
The other foreign pavilions were from Iran and Pakistan. A
crowd of people, most of them were men, swarmed the Iranian
pavilion which displayed various precious gemstones. A blue
sapphire set in silver and marked with the seal of the Iranian
government cost Rp 100,000 (US$48), Saeed Javedani, who comes
from the Iranian city of Mashhad, told a prospective buyer.
Saeed told the Post that his company would only take part in
trade fairs which are held in Islamic countries. He particularly
chose Indonesia because "I know that many Indonesian like gem
stones".
Anyway, both countries have agreed to boost trade relations
and President Soeharto visited Iran last November for the
purpose.
The Pakistani pavilion displayed beautiful onyx handicrafts
but they did not attract many visitors perhaps because the
products are very well known here.
Visitors
That evening of June 22, about 45,000 people visited the 27th
Jakarta Fair. Most of them seemed unaware that it was the city's
467th birthday.
It seemed that only those attentive enough to perceive the
jovial procession and the sound of rebana (Jakarta traditional
tambourine), heralding the arrival of Jakarta Governor Surjadi
Soedirja, inquired about this traditional gaiety -- if they had
not thought that such procession is commonly found in trade fairs
like this one.
Meanwhile a Canadian businessman Solomon Olin told the Post he
was irritated by the increasing absence of Indonesian items at
the fair.
"There are too many foreign goods here or their imitations.
This fair is supposed to be a domestic trade fair, isn't it?," he
wondered.
Olin said he didn't quite understand why there were foreign
participants. He was also surprised that Indonesians were more
attracted to products presented by foreign participants rather
than to their own products.
According to Olin, from this fair he got an impression that
Indonesians valued foreign products too high and belittled their
own products.
Olin might be right but he might not aware that there were
pavilions from various Indonesian provinces displaying local
products and culture. In the fair you can almost only find modern
atmospheres, those of Ancol dreamland, of Mangga Dua and of Pasar
Baru shopping centers, the mother city's new, beautiful faces. Oh
yes, the older she gets, the prettier.