Jakarta Towards 500 Years

“Jakarta is a charming city,” wrote Adolf Heyken SJ, a German historian, in his book Historical Sites in Jakarta. As a port city, Jakarta has had an international character since it was still called Sunda Kelapa. People from different cultural backgrounds, skin colours, and religious beliefs have met in this port for centuries. Various languages could be heard at the harbour, in offices, in churches, mosques, and temples. They all mingled amiably without prejudice. Meanwhile, Willard A. Hanna, an American citizen who served on the staff of the USIS (United States Information Service) in the 1950s, wrote in Hikayat Jakarta, “Jakarta is not actually included in the list of the world’s great capital cities that are most interesting and alluring to foreign tourists. However, if an index of cities were created in such a way that it showed a city where visitors could gain a satisfying and astonishing glimpse of knowledge about the human condition and its environment, Jakarta would certainly be in one of the top and most honourable places. The easiest thing to achieve is when one casually encounters the famously friendly personality of a Jakartan. This is reflected in the brilliant white teeth of Jakarta’s street children, which seem undefeated by the poverty they suffer.” The friendliness of Jakarta’s residents also received praise from Louis Fischer, a prominent American journalist and writer, when he visited for a month in the late 1950s. In A Story of Indonesia, he wrote, “I saw more Indonesians showing their teeth in a smile during one month than in a year in Europe and the United States.” Unfortunately, what these three foreign authors stated in their books is now the complete opposite. Unlike the 1950s and 60s, Jakarta, which is now 499 years old, is among the cities in the world with a fairly high crime rate. Robbery, murder, bag snatching, and various other crimes have become daily news in the mass media. Thuggery roams everywhere. Even though many perpetrators of these crimes have been beaten, shot dead, and subjected to mob justice, the number of crimes has never decreased. In fact, it keeps increasing.