Jakarta's youth centers fail to attract young people

By Ida Indawati Khouw

JAKARTA (JP): So-called youth centers can be found in many strategic places in Jakarta and often on a plots of spacious land. They mainly have sports facilities and halls for teenagers who want to develop their artistic and cultural interests.

People may consider that these centers, run by the Jakarta administration, reflect the fact that the authority must be quite friendly towards teenagers. Well, yes, but this was in the past.

The city government first built youth centers in the 1970s under the suggestion of former Governor Ali Sadikin. The governor instructed that there should be at least one youth center in each of the city's five mayoralties, and one balai rakyat (public hall) in each district. In 1988 the public halls were later upgraded and became youth centers.

The centers were built to give space for students, whose schools had limited sports facilities.

At present there are 39 youth centers throughout Jakarta, mostly located at strategic locations. Unfortunately, most of them are in poor condition.

It is not surprising then if teenagers are not interested in the centers, as stated by several senior high school students in separate interviews with The Jakarta Post.

A student of SMKN 45 senior high school in Central Jakarta said that it never crossed her mind to spend her leisure time in the centers. "Maybe I will only go there if I want to take a lessons in a certain sport," she said.

A similar comment was uttered by Agustine of SMUK 5 high school in East Jakarta. "I don't even know the location of the youth center near my house," said the 18-year-old student who resides at Kelapa Gading area in East Jakarta.

She said further that her friends who love sport chose to join (private) sports clubs instead of going to youth centers. "Sports clubs have better facilities, moreover they also have supporting services like steam baths or a representative cafe".

It's true that most youth centers do not have adequate facilities. Moreover, it is not an exaggeration to say that at a certain stage it is even dangerous to play sport at youth centers, like swimming at East Jakarta's center.

The water in the swimming pool looked turbid and its color had turned green due to moss when The Jakarta Post visited the pool one afternoon recently. An employee was sifting out white sediment floating on the water with a net tied to a long pole.

Like other youth centers, that one in East Jakarta also faces financial problems in maintaining its facilities, especially the pool, which requires high-cost maintenance. No wonder that the center's management once passed an action to clean the pool with detergent last year.

"We were forced to do that because the pool's water circulation machines had been out of order since a long time ago and Governor Sutiyoso was going to inspect the place. Of course we didn't want to show the governor a dirty swimming pool," head of the center Mahdi Sastralaksana said.

The center's management probably didn't take into account the danger of the detergent on the swimmer's eyes or skin.

Also in poor condition was the center located at the Senen area of Central Jakarta, notorious for its crime-ridden neighborhood where street vendors and vagrants live. Some of the floors of the 18,000-square-meter complex have fallen into ruin and neglect. The government plans to move the youth center to Kemayoran and build a shopping center on the compound.

The problems and poor physical condition of the youth centers are not only the result of a lack of funds but also a lack of management skill and vision.

Head of Jakarta's Mental Education Bureau, which auspices mental education for school children, Effendi Anas admitted to the poor condition. He even said that the centers have become a place to "dump" the city administration's employees.

"We know that those who are posted there sometimes do not know anything about youth life, they are there merely because they are the administration's employees," he said.

Moreover, the management of youth centers have no authority to manage their own budget or agenda as those are set by local mayoralties which oversee the centers.

"We are now setting new regulations which give them more autonomy over the centers," Anas said.

Under such limitations, the existence of the centers rely on the creativity of the center's leaders, according to South Jakarta's youth center manager Totok Soeprapto.

The center, popularly called Bulungan Youth Center -- due to the fact that it is located on Jl. Bulungan -- is regarded by many as a relatively good center compared to others, as most of activities there run well.

Totok said that it is impossible to run the center with a monthly budget of only Rp 15 million to Rp 20 million per month, which has to cover maintenance and activities. "The key is in the cooperation with non-governmental organizations. Give them the authority to run activities in the center while we accommodate them," he said.

He added that almost all of the activities in the Bulungan center are sports, theaters and dance related. The sports groups and cultural or arts groups from Bulungan often win various championships.

However, researcher on youth culture Robby I. Chandra said that there should be a new vision on how to make the place more attractive for young people, whose basic need is friendship.

"Activities at youth centers should not only be the organized ones like those related to sports or art, but also those which can stimulate friendships like informal meetings," he said.

That is why managers of the centers should be those who have empathy and appreciate youth culture.

What is Ali Sadikin's comment on the poor condition of his pet projects, the youth centers?

"I am disappointed," he said, "the concept of youth centers, which were built within five years starting in 1970, was especially to give space for students whose schools had limited sports facilities. The fact that some centers are in poor condition shows that the authority doesn't maintain what I have pioneered."

Ali said that the administration should give serious attention to the centers through appointing people who really understand the youth to manage the place as well as allocating a greater budget.

"Rp 20 million per month (the budget for the centers' maintenance and activities) is nothing," he said.