Jl. Jaksa may be seedy but it has a heart

Jl. Jaksa may be seedy but it has a heart

By Pandaya

JAKARTA (JP): There is no other street in Jakarta as
internationally well-known as Jl. Jaksa, a 500-meter one-way road
near City Hall. Its fame, or infamy, also has spread among
locals, though Jakartans and foreigners have very different ideas
of the street.

The road is lined by cheap hostels and unpretentious bars that
bustle at night, and has been a popular spot for foreign
backpackers and budget tourists for many years. The "foreign
flavor" of the street is legendary: the omnipresent travelers and
Western-style bars and restaurants.

The street's popularity among westerners keeps the street
alive 24 hours a day and locals' businesses ticking. A great many
people count on the road for a living as tourist guides, taxi
drivers, street vendors, parking attendants, hoodlums, travel
agents, bar girls -- you name it.

Many foreigners are so enamored of the street they refuse to
stay anywhere else when visiting Jakarta. David, a British
citizen, for example, has been in Jakarta for several years and
he is addicted to drinking and socializing on Jl. Jaksa. He has
even lived in the area.

But the road is a different cup of tea for the more affluent
and trendy Jakartans. They usually view the street as a bule
colony infested with low-class prostitutes catering to bule
miskin (poor westerners). Needless to say, they go elsewhere for
drinks and entertainment.

This negative image dismays John Christian Torr, a Jl. Jaksa
regular who has been roving the street for 10 years on and off.
He is one of the Jl. Jaksa fanatics who has witnessed the
street's changing face and has become a part of its eccentric
nature.

The British citizen, who teaches English at a Jakarta college
and practices photography as a hobby, is determined to help the
street shed its negative image. He has been exhibiting his photos
at Q Bar/Restaurant since Aug. 30 about life on Jl. Jaksa in the
hope that people will understand that the street "has a heart".

Torr says he is upset that people in Jakarta generally have an
unfair perception of Jl. Jaksa.

He says Jl. Jaksa is a place where people "can become
themselves", where they can do what they believe is good without
being harassed.

"Look, people can kiss in public here," he says. He argues
that Jl. Jaksa is not the only place in the city where ills and
vice occur, but on Jaksa people do not have to be hypocritical.

On the walls of Q Bar are about 30 of his black-and-white
shots of the people who make Jl. Jaksa go 24 hours a day: bar
girls, cigarette sellers, his friends, travelers.

Torr puts up new shots every week. Some of the subjects pose
as if they are having their picture taken for their passports. In
some of the group photos it is impossible to tell the pictures
were taken on Jl. Jaksa because none of the street's
peculiarities show in the background.

The photos are simple in technique, and the subjects stare at
the camera, smiling, laughing, grimacing or acting cool.

Many photos are printed the size of postcards, forcing you to
lean in toward them, as though you were trying to hear them
whisper to you amid the blaring music and merry laughter of those
in the bar.

Some pictures, like that of a parking attendant caught napping
on a wooden bench, are humorous.

The Q Bar/Restaurant lies in the middle of Jl. Jaksa. There is
no large sign in front announcing its presence, so if you do not
frequent the street you may have to stop and ask for directions.

You won't miss the exhibition because it will run until "there
are no more photos to be had on Jl. Jaksa", as the organizer
promises.