KOTA IN JAKARTA, A LEGACY WORTH PRESERVING

By Carla Bianpoen [10pt ML]

JAKARTA (JP): While the city of Jakarta is rapidly becoming a giant metropolis, and the development of the city is requiring more space to provide social, economic and cultural facilities, there is a growing awareness that historical and cultural heritage should be preserved as much as possible. Among continuing efforts to preserve such heritage, the concept of city planning in integrated urban conservation takes a special place.

Sunda Kelapa, Kota Pantai (Sunda Kelapa Waterfront City) is an innovative plan to blend comprehensive and integrated social, economic and physical development with the preservation of historical and cultural legacies in Jakarta.

According to Martono Yuwono of the City Administration, this is the fourth stage of Jakarta's urban conservation. Particular attention would be given to economic development of the settlements around Kota, which have existed even before the emergence of Kota.

Contrary to conventional top-down planning, this undertaking acknowledges the importance of community participation. People of these sites should have a sense of belonging to a very important heritage. They should feel that being part of a rich historical heritage can open up avenues of improving the quality of their lives.

Consequently, they must participate in redesigning their environment. Awareness raising therefore was considered a top priority by participants of a seminar in Jakarta held on March 26-27. The seminar was organized by the Indonesian National Heritage Trust (YPBB), the Heritage Working Group of the Indonesian Institute of Architects (IAI) and the Dutch Stichting Oud-Jakarta (Old-Jakarta Foundation in the Netherlands). Participants discussed concepts, operational mechanisms, and the next few steps to be taken.

City wall

Historically, the term Kota has been used to denote the area where the Dutch were housed, in distinction to Kampungs around the kota where indigenous, Chinese, Indian and other ethnic groups lived under less privileged circumstances. At that time, the city of Batavia was closed by a wall, behind which only the Dutch and the privileged elite were to live.

Today, more than 300 years after Jan Pieterszoon Coen built the city of Batavia in the model of Amsterdam (1619-1667), the wall, which excluded the kampungs from the city, is no more than an insignificant piece of stone. Many of the buildings set up during the colonial period have given way to decay or have been pulled down to make room for contemporary highrise buildings.

Yet, the fascination of historical remnants remains. They are the link to the past, telling a tale of power and might, of oppression and suppression, of political values and of cultural and socio-economic relations.

The history of Jakarta is in fact part of national history. The changing names of the city, that started out as a port of the Sundanese kingdom of Pajajaran, indicate the changing powers over the place, which has and is still playing such an important role in the political and economic development of the country.

When it was founded in the 13th century, Sunda Kelapa was a port belonging to the Sundanese Hindu Kingdom of Pajajaran. In 1527, Moslem nobleman Fatahilah Khan conquered it from the Portuguese and gave it a new name, Jayakarta, City of Complete Victory. It was then annexed by the kingdom of Demak.

In 1619, the city fell into the hands of the Dutch East Indies Company. The city of Batavia was built here, which about two centuries later became the seat of the Dutch administration in the Dutch Indies. The name Jakarta speaks of a free Indonesia. It is the capital city of the Republic of Indonesia.

Value-added

There exits a growing awareness of the historical importance of the city. Both the government and NGOs agree that evidence of such rich history should be preserved. The City Administration has been involved in the restoration of monuments of the old city center, focussing on the preservation and maintenance of buildings of specific historical or architectural value.

Iman Sunarya, head of the city's Development and Renovation Agency underlines the importance of Jakarta having its own characteristic: "We would not wish Jakarta to be like Tokyo or Singapore or any other city in the world. Jakarta must be Jakarta."

Ronald Gills, a Dutch architect from Delft who has spent a major part of his life in this country, speaks of an urban memory of the city, its past being as important as its future.

Nevertheless, it can hardly be denied that all historical Dutch overseas cities have one characteristic in common, i.e. orientation towards the sea. This is true for Batavia (Jakarta) as it is for Nieuw Amsterdam (New York, U.S.), Willemstad (Curacao), Kaapstad (Cape Town, South Africa), and Colombo (Sri Lanka).

But of all historical cities of the same generation, historical Batavia stands out above the others, says Gill, because of certain features which were not normally used in the design of Dutch cities.

NGOs like IAI Heritage Working Group and the YPBB, chaired by former governor Wiyogo Atmodarminto, are actively working towards the objectives of preserving historically valuable sites and monuments. Worth noting is the great interest of Dutch private individuals who are grouped in the Stichting Oud-Jakarta.

Personal ties

Chairman Kouwe explains that he himself, as many other board members, have strong personal ties to Indonesia. Kouwe, who is a medical doctor, was born here and has spent a good part of his life on Java.

The aim of the Stichting is to cooperate with private and other institutions in Jakarta and to contribute to the study, the conservation and the restoration of historical buildings, sites and other expressions of culture that reflect the history of Jakarta, he says, emphasizing that his Stichting has no intention to own any project.

All parties agree that funding is a major constraint. Activities of this kind rely greatly on donors, both in Indonesia and the Netherlands. Nevertheless, an inventory has been made of 90 buildings which need to be restored.

In addition, seminars to further discuss and work out innovative development are being planned under a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding between YPBB, the NGOs and the Jakarta City Administration.