Monas to get new management for efficiency
Monas to get new management for efficiency
JAKARTA (JP): The city plans to place the National Monument
and its surrounding environs under an integrated management,
dissolving the current office overseeing the monument in the
process, Governor Sutiyoso said yesterday.
Giving no indication when the plan would be implemented,
Sutiyoso said the monument, locally called by its abbreviation
Monas, would be managed by the Central Jakarta Mayoralty.
"So far, Kantor Pengelola Monas (the monument's current
management) only sells entrance tickets, handles visitors and
manages the monument," the governor said.
Other activities and public services at the park surrounding
the monument are handled by other parties, he added.
"We, therefore, see its (the management) presence as
ineffective. So, we ask the mayoralty to also manage the monument
in an attempt to integrate the area's services," Sutiyoso told
reporters after inspecting a monument beautification project
yesterday.
Other city offices managing the park include the city's park
agency, sanitation agency and public works agency.
The new plan calls for all of the agencies managing the park
to be under the supervision of the mayoralty.
The head of the City Council's Commission E for social welfare
affairs, Soeparmo, said the park and monument's disjointed
management had made the area look as if it was neglected.
"It's difficult to look for the parties responsible if, for
instance, the monument's area is dirty or its facilities are
damaged.
"Each agency will point to the others for responsibility,"
Soeparmo said early this week.
Billed as Jakarta's chief landmark, the 132-meter-high
monument -- which sports a flame on top made of 35 kilograms of
gold -- is located in an 80-hectare park in the heart of the
capital.
The park is surrounded by four major thoroughfares: Jl. Medan
Merdeka Utara, Jl. Medan Merdeka Timur, Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan
and Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat.
Numerous government buildings, including presidential and
ministerial offices as well as the U.S. Embassy, face the park.
The monument and the park are popular recreational places for
many Jakartans, especially on Saturday evenings and Sunday
mornings.
But many visitors and tourists have often complained that
litter is scattered throughout the monument and surrounding
grounds, which have been declared one of the city's green zones.
Sutiyoso said he hoped such public complaints would disappear
once the mayoralty took over the park's management.
"I have a dream that Monas will become a popular international
attraction. It has the potential," he said.
The governor did not indicate what would happen to the dozens
of city employees working under the monument's current
management.
When asked about Sutiyoso's plan, Central Jakarta Mayor Andi
Subur Abdullah said he was ready to take on the new task.
"Each of the agencies responsible for handling the Monas area
has their own branch offices in our mayoralty. So it won't be so
difficult to manage them," he said. (ind)