New law to brush up on care of historic buildings

JAKARTA (JP): The City Council is expected to endorse a draft bylaw next Thursday on the preservation of historic buildings and their surrounding areas in the capital, a councilor said on Friday.

It would be the city's first law on the protection of its historic buildings.

A member of the council's Commission E for social welfare affairs, Nitra Arsyad, said the draft bylaw was prompted by public concern for the growing number of national heritage buildings being destroyed.

For years, the protection and preservation of historic buildings was regulated by a gubernatorial decree, which has less legal power than a law, he said.

"Up to now, there has been no proper legal protection for historic buildings. For instance, there is no adequate punishment for those who destroy our heritage," he told The Jakarta Post.

Nitra said if the council allowed this to persist, "Jakarta would become a city without history, because the demolition of the buildings continues day by day."

The draft bylaw, which consists of 33 articles, stipulates that the preservation of historic buildings is the obligation of the city administration and parties which own, run or manage the buildings.

According to the draft bylaw, historic buildings are considered as those buildings which are at least 50 years old and are considered to have historical, cultural and scientific value.

Natural objects which are considered to have historical, cultural and scientific value are also covered by the bylaw.

However, the draft only carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail or a Rp 5 million (US$725) fine for those who violate the bylaw.

Encouraging

The head of archeology at the city's museum and restoration agency, Candrian Attahiyat, hailed the proposed bylaw, saying it would promote the legal protection of historic buildings in the capital.

"The draft bylaw will also encourage people who own the buildings to protect the properties, because it stipulates the administration should reward these people by expediting the procedures to obtain licenses ... for construction at other sites," he told the Post on Thursday.

He said in the past, the city administration had not given adequate attention to historic buildings due to the absence of proper regulations and a lack of funds.

"There is indeed a law on historic buildings, but we don't have proper regulations for the regional (city) level," he said.

Candrian said his agency was inventorying all of the historic buildings in the capital, which according to a 1993 gubernatorial decree numbered 132.

Based on the agency's latest survey, scores of the buildings are in critical condition, he said.

"But the administration has done nothing to save the buildings," Candrian said.

During a visit on Thursday to the Kemayoran airport tower in Central Jakarta, which is listed as a historic building, the Post learned that the national asset had been completely neglected.

The tower, which was witness to much of the country's early history, is now dilapidated and surrounded by an unkempt lawn.

A number of the capital's historic buildings which are used as government offices have been renovated haphazardly, including combining old European-style buildings with Javanese architecture and furniture.

It is also difficult to collect reliable and adequate information on the buildings, which are authentic sources of Old Jakarta's history.

One of the few reference books on the capital's history, Oud Batavia, which is written in Dutch, can be found in the National Library in Central Jakarta.

But the reference books, categorized by the library as rare publications, are not well preserved.

The paper of a number of the books has begun to decay and some of the books' pages have been torn out.

According to Nitra, the council has long been aware of the plight of the city's historic buildings, but the case which triggered the council to introduce the bylaw was the plan to remove a historic building on Jl. Cilacap in Central Jakarta.

The building was to be moved to an elite housing complex by a developer run by noted businessman James T. Riyadi, he said.

Nitra also said the council did not want to see the past repeated, when a number of historic buildings were demolished.

He cited the demolition of a house which belonged to founding president Sukarno on Jl. Proklamasi in Central Jakarta.

The demolition of the building, which was the sight of many historic meetings, including the declaration of the country's independence on Aug. 17, 1945, was ordered by the late Sukarno himself, Nitra said. (ind)