Political will vital in preservation of city museums

JAKARTA (JP): Head of the City Museum Office Dirman Surachmat expressed concern yesterday over what he described as the city administration's lack of attention to the preservation of museums in the capital.

"There should be a political will on the part of the city administration to preserve the city's heritage to enable the museum office to do its job of protecting it," Dirman said at a meeting regarding a plan to renovate a cenotaph and epitaph museum in Central Jakarta.

Dirman strongly criticized the City Development Planning Board (Bappeda) for not including the preservation of the city's museums in its planning programs.

He said that the museum office was in an ironic situation: on one hand it is instructed to protect the city's heritage but, on the other hand, it is not given enough support in carrying out the task.

Dirman said in one case his office had had to wait six years to gain approval from the city administration to build a preservation laboratory.

"This shows that it is hard for the municipal administration to understand our projects unless we explain the details and the importance of the projects thoroughly," Dirman said.

For that reason he asked his subordinates to prepare a proposal for the renovation of museums with the greatest possible care in order, he said, that Bappeda would easily be able to understand the importance of the project and consequently approve the proposal as soon as possible.

Dirman said that seven Jakarta museums needed to be evaluated with a view to renovation work: the maritime museum, the wayang (puppet) museum, the cenotaph and epitaph museum, the textiles museum, the museum of the 1945 struggle for independence, the fine art and ceramics museum and the Jakarta history museum.

Head of the cenotaph and epitaph museum M.R. Manik said that the museum had not been renovated for more than 20 years and that the city museum office had only provided small amounts of money for minor repairs, such as painting the buildings and the fences around the museum.

"It is time to carry out a major renovation of the cenotaph and epitaph museum to help attract more visitors and to protect the collection," Manik said, adding that the museum was visited by only about 1,200 tourists per month.

He said the museum complex, which covers 1.2 hectares, also served as a green area in the heart of the city and as a water catchment area.

However, the growth of trees the grounds of the museum was causing damage to most of the 1,200 tombstones there, he said. "Hopefully, the renovation team will select the proper kind of trees, suitable to be planted there," he added.

Among the tombstones in the museum's collection are the tombstone of Olivia M. Raffles, the wife of the Nineteenth Century English Governor of Java, Sir Stamford Raffles.

The city museum office held a competition last year to seek plans for a change of the landscaping of the museum. The competition was won by Trisakti University. (yns)