Rano Affirms DKI's Commitment to Safeguard Public Spaces for Citizens to Gather
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Governor of Jakarta Rano Karno has affirmed the commitment of the Jakarta Provincial Government to keep public spaces open as venues for people to gather, discuss, and express their opinions in an inclusive and democratic manner.
“Our commitment is clear. Jakarta must remain a city where people are free to gather, express opinions, and discuss without fear,” he said in a statement in Jakarta on Saturday.
Rano, who attended a public lecture titled “The Dead End of Reform” at Graha Bhakti Budaya, Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM), Cikini, Central Jakarta, explained that TIM is a cultural space that plays an important role in preserving the nation’s collective memory.
“Jakarta as a metropolitan city must be supported by an ecosystem of public spaces that encourages the growth of a culture of dialogue,” he said.
Rano noted that not only TIM, but also campus areas and other public spaces in Jakarta must always remain open for the holding of scholarly and critical discussion forums.
On that occasion, Deputy Governor Rano also reflected on Jakarta’s social transformation through an analogy drawn from the popular cultural story of “Si Doel”.
In his view, the story is not merely entertainment, but a genuine representation of people’s struggles in facing the challenges of modernisation, urban planning, and the fulfilment of housing needs.
Therefore, he affirmed that the people’s struggle to gain access to education, employment, and decent housing must be the main foundation in the formulation and implementation of development policies in Jakarta.
“The spirit of social care must be present in tangible form through policy, not merely formal speeches. The indicator of success for every policy in Jakarta is the extent to which that policy is able to ease and humanise the lives of residents,” said Rano.
Responding to the development dynamics and reform challenges outlined by Professor Vedi R. Hadiz, Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Melbourne, Deputy Governor Rano invited all elements of society to remain optimistic. He quoted one of the philosophies of the Betawi people in facing every problem.
“The Betawi people have a saying: ‘If the road reaches a dead end, don’t stop; look for an alley, look for a laneway’. Jakarta is a city of a thousand alleys. Through small, humane spaces, residents interact and discuss, and it is from there that pragmatic solutions to advance the city are often born,” he added.
The public lecture was also attended by Member of the House of Representatives and historian Bonnie Triyana, representatives of various community organisations, and hundreds of students from various regions.
After following the course of the public lecture, Deputy Governor Rano Karno closed the agenda by reviewing a collaborative art exhibition titled “EVANESCENCE” at Galeri Cipta 1, TIM.
This review is a tangible form of the Jakarta Provincial Government’s support for the development of contemporary fine arts, while reinforcing TIM’s function as a space for creativity and cultural expression that is open to the public.