Restoring Losari Beach to its former glory

Restoring Losari Beach to its former glory

By Hasanuddin Hamid

MAKASSAR, South Sulawesi (JP): There have been quite a few
stories told about the beauty of Losari Beach. For example,
filmmaker Djamaluddin Effendy, in 1975, brought the beach to the
wide screen in Senja di Pantai Losari (Twilight at Losari Beach)
starring, among others, Emilia Contessa, W.D. Mochtar and a
number of local actors from Makassar, such as Rahman Arge and
Udhiem Palisuri.

Poet Asia Ramli Prapanca has extolled the virtue of the famed
beach in one of his works titled Ombak Losari (The ripples of
Losari).

An Australian artist authored a play titled Sunset at Losari
and staged it in Sydney last year, according to Ishak
Ngeljaratan, a cultural observer and teacher at the School of
Letters at Hasanuddin University, Makassar.

Failing to experience Losari Beach when visiting Makassar,
dubbed Kota Angin Mamiri (windy city) would be a big miss, so
locals say.

Losari Beach has been facetiously dubbed "the longest bench in
the world" because of the scores of food sellers who use the
cement embankment as seats for their customers.

The dominance of food sellers has sparked concern among the
local administration and the public alike. It is as if the
traders have made the public domain their property. The local
government has been working out a plan to regulate business there
and restore the beach to its original splendor.

As Ishak says, the ubiquitous food traders have ruined
Losari's famed beauty.

The unchecked food business has been blamed for widespread
pollution of the beach.

Until 10 years ago, the food sellers consisted of only a
handful of hawkers offering pisang ape, sweetened banana, a
Makassar specialty. The small-scale business activity became a
problem when the then mayor of Makassar, Suwahyo, allowed
hundreds of food vendors to operate at the beach in the 1980s.

Carts of hundreds of sidewalk-vendors now occupy most of the
space. Pedestrians lost the pavement on which they were
previously able to walk and enjoy the beauty of the beach.

Makassar city government has decided that something has to be
done to restore Losari Beach. It has teamed up with PT Gowa
Makassar Tourism Development (a developer of the famous Tanjung
Bunga resort). The project aims to provide food vendors with a
new space on Jl. Metro Tanjung Bunga, at the southern end of
Losari Beach.

Tents will be provided along a 52-metre long corridor between
Losari and Tanjung Bunga. Water and electricity will also be
provided by the government.

Tanjung Bunga resort is basically a self-contained township
built by PT Gowa Makassar Tourism Development, a consortium of
the Lippo Group, South Sulawesi provincial government, Makassar
mayoralty administration and Gowa regency administration.

The project intends to connect Losari Beach and Tanjung Bunga
and place the two resorts under the same management. Relocating
the traders is at the top of their agenda and work began in May.

The local administration of Makassar has given the 254
sidewalk traders until June 15 to move voluntarily. But
apparently not all of the vendors are happy about the plan. Some
have openly refused to move.

"The city government will try to persuade them to move
voluntarily to a new location at Tanjung Baru as their
representatives agreed to some time ago," said the mayor of
Makassar, Baso Amiruddin Maula.

The city government's ambition is to make Losari Beach a prime
tourist destination in the area.

"As soon as the (restoration) project is completed, the
government will regularly hold various traditional art festivals
for both domestic and foreign tourists and make Losari a source
of income", said Baso Amiruddin Maula.

Losari originates from the Dutch word logeren meaning to
lodge. The residents of Makassarese, who do not speak Dutch,
found it impossible to pronounce logeren and transformed it into
"Losari".

During colonial times, the Dutch built barracks by Losari
Beach for its army. The place was then named Doorgangskamp, and
became a place for temporary accommodation for Dutch KNIL
soldiers in the eastern territories such as North Sulawesi and
Maluku.

The beach was the Dutch army's favorite leisure destination.

During colonial times, Losari Beach was 2.5 kilometers long.
Now, due to development activities, it has shortened to only two
kilometers stretching from Makassar Golden Hotel to Metro Road,
Tanjung Bunga.