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.