School set to become parking lot
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
An elementary school in Cawang subdistrict, East Jakarta may soon become a victim of progress, should city-owned Budhi Asih Hospital have its way.
The hospital's president director Yvonne N.J. Palijama said on Thursday that it was eying the school -- located just next to the hospital -- to be turned into a parking lot for the 262-bed hospital on Jl. Dewi Sartika.
"The school is located close to the hospital. It is suitable to become a hospital parking lot. But it is still just an idea of the hospital's management," Yvonne told The Jakarta Post in a telephone interview.
The Budhi Asih Hospital management expressed its desire to convert the school into a parking lot during a visit of members of the City Council's Commission E for education, health and people's welfare last Tuesday.
Yvonne refused to go into details of her plan, but Commission E chairman Dani Anwar said that the hospital's management wanted to relocate the school to a new place some 500 meters from its current site.
Council's deputy speaker Maringan Pangaribuan opposed the plan on Thursday, saying that such move would set a bad precedent as it could create the impression that schools could be sacrificed to make way for other facilities.
"I do not agree with the idea. The hospital can acquire land owned by residents in the vicinity if it really needs parking space. We must not take the easy way out by sacrificing the school," he told the Post.
He said the relocation of junior high school SMP 56 on Jl. Melawai Raya, in South Jakarta should serve as a lesson that school buildings should not be sacrificed for commercial facilities.
Maringan was referring to a controversial land swap deal between the Ministry of National Education and property developer PT Tata Sisantara in 2000, in which land occupied by SMP 56 was swapped for land in Jeruk Purut and Bintara, both in South Jakarta.
PT Tata Sisantara, owned by former manpower minister Abdul Latief, plans to convert the school into a business college. The school is located near the Blok M commercial area and the Pasaraya Grande shopping mall, also owned by Abdul.
After a lengthy struggle, the 56 remaining students of SMP 56 finally gave up last December.
Dani made a similar comment, saying the plan to turn the school into parking lot would put a financial burden on the city budget because it would have to allocate funds for the construction of a new school building.
The renovation of Budhi Asih Hospital is entering final stages. All work is expected to be complete by late 2005.
After the renovation is complete the hospital will have 262 beds -- 50 first class, 48 second class, and 164 third (economy) class. It will also provide 32 examination rooms, six surgery units and a helipad.
The hospital, however, only has a parking lot that can accommodate some 84 cars -- 62 in the basement and 22 in the yard.
To renovate the hospital, the city allocated Rp 34.9 billion (US$3.8 million) in 2003, Rp 59.36 billion in 2004, and Rp 33.6 billion in 2005.