School set to become parking lot

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.