Special team sought to maintain Monas

Special team sought to maintain Monas

JAKARTA (JP): A city councilor has urged the municipality to
set up an integrated team to supervise the maintenance of the
National Monument (Monas) in Medan Merdeka Square, Central
Jakarta.

The establishment of the team, which should be under the
supervision of the Central Jakarta mayoralty office, is badly
needed due to the poor condition of the monument and its
surroundings, Amarullah Asbah, head of Commission C for finance
affairs, said Monday.

"The poor state of Monas is mainly due to the unavailability
of a team to coordinate its management," he said.

Currently, the maintenance of Monas is administered by
different agencies. "The city sanitation agency, for example, is
in charge of cleaning the area, the city park agency of tending
the park and the city public works agency of maintaining the
building," Amarullah said.

The counselor argued that having so many agencies involved
made coordination arduous. "Can you imagine that just to get
garbage cans installed takes months to process," he said, adding
that this was caused mainly by the absence of an independent
office in charge of maintenance at Monas.

Amarullah, therefore, underlined the importance of
establishing an integrated team directly supervised by the
Central Jakarta mayoralty.

"With this kind of team, red tape could be eliminated and the
mayoralty would have full responsibility of taking care of
Monas," he said.

A similar team has also been established in West Jakarta
mayoralty with the aim of coordinating the renovation of old
buildings in the area.

"I hope the municipality will act soon on this because the
shabby condition of Monas needs immediate attention," he said,
adding that monument's surroundings had been turned into a
business site for sidewalks vendors.

"Monas is one of the country's landmark buildings. So, please
don't use this monument as a market," he said. (07)