Students, teachers urged to calm down
Sri Wahyuni and Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta
Sleman Regent Ibnu Subiyanto reassured teachers and students here on Monday that state-run Ambarrukmo Elementary School would not be demolished until a replacement building was provided.
"Students, teachers and parents should not worry about the plan," Ibnu told journalists at his office.
The regent was responding to the growing anxiety among Ambarrukmo's teachers and students over a possibility that the school would be leveled to the ground soon, due to a plan to replace the school with a shopping mall.
Yogyakarta Palace, the owner of the land, is planning to build a shopping mall on the site to the west of four-star Ambarrukmo Palace Hotel Yogyakarta, which also belongs to the palace.
Ibnu confirmed that his administration had received a letter regarding the plan from Kanjeng Gusti Pangeran Haryo (KGPH) Hadiwinoto, the brother of Yogyakarta Sultan-cum-Governor Hamengkubuwono X.
In the letter, the palace expressed its wish to demolish the school and replace it with the shopping mall.
"We are discussing the letter and listing alternatives for the solution," Ibnu said.
Among the alternatives, he said, included building a new school nearby or merging the school with a nearby elementary school.
"We have a commitment from the investors to provide us with the funds needed to build the new school," the regent said.
Speaking separately, KGPH Hadiwinoto acknowledged that the palace would go ahead with its plan to demolish the school. He said, however, that the palace would not put the schoolchildren's education in limbo.
He said the palace had prepared a spare plot near the current site of the Ambarrukmo Elementary School, if the Sleman administration decided to build a new school.
"The palace still has a plot of land somewhere to the north of the hotel and adjacent to it. I'm sure the relocation will not disturb the teaching and learning process," Hadiwinoto said.
He defended the plan to build a shopping mall, saying that it would attract tourists and boost business in Yogyakarta.
"We want to empower the palace's land so that it will be beneficial both for the palace and the community," he said.
The construction of the Rp 200 billion five-story shopping mall is to break ground in April on a two hectare plot.
A similar dispute is also raging at a state junior high school in Jakarta, which is to be leveled to make way for commercial purposes.
Students and teachers of the school expressed their concern over the plan to demolish the school, saying that the private sector was sacrificing education for commercial purposes.