Surabaya Youth Center: Icon of struggle
Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya
At about 9 a.m. the traffic in downtown Surabaya was already congested. The Youth Center, where a folk handicraft exhibition was being held, was equally crowded with people.
The Youth Center building comprises the Red-and-White building, with the main dome as its centerpiece, the Surabaya Gallery and the Surabaya Arts Foundation building, now being used as the secretariat of the Surabaya Arts Festival.
The pavilions of exhibition participants from Surabaya, Yogyakarta and Bali, were being prepared to receive visitors.
Although it was still relatively early in the morning, some visitors had arrived at the Surabaya Gallery, the place where the handicraft exhibition was being held. Some were just looking around, waiting until the traffic congestion eased, while still others bought some items such as silver jewelry, wood-carved figurines and clothes.
"I often come to this Youth Center to buy woodcarvings from Yogyakarta. They are cheap but beautiful," said Endra Susana, an employee with a private company in Surabaya.
Also available here are woodcarvings from Surabaya, which range from figurines to room decorations such as pictures, photo frames, wall decorations or other ornaments. They are sold at prices ranging from Rp 10,000 to Rp 200,000.
"A handicraft exhibition is usually held every month to highlight the activities at the Youth Center," said Nirwana Juda, head of the technical executive unit of the center and the Indonesian National Building (GNI).
Nirwan said that the participants were all small business units, and the event organizer arranges them so that their products will be introduced to the public. Each pavilion is rented out for Rp 200,000 to Rp 300,000 a month.
"Our rates are low because we want to introduce East Java handicraft products and also give a boost to East Javanese artists so that they can be competitive," he noted.
The Youth Center also houses the occasional painting exhibition or dance recital, as well as plays and concerts. In October 2002, for example, the Bubi Chen jazz show and the Gerard Mosterd contemporary dancers from Holland were showcased there. A year later, the center hosted An Evening with Ireng Maulana and Margie Segers.
"The Youth Center has always been the place where young people and artists from Surabaya get together and mingle," said Kadaruslan, a Surabaya community figure.
He explained that a number of famous artists, such as Franky S., owe their emergence to the place. Even artists from outside Surabaya like Harry Roesli, Putu Wijaya and Mus Mudjiono have been frequent visitors.
"The artists and the youngsters always meet at the office of the Surabaya Arts Council (DKS) behind the mosque in the compound. They chat and drink," said Kadaruslan, who goes by his nickname Cak Kadar.
He said he hoped that the center would be maintained as a cultural heritage site and the icon of struggle and arts in Surabaya. "It must be preserved as a cultural asset with a high historical value," he noted.
Westmaes, a Dutch architect who used to live in Surabaya, built it nearly a century ago, in 1907. Its original name was Simpangsche Societeit, and now it is on the list of cultural heritage sites in the city.
Westmaes, a noted architect in his time, also built De Tweede Roomsch Katholieke Kerk in 1899. The church, located on Jalan Kepanjen is now called the St. Virgin Mary Church.
Westmaes's contemporary, Fritz Joseph Pinedo, a Dutch architect of Brazilian origin, built the Niagara Hotel in Malang, East Java and the building now houses the French Cultural Center on Jl. Darmokali, Surabaya.
The Surabaya Youth Center building, which is covers 17,000 square meters, is unique in that it has its own exclusively built dome. At the time of the Dutch Administration, only Europeans could enter the building, which was a place for recreation and art. The guests usually danced, dined and played billiards or went bowling.
Prior to the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the Dutch colonial government built a number of entertainment places in Surabaya such as De Club on Jl. Embong Malang. Built in 1850, this building is no longer in use. In 1834, the Societeit Concordia, an art house, was built on Societeit road, now called Jl. Veteran.
During the years of the independence struggle from 1945 to 1949, the Youth Center served a different purpose. On Oct. 4, 1945, it was used as the headquarters of the Republic of Indonesia Youth (PRI), where meetings were held to discuss the strategy of war that the Surabaya people were to wage against the Dutch, who returned to Indonesia with other Allied Forces, mainly Britain and Australia, after the Japanese occupying forces were defeated in August 1945 and ordered back to Japan.
During the struggle for independence, Javanese fighters got into a fray with a British contingent and Brig. Gen. Mallaby, commander of Brigade 49 of the 23rd Indian Division was killed. In those days, the PRI was the largest organization in Surabaya and functioned as the main recruiter of young independence fighters.
Also in the building, a group of angry Surabaya youths ran amok and killed Japanese prisoners on Oct. 6, 1945, after they learned that the PRI was involved in the re-imprisonment of the Japanese. Several PRI leaders like Sudirman, Doel Arnowo and Bambang Suparto went to Bubutan penitentiary, but the furious masses killed the Japanese prisoners there.
Shouting "Freedom or Death!" and "Death to the White People", the mob also murdered 40 to 50 Dutch prisoners.
Today, the Youth Center, though already old, is still alive with the activities of Surabaya's youths and artists. Although it faces the threat of extinction, the building remains an icon of a cultural struggle. Looking at the building will likely bring to mind all the historical events related to it.
"It is here that we are fighting to ensure that the traditional arts performances of ludruk (East Javanese folk theater), in which all parts are played by men, and kidungan (traditional songs in Javanese), and which were used to attract women's attention, will survive.