Surabaya Youth Center: Icon of struggle

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.