Sutiyoso berates officials for neglecting Monas park

JAKARTA (JP): Governor Sutiyoso scolded city park agency officials on Wednesday for their failure to take care of the National Monument park area in Central Jakarta.

"I am very upset to see the flowers we planted a few months ago now dying.

"City park agency officials did not maintain the area and just let people trample over the grass. What have they been doing then?" he said.

Flowers surrounding the monument have dried up among the leaves littering the area, while other plants, like palm trees, were also drying up from a lack of care.

The governor also complained about the quality of the flowerpots and the abundance of garbage in the area.

"I have told related city institutions to maintain the beauty and cleanliness of the area because we've spent quite a huge amount of money there," he said.

He told all parties related to a planned Rp 1.9 trillion beautification project to temporarily forget the project due to the city's limited budget.

"The project is too expensive. We should now concentrate on smaller things which we can do," he said.

City administration completed the first phase of a Rp 3 billion (US$375,000) National Monument park facelift program in January. The first phase of the project spent Rp 1.5 billion for improving public facilities in the area, including installing more benches, toilets, rubbish bins, lights and signs. The first phase also arranged beautification of the area, such as providing flowers and flowerpots, which reportedly cost about Rp 500 million.

Interviewed separately, the head of the city park agency, Sjafril Zainudin, said the agency had unlimited funds to maintain the park.

"There was no special fund allocated for maintaining the monument's park as the budget was for all the parks in the city's five mayoralties," he said.

He said the city last year allocated between Rp 3 billion and Rp 4 billion for park maintenance.

Sjafril said the agency was planning to beautify the city's main roads of Jl. M.H. Thamrin and Jl. Sudirman in Central Jakarta, and Jl. Sisingamangaraja in South Jakarta, with flowers and other decorative plants.

The beautification project, with a total cost projected at about Rp 2.9 billion, is mainly related to the General Session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), slated for November.

"The project will be held in stages. We are now working on the project along Jl. M.H. Thamrin, which is expected to be completed this year," he said.

Sjafril said the project along Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Sisingamangaraja would be financed by the city's 2000/2001 budget. (ind)