The comedy of errors of life in Jakarta

The comedy of errors of life in Jakarta

Longtime Jakarta residents have learned to laugh at life.

They have to: It's a case of making a joke about the assorted
irregularities that are so commonplace in this teeming capital,
or else they end up crying at the state of things.

We find ourselves gingerly stepping over vendors on the
sidewalk, despite regulations prohibiting anybody from occupying
the space.

And we have to take it in our stride that those vendors pay
off certain unscrupulous city officials to keep their spots.

"I have a receipt signed by an official," a sidewalk vendor
told me the other day. I told him that I believed it.

Chaos reigns, including in the warped logic of officials.

We are fed up with the jargon in political statements from
officials that the regreening program is a vital step to keep
Jakarta fresh. Governor Sutiyoso has led the campaign,Penanaman
Sejuta Pohon (planting of one million trees).

But the governor then went against his own plan by cutting
down some trees on the median of Jl. Jend. Sudirman to
accommodate the statue of Gen. Sudirman, considered the founder
of the modern Indonesian Military (TNI).

Putting up the Rp 6.5-billion statue, despite repeated
assertions that it was funded by private donations, has proved
yet another public relations snafu for the governor.

It's only the most recent example of the comedy of errors that
is life in Jakarta.

I remember painter Hardi criticizing the Jakarta
administration several years ago for erecting statues in the
wrong place -- 27 of them in total, from monuments to the
founding fathers, Sukarno and Hatta, to ones in honor of various
other famous figures and the country's struggles on the
battlefield.

Now, in our already statue-filled city, do we have the space
-- or the money -- to erect another 34, as planned by Sutiyoso,
when our public services are sadly lacking?

Some days ago, in an article in Kompas daily, arts critic Agus
Dermawan T said that the figure of Sudirman does not make for an
attractive statue. The placing of the statue on Jl. Jend.
Sudirman proved that there is no longer public space for statues,
making it seem as though they are trespassers in the small area
we have left.

He also said Kuala Lumpur's ASEAN Sculpture Park is a draw for
tourists, while our own Taman Suropati, the Central Jakarta park
located opposite the U.S. ambassador's residence, has six similar
statues that have become sleeping venues for beggars or a resting
place for military personnel guarding the nearby residences of
local and foreign officials.

All good points, but Agus probably did not know what he was
getting into when he discussed how the statues of major cities
like Paris, New York, Copenhagen, Florence, Amsterdam and
Helsinki all showed proper selection and placement.

Don't go giving city officials ideas, Agus. Now, they will be
so intent on brushing up on their knowledge of the arts and
humanities they will set off on a tour of all those statue
hotspots.

They and their spouses will be crisscrossing the globe in no
time, a cozy little junket where they will get to pose with the
statue of Nelson in London, the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen and,
of course, Michelangelo's David in Florence.

Ah, the stuff that photo album dreams are made of!

That is what happened last month when busway fever swept City
Hall, and officials, braving the threat of kidnapping, headed off
to Bogota to see how the system works in the Colombian capital.

"If it works in Bogota, it will work in Jakarta," Sutiyoso
said, conveniently disregarding the fact that Bogota, with a
population about half of Jakarta's 11 million people, is very
different to the Indonesian capital.

So, if they do end up going on their grand tour, Agus and the
rest of us will have to shrug our shoulders and give a tired
laugh at the folly of it all.

But perhaps, we really should be shedding a tear at all the
way such money, frittered away on statues and tours, and
prettifying our decrepit city, would be put to better use on
flood-control projects and buying new fire engines and garbage
pickup trucks.

On the other hand, let's save those tears for when the next 34
statues go up.

-- Soeryo Winoto