The statues and sense of humor

Those who have been living in Jakarta for years must have become people with high sense of humor.

They must be capable in turning irregularities -- which have become commonplace at any pulse of life in the teeming capital city -- into jokes to keep their blood pressure normal.

Look at the sidewalks which are always full of vendors, despite regulation prohibiting anybody from occupying sidewalks.

And to your surprise (hopefully) that some of the vendors pay to the officials for using the sidewalks for business sites.

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

From such an irregularity chaotic situation develop, including that in the mind of the city officials.

We've been probably fed up by jargons and political statements made by the officials that regreening is inevitable move to keep Jakarta green. And Governor Sutiyoso has led the campaign called Penanaman Sejuta Pohon (planting of one million trees).

But, the governor has apparently broke his own words by cutting some trees on the median of Jl. Jend. Sudirman thoroughfare for the statue of Gen. Sudirman, the founding of Indonesian Military - TNI.

A friend of mine, architect Marco Kusumawijaya wishpered to me when we met in a seminar that putting a statue had apparently become a very serious problem for the administration.

That's the most recent blatant example of the funniest thing in Jakarta.

I remembered painter Hardi criticizing the Jakarta administration for improperly positioned statues at the wrong places some years ago. Shortly the capital city has 27 wrong statues in the wrong place.

The statues include the monuments of Soekarno-Hatta, Ikada, Perjuangan Senen, Perjuangan Jatinegara, the Gadjah Mada statue, Diponegoro statue - the work of an Italian sculpture, the (six) ASEAN statues, Dirgantara monument, the statues of Ismail Marzuki, Chairil Anwar, Husni Thamrin, Halim Perdanakusuma, Selamat Datang (Welcome), Pembebasan Irian Barat (Liberation of West Irian/Papua), Sam Ratulangi, Bahari and Pahlawan (hero), and the Sudirman.

Can we imagine how many more statues will the city have in the future when a

Some days ago, in his article in Kompas daily arts critic Agus Dermawan T said that the statue itself was not attractive. The figure of SUdirman alone was not worthwhile to be translated into a realistic statue. And the placing of the statue on Jl. Jend. Sudirman thoroughfare proved that there is no longer public space for statues, making the statues, especially that of Sudirman, convey nothing.

I believe that Agus has been around the world to see all the sculptors and statues in many parts of the world as he described in the article.

But, I have no idea if Agus did the right thing - by writing the article - especially when he gave the impression that all the statues he saw in Paris, New York, Florence (Italy), Amsterdam, Singapore, Madrid, Copenhagen, Moscow, Stockholm, Helsinki and Seoul were all located at the right places in a very proper way.

Just compare his statements when he commented on the Surapati park where the six ASEAN statues are standing. "The statues are now very familiar with vagabonds sleeping in the park or groups of TNI personnel who were guarding the residence of then president Soeharto, Jl. Cendana."

City officials, including the councilors, are reputable for their being "detailed, accurate and particular". When they were eager to study busway, they visited Bogotta, when they wanted to learn "lessons" from European city administrations, they flew to Europe for "comparative study." And the funding for the trips.. must be from the annual budget, which anyway belongs to the people.

And, what I'm afraid of is that after reading Agus Dermawan's article on the statues the city officials and the councilors would be determined to go to that cities to make comparative studies.

We can just calculate how much money will be spend for a councilor (of course with his wife) to go by plane to Stockholm - to learn how the abstract statue of Christian Berg can stand on the bay of the Stockholm.

Then to make comparative study to European cities become a very important program that must not be skipped, or else the officials will not be able to find the most suitable locations for more status in the future. And if this happened, we could just "blame" Agus Dermawan for his 'suggestion' to the officials to learn about statues abroad. Agus would - possibly - just laugh innocently to hear this, while people living in areas prone to flooding would shed tears because the rainy season is coming in the next few months.

And as residents of Jakarta we must see all these drama with better sense of humor as we could shed no more tears, we could bear no more ignorance and we could voice no more disappointment.