Top government official criticizes tower plan
Top government official criticizes tower plan
JAKARTA (JP): An official of the National Development Planning
Board has denounced the US$400 million plan of business tycoon
Sudwikatmono to build the world's third-tallest tower in
Kemayoran, Central Jakarta.
Mubyarto, assistant to Minister of National Development
Planning Ginandjar Kartasasmita, said the funds should be used
for government-sponsored programs for the improvement of
Indonesia's least-developed villages.
"While the government cannot confiscate, extort or beg for the
funds, they would do more good if donated for use by the
program," said Mubyarto, who is responsible for poverty
alleviation, as quoted by Antara.
Responding to a question raised by a participant in a seminar
in Yogyakarta on Saturday entitled "Economic and Business
Development Strategies in Indonesia," Mubyarto said that he fully
agreed with the criticisms of the proposed tower voiced by a
number of members of the House of Representatives.
Last Friday, several members of the House expressed strong
opposition to the project, demanding that the funds be used for
other purposes, such as the improvement of people's welfare.
The legislators said that if business conglomerates wanted to
boost Indonesia's prestige, they should help to alleviate
poverty, particularly in the eastern part of the country, rather
than build the tower.
Mubyarto said Indonesia's poverty-alleviation program badly
needed support, in particular from Indonesian conglomerates.
Sudwikatmono has defended his plan, saying that those people
who are critical of the proposal may not be in possession of
accurate information about the plan.
The tower has been proposed as a monument to the success of
the New Order government, Sudwikatmono said in Cilegon on
Saturday.
In cooperation with fellow tycoons Prayogo Pangestu and Henry
Pribadi, Sudwikatmono is establishing a consortium called PT
Indocitra Graha Bawana to undertake the project.
The tower, to be called Menara Jakarta (Jakarta Tower), has
been designed by architects from the East China Architecture
Design Institute.
The building would have five stories, representing the five
principles of the state ideology Pancasila. These would be
supported by three tall columns, symbolizing the three pillars of
Indonesia's development: namely, equal distribution of the fruits
of development for the creation of social justice; a high rate of
economic growth; and dynamic and healthy national stability.
Earlier last week, Professor Soekadji Ranuwihardjo of the
economics department of Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University urged
the government to call for the funds to be used, instead, for
poverty alleviation programs.
"In the context of the aggressive campaign for the alleviation
of poverty, the government should not let the conglomerates fund
a 'tower of social inequality'," he said.
"It would be better if the funds were used to help the poor,
wouldn't it?" he asked.
"By helping the campaign against poverty, the prestige of the
conglomerates would be more human, rather than simply based on
the piles of materials used in the tower project," he added.
(hhr)