Traffic jams, construction projects destroy Puncak
Traffic jams, construction projects destroy Puncak
Text by Lela E. Madjiah photos by Arief Hidayat
PUNCAK, West Java (JP): The sun is nestling among the rows of houses down in the valley. Once in a while clusters of white clouds float with the gentle breeze across the growing fireball.
The sun quickly disappears, it is uncertain which house it is hiding behind.
The valley turns gray, the silhouettes eventually enveloped by darkness. The mist thickens as the night air becomes colder. It's time to head into the cottage and enjoy the barbecued corn.
Only the sound of water rushing down a stream breaks the still of the night. Nocturnal birds casually call, like a pair of cymbals underlying the regular rhythm of an orchestra. Peace and tranquility engulf all beings.
Puncak's beauty and relative serenity is what draws Jakartans on the weekend. Hordes of urbanites brave bumper-to-bumper traffic and long lines at the Taman Mini and Ciawi toll gates to briefly enjoy inhaling fresh, cool mountain air and feast on Puncak's soothing greenery.
Congestion along the road leading to Puncak was already bad by the 1970s.
"Why bother getting there at all? For fresh air? For which we choke on polluted air during the slow ride?" a university student said in 1977.
The traffic is now much worse. According to a recent police estimate, between 50,000 and 60,000 cars head for Puncak every weekend. On weekdays it falls to 10,000 vehicles.
As Jakartans became more wealthy in the mid 1970s, more people were able to make the short trip to get out of the city. Puncak has changed since then.
During Dutch colonial times, only the Dutch and a selected few Indonesians could enjoy the luxury of spending a weekend in the mountain resort. Even on weekends one could count the number of vehicles traveling the winding road that sneaks its way between lush paddy fields, glowing orchards and neat tea plantations. After the country's independence, more individuals and companies started to buy property in the area. A number of inexpensive hotels were also developed to accommodate those not rich enough to build their own hideaways.
As the economy grew, many of the city's wealthy no longer felt satisfied merely spending the weekend in a hotel or a rented villa. Owning a villa in Puncak was an image boost. A building rush ensued, without consideration of the consequences.
Now, most of the paddy fields and orchards have been replaced by buildings, many built on steep hills.
The development has brought dubious prosperity to the cash- strapped locals. The feel of money and the knowledge of what it might bring was too hard for them to resist, although it meant selling land that had been in the family for generations. Farmers who once ruled the land are now villa watchmen, their wives working as cooks or servants for the villa's owners. Many of their children, with no more land to till, work as ojek motorcycle drivers.
Who's to blame?