Comments: 'Bandung’s Braga Festival opens'

Dec. 27, Online

Bandung Mayor Dada Rosada opened Sunday the Braga Festival that would feature traditional performances, exhibition and traditional merchandise sales along the famous Braga street in Bandung, West Java.
Antara reported that 93 stands had been erected along Braga, selling various merchandise, including food, garments and traditional handicrafts.
A performance stage was established at one end of the street, which will be closed until New Year Eve. Various traditional performances will be staged, along with independent music performances.

Your comments:

Mayor Dada Rosada is an absolute no-hoper. Braga, just like the rest of Bandung, has been allowed to deteriorate into a toilet. At last year’s festival, Dada Rosada anounced that all buildings along Braga had been painted at the local administration’s expense, which simply was not and is not true.

It was due to have been turned into a part-time pedestrians-only area and revitalized — it has not. To call Bandung the Paris of Java today is just a joke.

The authorities, which include Dada Rosada, appear to have no feelings at all for the fine heritage that was once Bandung.

One only has to spend a short while touring Bandung to realize that most old buildings are in a state of appalling decay.

The town is a cesspit of filth, and there is garbage strewn everywhere, with no attempt by local authorities to change it. The streets are dilapidated and broken, and chaos is everywhere.

Bandung is now just a very ugly city. Let us also not forget that Ban-dung is the proud host to the most polluted river in the whole world, the Citarum.

Instead of showing his face on the streets of Bandung once a year to open the Braga Festival, Dada Rosada should get out on the other 364 days and take a good look at exactly what Bandung has become: it is nothing at all to be proud of.

Didi Karjadi
Bandung