The plea in Jack O'Neill's timely and accurate "Out & About" article, "In Search of the Lost Soul of Jakarta's Destroyed History (and) Heritage" (May 25) will, I expect, fall on the deaf, uncaring and unskilled ears of the city's political and tourist officials.
The philistine neglect of the Old City is a national disgrace and reflects the to-be-expected Indonesian lack of expertise, long-term vision and indifferent appreciation of the tourist dollar. I don't know who runs the non-existent tourist industry here in Jakarta but who ever they are, they don't appear to know what tourists want. Jakarta must surely be one of the least tourist-frequented destinations in Asia and it is easy to understand why. There is nothing to do here and very little to see. What's the slogan? "You can do anything in Jakarta." Like what?
Get caught in a traffic crawl, fall into open drains, trip up over broken footpaths, wander around a few ill-lit museums with displays that reflect the countries indifference to its past, or, as at Monas, its curious interpretation of recent history, and then go off and pay for an outrageously overpriced drink to mull over why you ever decided to come here in the first place. Jakarta is not tourist-friendly.
Recently, a seasoned tourist visiting us remarked as we passed the canal, holding our noses against the stench, making our way to Cafe Batavia: "This area reminds me of Old Amsterdam during World War II. It's all bombed and blitzed. Why have they allowed it to deteriorate like this? What a shame."
Yet the Old City has the potential for becoming one of the greatest tourist destinations in the country, but its neglect and shabbiness is an embarrassment and hardly worth a look at as it stands - or as it falls down. Nevertheless, things could be very different.
It contains so many historic buildings that could be restored and turned into historic displays, museums, bookshops, restaurants, galleries, boutique hotels, bars and heritage shops that appeal to foreign visitors. Tourists don't and won't come here to wander through glitzy shopping malls. We leave all that kind of stuff to the locals. The potential for a world-class Indonesian-Colonial tourist area stretching down to the docks is right under the noses of the city administration, but they just don't get it.
I have been told that a few years ago a concerned group of community leaders, cultural experts, hoteliers, leading businessmen and women, and museum curators came up with proposals to develop the Old City which had generous private and corporate financial backing, but the moment dollars were smelled by some politicians, the proposals were shelved because the government bureaucracy wanted to control the finances - and we all know what that means.
So what happened? Nothing. I can well imagine the frustration and disappointment of those visionary citizens and acute businessmen who saw the huge tourist potential in developing the Old City, only to be opposed by short-term money politics. Meanwhile, the area is rotting: Symbolic of Jakarta's petty self-serving politics.
Whoever is obstructing and opposing the restoration of the Old City and its development as one of the important tourist heritage sites in this country, and indeed the world, is fouling their own doorstep. The lack of tourism professionalism, and indeed, national pride in allowing this distinctive and beautiful part of Jakarta to fall into decay is a worrying sign of Neanderthal thinking and suggests an attitude toward tourism that is mismanaged, ill-informed, mediocre and amateurish. I have lived much of my life overseas in the tourist city of Hobart (Tasmania) similar in many ways to Jakarta - a colonial site on a harbor.
The city fathers have preserved and utilized the facilities so that a city with a population of 500,000 recently attracted 143,600 tourists who spent on average A$1,790 (US$1,473) each, totaling approximately A$257 million. If a small city like that can do it, why not Jakarta? I'll tell you why.
Because the authorities do not have the will or the vision or the common sense to do it: They are shooting themselves in the foot and the economy suffers, not to mention destroying the cultural goodwill that tourism develops.
It is about time something was done before it is too late.
Phillip Turnbull
BSD City, Banten
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