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Preservation obligation hampers renovation
The roof of a three-story building near the Jakarta History Museum, better known as Fatahillah, West Jakarta, has gone, which has forced the closure of the third floor, while the second floor is also unused
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he roof of a three-story building near the Jakarta History Museum, better known as Fatahillah, West Jakarta, has gone, which has forced the closure of the third floor, while the second floor is also unused.
Soleh, the watchman of the building, 58, opens a food stall and two public toilets on the first floor with one other room as a prayer room.
"The building's owner doesn't want to renovate this place because he doesn't have any plans to use it," Soleh said.
An empty, spacious room on the second floor, he said, was sometimes used for wedding photo sessions and advertisements because of its unique colonial architecture.
"A few weeks ago, it was used for a clove cigarette advertisement shoot," he said, pointing at the room with walls covered by graffiti.
Just a few blocks away, another three-story building tells the same story of neglect.
Wahyu, the building's caretaker, said the structure, which belongs to PT Asuransi Jasa Indonesia (Jasindo), has been empty for about 10 years.
Besides taking care of the decaying building, he has opened a small cellular phone stall in front of it.
"The most damaged part is the top floor because the roof is not intact," said Wahyu.
The first floor occasionally hosts pool sessions and has public toilets.
Harlin from Jasindo said the building's ownership was in dispute and his company was now seeking a legal solution to the problem.
"We do not have any plans for the building yet, not until we finish the legalities," he said.
There are 24 state-owned and 32 private-owned buildings in Jakarta's Old Town (Kota) area, which the administration has declared a heritage site.
The status requires a standard of preservation, making owners reluctant to renovate their buildings.
An officer of the Old Town management unit's monitoring and control section, Agus Ariyanto, told The Jakarta Post that one building could have more than one legal owner with different floors belonging to different people.
"It is not easy to change a building's business license and it is not easy to renovate it," Agus said.
Secretary of the Culture and Tourism Agency's restoration team Ian Iskandar said that under a 1999 bylaw, owners could not renovate their buildings without first consulting with the team.
Ian said he was afraid that if the owners did it on their own, the buildings might lose the heritage authenticity.
"We understand that it is not easy for them to repair the building as the conservation costs are quite high, but we can't change the regulation," he said.
Despite the old buildings' poor condition, the Old Town remains attractive to both local and foreign tourists. (not)
