TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Ailing Sriwedari Park, icon of local history, may be taken from public
Last dance: Artists stage a Kirab Ageng performance in front of the Radya Pustaka Museum in Surakarta, Central Java, on Thursday
Change Size
Last dance: Artists stage a Kirab Ageng performance in front of the Radya Pustaka Museum in Surakarta, Central Java, on Thursday. The museum, along with other heritage buildings in Sriwedari Park, is at risk in the wake of a land dispute.(JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi) (JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
L
span class="inline inline-center">Last dance: Artists stage a Kirab Ageng performance in front of the Radya Pustaka Museum in Surakarta, Central Java, on Thursday. The museum, along with other heritage buildings in Sriwedari Park, is at risk in the wake of a land dispute.(JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
Amid a long-standing ownership dispute, the Sriwedari Park compound in Surakarta, Central Java, remains one of the region's most important cultural icons, its 10-hectare plot of land summarizing the last 130 years of the city's history.
Located on Jl. Slamet Riyadi in the city center, the compound was initially developed by Surakarta sultan Paku Buwono X in 1877 as a royal park, known as Bon Rojo (The Garden of the King). The name refers to the various features built in the park, including a zoo, a pond and a night market.
'Sriwedari was developed on land belonging to the [Surakarta] palace. The sultan [Paku Buwono X] built the park as a gift to his people, so that they could enjoy themselves,' BRM Bambang Irawan, a member of the Surakarta royal family, told The Jakarta Post recently.
The palace, according to Bambang, continued to develop the park by establishing new buildings, including the Radya Pustaka Museum, the Sriwedari Opera House, the Segaran pond and the now-defunct Mangunjayan mental hospital.
The four buildings have also been listed as part of the city's cultural heritage.
The Radya Pustaka Museum, built in 1890, is one of the country's oldest museums and has a vast collection including statues, traditional gamelan instruments, ancient manuscripts and various kinds of batik textiles and wayang (puppets).
Another major venue at the park, which is now managed by the Surakarta municipal administration, is the R. Maladi Stadium, which hosted the country's first-ever National Games (PON) in 1948.
Despite their historical value, many sites at the park, however, no longer look attractive, mainly as a result of poor maintenance.
The water in the Segaran pond, for example, has turned green and is half-covered with floating garbage.
The 200-seat Sriwedari Opera House, meanwhile, rarely attracts more than 30 visitors to its shows, despite entry charges of a paltry Rp 4,000 (28 US cents).
Meanwhile, Sriwedari Park is also the subject of dispute between the Surakarta municipal administration and the heirs of Wirjodiningrat, a brother-in-law of Paku Buwono X, who claim that they are the owners of the land on which the park stands.
The legal battle, which began in the 1970s, finally reached an end after the Supreme Court ruled in late 2013 that Wirjodiningrat's heirs were the rightful owners of the compound.
Despite the local administration's effort to file a case review against the court's ruling, the Surakarta District Court recently announced that it was planning to execute the Supreme Court's ruling by forcefully taking over the park next month.
Many local residents and those involved in efforts to preserve heritage buildings in the city have voiced concern over the plan.
'The [land] execution plan is entirely unacceptable. Sriwedari is a public space. If [the court] takes over the Radya Pustaka Museum, for example, where they will move its thousands of pieces?' said museum committee head Purnomo Soebagyo.
Surakarta is home to 550,000 people and dozens of heritage buildings, making it one of the country's main tourist attractions. The city is also the hometown of President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo, who served as mayor from 2005 to 2012.
Although he acknowledged the municipal administration's disadvantaged position in the case, Surakarta-based Sebelas Maret University (UNS) legal expert M Jamin said the administration could still offer its legal opponent an alternative settlement.
'It is a fact that Sriwedari has become a part of the city's history. To preserve the public interest, [the court] should not take over parts of the land,' Jamin said.
Separately, GPH Dipo Kusumo, a son of the late Surakarta sultan king Paku Buwono XII, also expressed his support for efforts to reach a win-win settlement regarding the prolonged land dispute.
'Both the municipal administration and the royal heirs must make a sacrifice. ['¦] The law must be obeyed, but historical values must also be taken into consideration,' Dipo said.
