The city tourism and culture agency denied allegations it had distorted the Old Immigration Office building currently home to the Buddha Bar, insisting the building remained a historical public place.

Arie Budhiman, the agency's head, said that as of today, the building still belonged to the city administration.

"It used to be a neglected building until the administration decided to restore it a couple of years ago. Because of our limited budget, we decided to team up with the private sector to support the project," Arie told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

"It *the Buddha Bar* is open to the public. Everybody can enter the building since it is a restaurant-cum-art gallery," he said.

Lin Che Wei, founder of Independent Research and Advisory Indonesia, and architect and urban planner Marco Kusumawijaya, wrote a column recently criticizing the public-private partnership deal used to fund the old building's redevelopment. They pointed out that although the restoration used public money, the use of the building was limited to affluent people who could afford to hang out at the upmarket bar.

The Buddha Bar building used to be the Old Immigration Office building, which was originally set up as a center for the arts and hosted opera performances.

Buddha Bar is now run by the daughter of former governor Sutiyoso who initially approved the purchase and renovations.

Although Lin said he was happy that the building was being preserved for future generations, he was pained to see the general public lose access to one of Jakarta's historical buildings.

Lin and Marco said old heritage buildings should remain public spaces that belonged to all citizens.

In 2005, the administration led by former head of culture and museum agency Aurora Tambunan, promised the agency would work with private management to transform the building into a "unique venue" where all Jakartans could partake in all sorts of activities.

The Jakarta administration spent Rp 28 billion in 2002 to repurchase the old building and poured an additional Rp 6.1 billion into restoring it in 2005.

"We gave the bar management permission to turn the place into Buddha Bar because they were willing to help us restore the building," Arie said.

Buddha Bar has also attracted complaints from Buddhists in Jakarta who are angry the bar was named after the sacred "Buddha".

A group called the Anti Buddha Bar Forum has asked the administration to urge Buddha Bar management, PT Nereta, to change the bar's name.

Deputy Governor Prijanto said the administration would hold a meeting shortly between the forum and PT Nereta to solve the problem.

Budiman Sudharma, head of the Young Generation of Indonesia Mahayana (DPP GMMI) has asked all Buddhists to remain calm over this issue.

"We have yet to decide whether the name and symbols used in the bar are against the law. We are still discussing it. If it is proven wrong, we will file a protest," said Budiman as quoted by beritajakarta.com.

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