In a humorous response to fun frequently poked at Bekasi, West Java, by Jakarta residents, the city’s creative minds have established a community called Kedubes Bekasi (Bekasi Embassy).

Greater Jakarta citizens often jokingly call Bekasi “a region from another planet”, that “requires a visa” to enter, mostly because it is considered far away and has hotter weather than neighboring cities. A “Bekasi Embassy”, therefore, sounds like the logical consequence.

The community’s goal, its founder Fithor Faris explained, was not to counter insults from capital residents, but rather to represent the city in a different light, and to be a hub for the city’s creative people.

“As we consist of creative minds, our main goal is to make the community a place where people from Bekasi gather and express their ideas creatively, while at the same time responding positively to the unceasing stream of insults from other people,” Fithor explained to The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

The community aims to be on par with creative groups from Jakarta and Bandung, which Fithor said had contributed their minds to the benefit of their cities.

“The creative people of Jakarta and Bandung have inspired us greatly to contribute our minds to this city.”

Officially formed at Nov. 1, 2015 in a ceremony attended by Bekasi deputy mayor Ahmad Syaikhu, Kedubes Bekasi emerged out of an earlier creative community, Pede Gede, founded by Fithor in 2013.

Syaikhu said Kedubes Bekasi aimed to provide a venue for creative people in the city.

“We don’t aim to set up a foreign representative office,” he said smilingly, as reported by kompas.com
recently.

Fithor explained that Kedubes Bekasi consisted of creative people from various backgrounds: businessmen, designers, illustrators, novelists and artisans.

“We always gather at our ‘embassy’, where we have a café, a fitness center, a small theater and a meeting room for the community,” he said, referring to the community headquarter on Jl. Raya Jatikramat
No. 2A in Jatiasih district.

Fithor, a graduate from the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ), said the community had been involved in and organized several creative events like art bazaars, seminars, poetry courses and literature discussions.

“In March, we were involved in Earth Hour Bekasi and organized an art exhibition at Gedung Juang ’45 building in Tambun district,” Fithor said.

The most recent event Kedubes Bekasi was involved in was Popcon Asia 2016, the fourth installment of the largest pop culture fair in the country. Kedubes Bekasi opened a booth at that event to products crafted by its members.

Fithor said the community’s participation in the event was aimed at spreading its name.

“We sold comic books, paper crafts, stickers, postcards and other things,” Fithor said, adding that the best-selling items were Kedubes Bekasi ‘passports’.

The passports looked much the same as real ones; with a page on the owner complete with dates of issuance and expiry.

Fithor said the passport was simply a piece of merchandise.

“Most visitors were attracted by the passports, we even sold out,” Fithor said proudly. (adt)

Popular

Indonesian workers in Japan face growing stigma after viral incidents

Political motivations behind rising cyberattacks in mid-2025, report says

High rice prices, education costs push up inflation to 2.37 percent in July