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Satriamandala Museum offers night tour
On Friday afternoon, 38-year-old Sisi Farabi took her 4-year-old son to Satriamandala Museum, which exhibits a vast collection of the Indonesian Military's (TNI) equipment and weapons on Jl
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span>On Friday afternoon, 38-year-old Sisi Farabi took her 4-year-old son to Satriamandala Museum, which exhibits a vast collection of the Indonesian Military's (TNI) equipment and weapons on Jl. Gatot Subroto, South Jakarta.
The museum, managed by the TNI’s center for history, is central to the TNI’s history, displaying the belongings of former president Gen. Soeharto, the first military commander-in-chief Gen. Soedirman, the first chief of staff of the then-Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) Gen. Oerip Soemohardjo and former defense minister Gen. Abdul Haris Nasution.
The museum welcomes visitors with dioramas, including one about the declaration of independence on Aug. 17, 1945, and the Battle of Surabaya on Nov. 10, 1970. It also has rooms showing rifles and handguns, as well as swords and sharpened bamboo, in addition to an exhibition of military transportation such as jet fighters, helicopters and tanks.
"My son really loves Army stuff. He wants to be a soldier. He watches military-related videos on YouTube," Sisi said.
Despite expressing enthusiasm for the museum, she suggested that the management enliven it to attract more visitors.
“At first I couldn’t really tell whether the museum was open,” she added.
Established in 1972, the museum has seen a declining number of visitors in the past several years. The museum's head of guidance and information, Maj. Ardiansyah, said its lack of programs might have contributed to the decrease. Traffic congestion along the busy Jl. Gatot Subroto in front of the museum might also deter visitors from coming, he added.
The number of visitors has declined to 11,693 in 2018 from 49,964 visitors in 2015, according to data provided by Statistics Indonesia Jakarta.
However, in a bid to turn the situation around, the management introduced a weekly night tour. Launched in January, the program, dubbed “Night at the Museum”, was part of its efforts to draw visitors.
For the night tour, which costs Rp 40,000 (US$2.9) per person, the team sets a mysterious and spooky vibe inside the museum with dimmed lighting and the burning of incense. The tour provides a tour guide for a 25-person minimum group.
Ardiansyah is optimistic that the new program will attract more visitors.
"This museum is very important because the moment people get inside, they can learn about how this nation was born, the struggle behind it, the sacrifice of the revolutionaries and how our military came into existence," he told The Jakarta Post at the museum on Friday.
"People can get a sense of how Gen. Soedirman had to go to war while he was sick, so he was carried on a stretcher."
The museum has a wooden stretcher that was used by guerrillas to carry Gen. Soedirman while he was sick during the fight in the colonial era in 1949.
It also displays jet fighters that were used by the Netherlands to attack Indonesia in 1949 and tanks used by the military in the Trikora operation from 1961 to 1962.
The museum's head of collection maintenance, Lukitosari, said besides the night tour program, the museum would also add new items to its exhibitions and enhance its promotions. Furthermore, she said the museum planned to introduce a night tour combined with an athletic activity, called “Night Run”, next month.
"I think we have seen signs of improvement this year. We started seeing more visitors in 2019," she said.
The museum, open Tuesday to Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., is usually a school tour destination for elementary schools, both in Greater Jakarta and from other regions. On the weekend, it serves as a place for a family day out. Communities and individual visitors who love military history sometimes visit the museum on weekdays, she added.
The museum is closed on Mondays for regular maintenance.
Hana Karolina Saragih, a 26-year-old teacher at an elementary school in Kalideres, West Jakarta, planned to bring her fourth grade students to the museum.
"The museum allows students to learn about Indonesian history and touch [the collections] with their own hands," said Hana.
A history-loving community called Historia Indonesia Community also held a night tour called Menginap di Museum (Sleepover at the Museum) at Jakarta’s Maritime Museum in North Jakarta last year, drawing dozens of participants. (dfr)
