Jakarta; A Sinking Giant?

"Artikel menyedihkan dari The Jakarta Post tentang tempat dimana kita menghabiskan hidup kita.. Jakarta, Terlalu berat kiranya beban yang kau sandang dipundak...

In Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana, the British secret service demotes
an agent by reassigning her to the dreaded posting of Jakarta. It is no
surprise: For much of the last century, Jakarta was saddled with a
reputation as a poverty-ridden hellhole. Andre Vltchek believes nothing
has changed.

Today, high-rises dot the skyline, hundreds of thousands of vehicles belch
fumes on congested arteries and super-malls have become cultural centers of
gravity in this fourth largest city in the world. In between these colossal
super-structures, humble kampongs house the majority of the city dwellers
who often have no access to basic sanitation, running water or waste
management.

While almost all major capitals in the region are investing heavily in
public transportation, parks, playgrounds, sidewalks and cultural
institutions like museums, concert halls and convention centers, Jakarta
remains brutally and determinately "pro-market": profit-driven and openly
indifferent to the plight of a majority of its citizens who are poor.

Most Jakartans have never left Indonesia, so they cannot compare their
capital with Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, with Hanoi or Bangkok. Comparative
statistics and reports hardly make it into the local media. Despite the fact
that the Indonesian capital is for many foreign visitors still a hell on
earth, the media describes Jakarta as "modern", "cosmopolitan", a "sprawling
metropolis".

Newcomers are often puzzled by Jakarta's lack of "public" amenities.
Bangkok, not exactly known as a "user-friendly city", still has several
beautiful parks.

Cash-strapped Port Moresby boasts wide promenades, playgrounds, long
stretches of beach and sea walks.

Singapore and Kuala Lumpur compete with each other in building wide
sidewalks, green areas as well as cultural establishments. Manila, another
city without a glowing reputation for its public amenities, succeeded in
constructing an impressive sea promenade dotted with countless cafes and
entertainment venues while preserving its World Heritage Site of Intramuros.


Hanoi repaved its wide sidewalks and turned a park around Huan-Kiem Lake
into an open-air sculpture museum.

But in Jakarta, there is a fee for everything. Many green spaces have been
converted to golf courses for the exclusive use of the rich. The
approximately one square kilometer of Monas seems to be the only real public
area in a city of more than 10 million. Despite being a maritime city,
Jakarta has been separated from the sea, with the only focal point being
Ancol, with a tiny, mostly decrepit walkway along the dirty beach dotted
with private businesses.

Even to take a walk in Ancol, a family of four has to spend Rp 40,000 in
entrance fees, something unthinkable anywhere else in the world. The few
tiny public parks which survived privatization are in desperate condition
and mostly unsafe to use.

There are no sidewalks in the entire city, if one applies international
standards to the word "sidewalk". Almost anywhere in the world (with the
striking exception of some cities in the U.S. like Houston and Los Angeles)
the cities themselves belong to pedestrians. Cars are increasingly
discouraged from the centers. Wide sidewalks are understood to be the most
ecological, healthy and efficient forms of short-distance "public
transportation" in areas with high concentrations of people.

In Jakarta, there are hardly any benches for people to sit and relax, no
free drinking water fountains or public toilets. It is these small but
important "details" that are symbols of urban life anywhere else in the
world.

Most world cities, including those in the region, want to be visited and
remembered for their culture. Singapore is managing to change its
"shop-till-you-drop" image to that of the center of Southeast Asian arts.
Monumental Esplanade Theatre reshaped the skyline, offering first-rate
international concerts of classical music, opera, ballet, but also
performances of the leading artists from Southeast Asia. Many performances
are subsidized and are either free or cheap relative to the high incomes in
the city-state.

Kuala Lumpur spent US$100 million on its philharmonic concert hall located
right under the Petronas Towers, the tallest buildings in the world. This
impressive and prestigious concert hall hosts local orchestra companies as
well top international performers.

The city is presently spending further millions to refurbish its museums and
galleries, from the National Museum to National Art Gallery.

Hanoi is proud of its culture and arts, which are promoted as its major
attraction: Millions of visitors flock into the city to visit countless
galleries, stocked with canvases which can be easily described as some of
the best in Southeast Asia.

Its beautifully restored Opera House regularly offers Western and Asian
music treats. Bangkok's monumental temples and palaces coexist with
extremely cosmopolitan fare: International theater and film festivals,
countless performances, jazz clubs with local and foreign artists on the
bill, as well as authentic culinary delights from all corners of the world.
When it comes to music, live performances and nightlife, there is no city in
Southeast Asia as vibrant as Manila.

Now back to Jakarta. Those who have ever visited the city's "public
libraries" or National Archives building will know the difference. No
wonder: in Indonesia education, culture and arts are not considered to be
"profitable" (with the exception of pop music), and are therefore made
absolutely irrelevant. The country has the third lowest spending in the
world on education (according to The Economist, only1.2 percent of its GDP)
after Equatorial Guinea and Ecuador (there the situation is now rapidly
improving with the new progressive government).

Museums in Jakarta are in appalling condition, offering absolutely no
important international exhibitions. They look like they fell on the city
from a different era and no wonder -- the Dutch built almost all of them.
Not only are their collections poorly kept, but they lack elements of
modernity: There are no elegant cafes, museum shops, bookstores and even
public archives. It appears those running them are without vision and
creativity; even if they did have inspired ideas, there would be no funding
to carry them out.

It seems that Jakarta has no city planners, only private developers, with no
respect for the majority of its inhabitants who are poor (the great
majority, no matter what the understated and manipulated government
statistics say). The city abandoned itself to the private sector, which now
controls almost everything, from residential housing to what were once
public areas.

While Singapore decades ago and Kuala Lumpur recently managed to fully
eradicate poor, unsanitary and depressing kampongs from their urban areas,
Jakarta is unable or unwilling to offer its citizens subsidized, affordable
housing equipped with running water, electricity, a sewage system,
wastewater treatment facilities, playgrounds, parks, sidewalks and a mass
public transportation system.

Rich Singapore aside, Kuala Lumpur with only 2 million inhabitants counts on
one metro line (Putra Line), one monorail, several efficient Star LRT lines,
suburban train links and high-speed rail system connecting the city with its
new capital Putrajaya. The "Rapid" system counts on hundreds of modern,
clean and air-conditioned buses. Transit is subsidized; a bus ticket on
"Rapid" costs only 2 RM (about Rp 5,000) for unlimited day use on the same
line. Heavily discounted daily and monthly passes are also available.

Bangkok contracted German firm Siemens to build two long "Sky Train" lines
and one metro line. It is also utilizing its river and channels as both
public transportation and as a tourist attraction. Despite this enormous
progress, the Bangkok city administration claims that it is building
additional 80 kilometers of tracks for these systems in order to convince
citizens to leave their cars at home and use public transportation.

Polluting pre-historic buses are being banned from Hanoi, Singapore, Kuala
Lumpur and gradually from Bangkok. Jakarta, thanks to corruption and
phlegmatic officials, is in its own league even in this field.

Mercer Human Resource Consulting, in its reports covering quality of life,
places Jakarta repeatedly on the level of African and poor South Asian
cities; below Nairobi and Medellin.

Considering that it is in the league of some of the poorest capitals of the
world, Jakarta is not cheap. According to the Mercer Human Resource
Consulting 2006 Survey, Jakarta ranked as the 48th most expensive city in
the world for expatriate employees, well above Berlin (72nd), Melbourne (74
th) and Washington D.C. (83rd). And if it is expensive for expatriates, how
is it for local people with GDP per capita below US$1,000?

Curiously, Jakartans are silent. They have become inured to appalling air
quality just as they have gotten used to the sight of children begging, even
selling themselves at the major intersections, to entire communities living
under elevated highways and in slums on the shores of canals turned into
toxic waste dumps, the hours-long commutes, floods and rats.

But if there is to be any hope, the truth has to be eventually told, the
sooner the better. Only correct and brutal diagnosis can lead to treatment
and cure. Painful as the truth can be, it is always better than
self-deceptions and lies.

Jakarta has fallen decades behind capitals in the neighboring countries: in
esthetics, housing, urban planning, standard of living, quality of life,
health, education, culture, transportation, food quality and hygiene. It
has to swallow its pride and learn: from Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, from
Brisbane and even in some instances from its poor neighbors like Port
Moresby, Manila and Hanoi.

Comparative statistics have to be transparent and widely available. Citizens
have to learn how to ask questions again, and how to demand answers and
accountability. Only if they understand to what depths their city has sunk
can there be any hope of change.

"We have to watch out," said a concerned Malaysian filmmaker during New
Year's Eve celebrations in Kuala Lumpur. "Malaysia suddenly has too many
problems. If we are not careful, Kuala Lumpur could end up in 20 or 30 years
like Jakarta!"

Could this statement be reversed? Can Jakarta find the strength and
solidarity to mobilize and in time catch up with Kuala Lumpur? Can decency
overcome greed? Can corruption be eradicated and replaced by creativity? Can
private villas shrink in size and green spaces, public housing, playgrounds,
libraries, schools and hospitals expand?

An outsider like me can observe, tell the story and ask questions. Only the
people of Jakarta can offer the answers and solutions.

The writer is an American novelist, filmmaker and journalist, co-founder of
Mainstay Press (www.mainstaypress.org) and editorial director of Asiana
Press Agency (www.asiana-press-agency.com)

Edukasia: Jendela Pendidikan Indonesia

ABSTRAKSI
MAJALAH EDUKASIA

Latar belakang
Di usianya yang ke-35 tahun, Pondok Pesantren Darunnajah merasa perlu mengambil inisiatif untuk mengembangkan skala pendidikan yang dipersembahkan untuk masyarakat Islam di Indonesia. Visi pendidikan yang selama ini disampaikan melalui proses pendidikan di dalam lembaga pesantren perlu ditransformasi ke kalangan yang lebih luas agar bisa memberi manfaat lebih banyak lii’lali kalimatillah.
Keinginan tersebut diwujudkan dengan pembentukan suatu majalah sebagai bentuk transformasi nilai pendidikan yang dianut oleh pesantren Darunnajah kepada masyarakat Indonesia.

Visi
Sebagai media transformasi nilai-nilai pendidikan modern yang sesuai dengan nilai-nilai keislaman sekaligus menjadi salah satu bentuk unit usaha andalan bagi pesantren Darunnajah.

Produk

Bentuk produk adalah Majalah Bulanan “EDUKASIA”
Tagline yang diusung oleh majalah adalah “JENDELA PENDIDIKAN INDONESIA

Isi Pokok
Pendidikan actual dan modern yang sesuai dengan nilai keislaman dengan pendekatan popular

Gambaran umum target market dari Majalah “EDUKASIA” adalah masyarakat muslim perkotaan yang membutuhkan informasi tambahan tentang pendidikan modern yang sesuai dengan nilai keislaman. Masyarakat yang dituju mempunyai kemiripan karakter dengan masyarakat yang menjadi “customers” di lembaga induk, Pesantren Darunnajah.

Kirana Qur'ani

Yeah, that's my baby's name; Kirana Qur'ani or KQ.. a combination between Old Javanese and Arabic language that means; Nur Qurani, a light from The Holy Book, Al-Qur'an.. 

Born in 20 Nov 2007 at exactly after Azan Fajr at about 4.30 a.m, now she's about two months and a hearthbreaker already couldn't stop kissing her and jealoused by her mother..;p

May she become a truely person that shines a a bit light from The Sacred Qur'an someday.. Loves the poors and could be someone to be proud of before Allah SWT.. 

Day dreamer

"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible".

T.E Lawrence, The seven pillars of wisdom