[Kabar-indonesia] 10 Jakarta City Reports: Skywalks; Soap operas; Drug case; Kampongs; Betawi

[Joyo at aol.com]

10 articles:

- High schoolers in soap operas a
  moral issue for councillors

- Skywalks and bendy buses for busway

- Lawyers say crystal switched for sugar in drugs case

- Police focus on rivers in meth case

- Police nab suspected illegal gun dealer

- Residents resist orders to leave

- City not taking part in Jakarta's public art

- From Belgium to the kampong

- Games a lure to learn English

- 'Betawi culture a mix of many'

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The Jakarta Post 
Tuesday, September 05, 2006

High schoolers in soap operas a moral issue for
councillors

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

It's unlikely to stop teenagers from dreaming of
becoming the next Agnes Monica or Masayu Anastasia,
but city councillors are considering restricting the
on-screen behavior of teenage actors.

The city's lawmakers are concerned that TV soap
operas, or sinetron, that feature teenage actors can
be harmful to both the viewers and the actors.

The City Council's commission A has proposed a
regulation that would control the roles that teenagers
could play in soap operas.

"The soap operas often show students that set a bad
example for other teenage viewers," said commission A
chairman Achmad Suaidy on Monday.

"For example, in one show a female student went out
with an older man who already had a family," he said,
adding that the producers should not have depicted
such an act and should be setting a good model for
teenagers.

He suggested that producers make sinetron that
promoted the values of education, struggle and
"eastern cultures".

He said the commission had started the deliberation of
the draft regulation after several principals had
complained to them about the negative impact soap
operas were having on their students.

The draft regulation will not set the sort of clothes
a character should wear, Achmad said.

Commission E chairman Dani Anwar opposes the move,
however, and believes that the issue should be
addressed with a broadcasting regulation rather than
an educational one.

"Education must foster students' academic skills,
artistic talents, moral principles and characters," he
said. "As long as student actors continue their
studies properly and have good manners there should be
no problem."

Seto Mulyadi from the National Commission for the
Protection of Children said that the regulation must
not prevent teenagers from developing their talents.

"Exploring talents, including singing and acting, are
children's rights, and no one can hinder that," he
said.

He added that the administration only needed to ban
the series, not the actors, if they set a bad example.

"The regulation would better if it protected children
from the exploitation they might face in show
business," he said. "Teenage actors may sacrifice
their schooling by coming home late."

Achmad, however, says he is determined to go ahead
with the commission's plan to regulate the casting of
teenagers in TV series, saying that "If we do not
start ruling on it now, the producers will make even
worse sinetron ... and we will never be able to fix
the problem."

Deliberation is set to commence on Tuesday and is
expected to take two weeks.

The regulation will also touch on the city
administration's constitutional obligation to set
aside 20 percent of its budget for education, as well
as measures to achieving free education for all, such
as financing private schools.

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The Jakarta Post 
Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Skywalks and bendy buses for busway

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Come January, Busway riders will notice a few new
things about the system.

The Jakarta Transportation Agency plans to build
transfer bridges between different corridors and
stations to save space and make trips more convenient.

The agency will also bring in articulated, or "bendy",
buses for corridor V between Kampung Melayu in East
Jakarta and Ancol in North Jakarta.

"We will build a sky walk between paid areas and
transfer bridges in Senen, between Matraman and
Pramuka and between Dukuh Atas and Landmakr," said
agency traffic management unit head Muhammad Akbar on
Monday.

"This will make traveling with the busway faster.
People holding paid tickets won't have to go out of
paid areas," Akbar said.

The longest sky bridge will be one connecting
corridors V and I along Jl. Sudirman, which will
stretch about 200 meters.

Akbar said the agency would also build "floating"
stations above the bus way on corridor V on Jl.
Mampang Prapatan.

"Because the street there is really narrow, we have be
innovative to make use of the space," he said, adding
that the ticketing booth and transaction area would be
in the floating station and passengers would access
the bus via a ramp. Three floating stations will be
built over the Jl. Mampang Prapatan crossroads in
front of the Immigration Office.

"Usually, we have around three or four square meters
of land to build a busway station on. But in this
area, we only have about one or two square meters,"
Akbar said.

Articulated buses, which consist of two buses
connected by an accordion bend, will also help smooth
out the busway system.

"So far we can only accommodate corridor V due to its
straight road.

We'll see if we can implement it in other corridors,"
Akbar said.

Jakarta Park Agency head Sarwo Handayani said the
agency would consider providing plants and flowers for
the bridges and stations if space permitted.

"We can put bougainvillea flowers on the bridges. As
soon as we know if it's possible we can start making
arrangements," she said Monday.

Some residents have suggested that if the articulated
buses help reduce congestion in corridor V then they
should be used on all routes, while others are
concerned they may not work.

Oki Gultom, who lives in Rawamangun, East Jakarta, and
works on Jl. MH Thamrin, said Monday that the
articulated buses might be redundant and inefficient
in areas where other vehicles crossed paths with
busway buses, such as around the Hotel Indonesia
traffic circle in Central Jakarta.

"During busy times in corridor I (Blok M in South
Jakarta to Kota in West Jakarta), buses catch up with
each other within three minutes. If the capacity and
quantity of single buses is to be reduced and replaced
with double buses, then it might be effective to
maintain a time lapse between the buses," he added.

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The Jakarta Post 
Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Lawyers say crystal switched for sugar in drugs case

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Lawyers of a woman alleged to be a member of an
international drug syndicate said Monday they would
report to the police that drugs to be used as evidence
in the woman's trial had been tampered with.

Fieter Tarigan, one of the lawyers, said they believed
that two packages of crystal methamphetamine had been
switched with rock sugar.

Jeanne Wijaya, 24, is on trial at the North Jakarta
District Court in connection to the smuggling of 200
kilograms of the drug into Indonesia in February,
thought to be the work of a drug syndicate operating
out of Hong Kong.

Of the 200 kilos, five were set aside to be used as
evidence in the case, while another 11 kilos are still
being looked at in the National Narcotics Agency
(BNN)'s laboratory.

Fieter said he had suspected something was wrong while
at court last Monday.

"The evidence was brought to the court table. Two of
the opened samples had no smell and were dull white
and tasted sweet," he said.

The lawyer said he asked the panel of judges for the
evidence to be re-examined.

"The judges overruled our plea today, saying they had
no authority to doubt the laboratory results of the
BNN. Therefore, we are going to report this to the
National Police," Fieter said.

The lawyers said they planned to report the officers
from the Jakarta Police and the North Jakarta
Prosecutor's Office who originally investigated the
case.

"The switch could have happened with either the
Jakarta Police, who took the evidence from the crime
scene, or the North Jakarta Prosecutor's Office, which
has been in charge of the evidence since the beginning
of the trial."

Separately, Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Ketut
Untung Yoga Ana, commenting on the matter, said that
on entering the trial process, all evidence became the
responsibility of the prosecutors and the court's
clerk.

Jakarta Police Drug Squad Director Sr. Comr. Arman
Depari said all evidence related to drug cases was
locked inside the drug directory and held under tight
security.

The 200 kilos of crystal meth, worth around Rp 250
billion (about US$26.7 million) was confiscated in
February from an apartment in Penjaringan, North
Jakarta.

The police believe the syndicate running the drugs is
headed by a man named Mr. Wong, who is still wanted by
the police. Jeanne is alleged to have arranged the
shipping of the drugs and to have stored them in his
apartment.

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The Jakarta Post 
Tuesday, September 05, 2006 

Police focus on rivers in meth case

Prodita Sabarini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta Police announced Monday they were focusing
on waterways in Teluk Naga, Tangerang, in their
investigation of the smuggling of 955 kilograms of
crystal methamphetamine.

The drugs were found in a small truck last week about
to enter Jakarta.

Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Adang Firman said
Monday that police were searching boats owned by coral
reef exporter PT Sang Putra, which also owned the
truck the drugs were found in.

The company's owner, Akuang, has been named a suspect
in the case.

The police believe that the crystal meth came into
Indonesian waters on a large boat and was then
transferred to one of Akuang's smaller vessels.

Newly appointed Jakarta Police drug squad head Sr.
Comr. Arman Depari said that the police were still
having trouble determining the exact point of
transfer.

"It's still hard for us to tell," he said.

The police seized the drugs last Monday in what is
believed to have been the second biggest drug haul in
Southeast Asia. A resident of Teluk Naga, where the
drugs were found, had tipped the Tangerang Police off
earlier in the day.

Second Adj. Insp. Heri Prastoto, who was then ranked
Chief Brig. and was promoted as result of the bust,
received information about people transferring boxes
from a Toyota Avanza van to a small truck on Jl.

Raya Kali Baru in Teluk Naga. When he arrived at the
scene on his motorcycle, the driver of the truck
started the vehicle and rammed him with it, breaking
his right leg.

Police later found the truck and its load of 96 boxes
of crystal meth.

Also in the truck was a map of Jakarta and Tangerang,
two walkie-talkies, a satellite phone and a global
positioning system device.

All the evidence is now with the Jakarta Police drug
squad and is likely to be destroyed soon.

The police are currently looking for three Hong Kong
citizens, identified only as Ahua, Mr. Chen and Mr.
Lou, who they believe are part of the international
drug syndicate responsible for the crystal meth.

Adang said the Singapore Police had confirmed that
Adua was in Singapore.

Brig. Genn. Indradi Thanos, a director at the National
Narcotics Agency, says that Indonesia is a haven for
drug traffickers because of it huge coastal area,
which dealers use a gateways to import their drugs.

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The Jakarta Post 
Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Police nab suspected illegal gun dealer

JAKARTA: Disguised as prospective buyers, Jakarta
Police officers arrested Sunday a man alleged to be an
illegal firearms dealer posing as a member of the
Army's Special Forces Unit.

Eddy Surya, 35, was arrested after allegedly
attempting to sell two FN revolvers outside the
Jatinegara Railway Station in East Jakarta.

"From his hands, we confiscated two firearms, which he
planned to sell for Rp 5 million (about US$550) each,"
Jakarta Police general crime director Sr. Comr. Carlo
Brix Tewu said Monday.

The police also confiscated Special Forces Unit
uniform.

Members of the violence and crime squad went
undercover after receiving a tip from a member of the
public about a man who sold firearms.

According to Eddy's statement to the police, he
obtained the from a man in the Indonesian Military.

Carlo said police were now pursuing the man who sold
the gun to Eddy, who they believe has been involved in
the illegal firearms business for about a year.

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The Jakarta Post 
Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Residents resist orders to leave

TANGERANG: Building owners and people living along the
Prancis River near Soekarno-Hatta International
Airport are refusing to make way for the airport's
expansion without being paid compensation.

The residents of the land in Benda regency owned by
airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II do not have
permits to live there, but told Antara on Monday that
they would fight eviction attempts.

A row of buildings houses repair shops, massage
parlors, alcohol vendors and brothels.

Tangerang public order agency head Julias said his
office would obtain warrants from the Tangerang mayor
and municipal council to remove the residents.

"We expect those who have no permit to owner or build
in the area to dismantle their premises within a
certain period," he said.

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The Jakarta Post 
Tuesday, September 05, 2006      

City not taking part in Jakarta's public art

Anissa S. Febrina, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A few weeks before Singapore plays host to the annual
International Monetary Fund-World Bank meeting, the
windows of City Hall have turned pink.

Japanese artist Takafumi Hara collected quotes from
locals about their city and painted them on pink
boards, which he then slotted over the building's
windows.

"It is peaceful because the government has strict laws
saying that you need to become sensitive to others'
beliefs, customs, religions and culture," reads one of
the 61 windows.

At night, more phrases are projected onto the
building's facade, while its front steps, where Lord
Mountbatten accepted the Japanese

surrender in 1945, are covered in colorful stickers
that read "Singapore Biennale '06".

While a similar event being held in Jakarta would
probably result in official banners and yet more neon
plastic palm trees, Singapore has invited an array of
international artists to spruce up the city.

The Singapore Biennale 2006 (SB2006), the city-state's
first, is being staged as the anchoring cultural event
for the IMF-World Bank meeting and is being bankrolled
by the Singaporean government and several private
companies.

"Creatively employing unusual exhibition venues such
as religious sites, public housing and Orchard Road,
SB2006 will bring contemporary art into the daily
lives of Singaporeans," an organizer from the National
Arts Council said.

All this is in stark contrast to the fate of
contemporary visual art in Jakarta, where mural and
graffiti artists are often chased away by public order
officers and art installations are gone in a day.

"Our city's administration has its own perspective on
what is art," said Gallery Tamara 6 curator Rifky
Effendi. "They fail to translate (it into) what
culture is."

So far, official public art in Jakarta has been
limited to statues celebrating national heroes or
independence.

"For them, art and culture is only about museums,"
Rifky said.

He said governmental bureaucracy had restricted
Indonesian artists from getting in closer contact with
the public.

"However, such restrictions have turned out to be a
bit of blessing in disguise. Many community art
initiatives have sprouted in the city," he said.

In a city where most people still struggle to survive,
art is probably not at the top of most residents'
priorities. As a result, there is a wide gap between
Jakarta's artists and the public.

Last year, the city's art biennale was closed after
the Islam Defenders Front complained to police that
one work was pornography.

Artist Agus Suwage and photographer Davy Linggar's
Adam and Eve, which showed actor Anjasmara and model
Isabelle posing as the biblical couple, was displayed
at the Bank Indonesia Museum in Jakarta. The artists
and models were arrested by the police for pornography
and the case is still in court.

Despite the political motives behind the incident, it
illustrates how contemporary art is distance from the
public.

"There actually is a demand, a market for art, as we
have seen galleries sprouting throughout the city,"
Rifky said. "It depends on the city administration to
respond to it."

"What the city has now is only traces of art from the
past. There is no contemporary work except for several
community initiatives," he added.

While the city administration may not have the funds
to spare for public art, the private sector could
certainly help, as it has done in Singapore, bring art
into the everyday lives of the city's residents.

As part of the Singapore Biennale, commercial center
VivoCity commissioned six international artists to
create 13 pieces of outdoor art and street furniture
as permanent fixtures.

Several office buildings in Jakarta's business
district have started to encourage art, placing works
in their public areas, although the pieces are limited
to works by conservative, established artists.

"There are several companies that support the youth
art movement. This could potentially support
contemporary urban art," said Rifky.

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The Jakarta Post 
Tuesday, September 05, 2006

>From Belgium to the kampong

Ika Krismantari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The expat is one of Jakarta's great stereotypes.
They're all quite wealthy, of course, and they all
live in luxury apartments, or villas in Kemang, and
holiday at luxury resorts in Nusa Dua. There are
American development workers, Korean bankers,
Australian oil engineers, Belgian es kelapa vendors...

Wait a moment. There's something a little odd about
that last one. But that is indeed exactly what
40-year-old Beautrice "Bea" Leontine Elizabeth Van
Oosreiwijk does.

Bea arrived in Jakarta 13 years ago, when she married
an Indonesian.

"We met in Germany and he asked me to come along with
him to Jakarta," she told The Jakarta Post over the
weekend.

But 10 years and four children later, Bea and her
husband decided to divorce, forcing her to fend for
herself in Jakarta.

"For months (after the split) I survived on only the
few hundred thousand rupiah I could earn each month as
a part-time English teacher," she said in fluent
Bahasa Indonesia.

She said that almost every night, a neighbor who was a
satay vendor, would come by the small boarding house
she lived in Mampang Prapatan, South Jakarta, and give
a free meal, as even that inexpensive dish was out of
her price range.

"When the tsunami hit Aceh, I knew nothing about the
disaster because I didn't have a television. I learned
about it after my mother phoned me from Belgium to
make sure I was all right," she said.

Because of her financial situation, she never
considered going home.

"I don't have money and neither do my parents," she
said, explaining that they worked as stocking sellers
in the small town of Sint-Truiden in Belgium.

A year after her divorce her situation started to
improve, but any plans she had to return home vanished
when she fell in love with 30-year-old Basuki.

Bea married him in February last year and they live in
a small rental house in Mampang. Her children live
with their father.

"To cover the price of our daily needs, my husband and
I decided to take over a coconut ice cart, one he used
to manage with a friend," she said.

The couple started running the cart in June 2005, when
school holidays meant that Bea was unable to get work
teaching English and Basuki was between jobs.

"We had to get money to pay the electricity bill and
the rent," she said.

With a working capital of just Rp 200,000 (US$22.22)
the couple manages to make Rp 200,000 a day.

"My wife is a very hard working person. She is willing
to do everything she can to develop this small
business," Basuki said.

He said that the key to the success of their business
was Bea's presence at the cart, which is parked near
the Trans TV station building in Mampang.

"Once, an old woman approached us and ordered a glass
of coconut ice.

She said it was the first time she had ever had it,
and Bea was the one who made her want to give it a
try."

Bea said many people came to the cart thinking they
were part of Trans TV's show Bule Gila (Crazy
Foreigner), in which expatriates perform strange tasks
to win prizes.

"I don't mind the crowd as long as they buy my
drinks," she said.

Bea said she saw the hardships she had faced as being
part of the challenge of building a better life.

"I know it is difficult, but what I need to do is just
keep moving forward," she said. "Living in Jakarta,
with its crowds and dirty environment, has never been
easy. However, it is the place with the most potential
to earn a lot of money. There is no other place with
such opportunities in Indonesia."

Bea is an example, albeit an odd one, of the up to
250,000 people from other parts of the country who
migrate to Jakarta each year in the hopes of better
jobs and more money. As the capital city it is seen as
the place where anything is possible.

At least three million people from Bogor, Depok,
Tangerang, Bekasi, Puncak and Cianjur commute to
Jakarta for this reason every day.

Data from the Jakarta Population Agency shows that
each morning Jakarta's population grows to 11 million,
from only 8 million at night.

Bea, who now has a steady job as a full-time English
teacher in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, said that
moving out of the city might be an option in the
future.

"One day if we have enough savings, I want to move to
Yogya, my husband's hometown, to live a quieter life,"
she said.

"Sometimes I forget that I am still a bule with blonde
hair. The other day, I tried to ask a man on the
street for directions, and he waved me away ... Then I
realized that he was afraid of me because I am a
foreigner, whom he assumed could not speak Bahasa,"
she said.

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The Jakarta Post 
Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Games a lure to learn English

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

"I'm upset to lose the scrabble competition because
I'm eager to beat anyone at any game I play," said
Alvin, a student taking part in an English competition
held Saturday by a Jakarta university.

Alvin, from a private high school in Pluit, North
Jakarta, was one of five competitors representing his
school at Bina Nusantara International School
University (Binus International)'s annual English
competition.

While the competition is aimed at encouraging students
to learn English, many just take part because they
enjoy the games.

"I've only played Scrabble two or three times since I
decided to join the competition," said Alvin. "This is
my first Scrabble competition."

Ratna, a student at a state high school in Tangerang
and also a Scrabble competitor, said she played the
game at her school's English club.

"But I think that learning English is not as
interesting as playing the game," she said, adding
that she usually received a score of eight or nine out
10 in her school report.

"Although I didn't win (today) I'm glad I made some
new friends during the competition," she said.

The English competition, which ran from Aug. 30 to
Sept. 2, was attended by 449 students from 59 high
schools and nine universities in Java, Bali and
southern Sumatra, including SMAN 1 Pangkalpinang, SMAN
1 Denpasar, SMA Tarakanita Jakarta, Al-Azhar Indonesia
University and Trisakti University.

The competition, the fifth to be held by Binus
International's English club, BEST, included quizzes,
debates, storytelling, spelling bees, scrabble and a
newscasting competition.

The spelling bee was won by Clarissa Amabel of SMAK 5
Jakarta.

Tarumanegara University's Jessica Kathy took the prize
for storytelling, Pratiwi Utami Putri from SMA
Labschool Jakarta for newscasting and Leonardus Henry
and Hendriyadi from Binus University for Scrabble. The
debating prize was taken by the St. Peter School's
team.

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The Jakarta Post 
Tuesday, September 05, 2006      

'Betawi culture a mix of many'

The culture of the Betawi, the original inhabitants of
the area Jakarta now occupies, is under attack from
all sides. It must compete with the traditions of the
city's more recent residents and Western pop culture.
Not to mention a governor who thinks it's all a bit
"ugly". The Jakarta Post asked residents what they
knew about the traditional ways of the Betawi.

Eka Yulia Parwati, 29, is a financial advisor at a
private bank in South Jakarta. She lives in Ciputat,
Tangerang:

We can still see a lot of Betawi culture in the city,
especially in my area, where people live side by side
with a kampong of native Jakartans.

Their culture is even more evident during religious
days. If you know someone from the kampong well, they
bring you traditional dishes made for celebrations.

As for ondel-ondel, I think it is only an official
icon and it can develop and adapt to the current city
culture.

Betawi culture is composed of a rich array of customs
and traditions and people should recognize more of
them.

Trirahmania Riandini, 37, manages an education
consultancy business in Central Jakarta. She lives in
Casablanca, South Jakarta:

Like it or not, traditional customs will gradually
disappear in a melting pot like Jakarta. That also
goes for Betawi customs.

But, as of today, Jakarta still sees a significant
amount of customs.

I don't know, maybe in a couple of decades we will no
longer see it.

What we will see is an incorporation of various
cultures as more people from other provinces and
regions come and reside in Jakarta.

Betawi people should not feel threatened by it as
their own culture is already a mix of Chinese, Arab
and Malay. It will further develop into richer
customs.

The city administration should not have their eyes
fixed on mere symbolic customs like ondel-ondel. What
they have to help preserve are the core values of the
culture itself.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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