Community groups breathe new life into city's heritage

The Jakarta Post

To commemorate Heroes Day on Nov. 10, The Jakarta Post will publish a series of articles in appreciation of people who have made positive contributions to the city. Today's edition of the Post features a story about three communities working to preserve the city's heritage. On Saturday and Monday, articles on people who have contributed to education, environmental awareness and empowering the poor will be featured.

These people are just some of the city's heroes and heroines.

By publishing these articles, the Post wants to highlight extraordinary efforts made by ordinary citizens in the city. We also hope these stories will inspire you.

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Agnes Winarti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

For many years, the Old Town in West Jakarta looked every bit its age.

But a few years ago, the Sahabat Museum (Sahabat), Komunitas Historia (Historia) and Komunitas Jelajah Budaya (Jelajah) community groups emerged with a shared vision of preserving the long-neglected piece of history.

Sahabat, founded by Ade Purnama in 2002, was the first community of heritage enthusiasts to emerge in Jakarta.

Ade, who is a University of Indonesia Dutch Literature Department graduate, volunteered at the Jakarta Historical Museum before establishing Sahabat, which is an independent organization.

The community, famous for its Old Town trip Plesiran Tempo Doeloe, has a mailing list with more than 3,000 members. The majority of the group's subscribers are aged between 20 and 30.

Community Concerned with Indonesian History and Culture (KPSB), better known as Komunitas Historia, was established in 2003 by Asep Kambali, a history graduate from the State University of Jakarta (UNJ).

Historia is well-known for its heritage trip, Jakarta Trails, and has a mailing list with some 1,600 subscribers.

An alumni of students from various universities in Jakarta founded Jelajah in 2003. Kartum Setiawan, a graduate from the University of Indonesia's history department heads the group, which has a mailing list with almost 400 subscribers.

Jelajah's activities focus heavily on Museum Bank Mandiri in Kota, West Jakarta.

Jelajah also organizes training sessions, seminars and cultural ceremonies, including Tjap Go Meh, which is most commonly celebrated by Chinese Indonesians.

Each group is managed differently and offers unique activities. Jelajah members often participate in parades, in which they wear colonial-style clothing. The other two communities prefer to organize cultural performances and activities.

However, the young people leading each community share similar ideas about promoting their interests.

"When I was a university student I also taught high school students. None of them wanted to become teachers, not to mention history teachers, as they found history to be a boring subject," Asep told The Jakarta Post.

"I also found that in reality, museums were not treated with respect. Old heritage buildings were torn down and entrance tickets to museums were the same price as using a public toilet," Asep, 28, said.

Sahabat's Ade, 31, said he wanted to make trips to heritage sites more interesting so people would enjoy learning about history.

The former head of the Jakarta Historical Museum, Tinia Budiati, said groups with a passion for history should be encouraged.

"We need more young people to be passionate about history so they can pass on their love of the subject to future generations," she said.

"Cultural heritage is managed by bureaucrats who generally have political and private interests in the matter. Duties unrelated to cultural heritage also don't help them focus," she added.

These community groups, with a genuine interest in preserving the cultural heritage of the Old Town, are crucially important, Tinia said.

While the groups were established without profit in mind, several years on they are quite profitable.

"I never thought about profit, but to be honest our activities are quite profitable," Ade said.

When he established the group, his only expenses were Rp 100,000 for his monthly phone bill and internet time.

To operate Sahabat now he owns a fax machine, a portable DVD player, a notebook computer, a portable projector and a car.

The groups communicate via their mailing lists on a regular basis. Their mailing lists can be joined by sending an e-mail to sahabatmuseum@yahoogroups.com, komunitashistoria@yahoogroups.com or jelajahbudaya@yahoogroups.com.