Heritage sites losing out to malls, seminar warns

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 12/17/2009 9:55 AM

The city administration is not contributing enough to much-needed efforts to preserve the city’s heritage sites, a seminar concluded Wednesday.

“The local administration often plays a large part in damaging monuments,” Indonesian Heritage Trust (BPPI) chairman Setyanto P. Santosa said on the sidelines of the seminar.

The seminar was held by the BPPI to record this year’s achievements and next year’s plans to preserve the country’s heritage sites, which range from natural to cultural ones.

Setyanto said preserving them was still low on the administration’s list of priorities.

“They often go after regional revenue, so they [give permits to build] more malls,” he said.

Heritage sites still lack sufficient legal protection, because the current heritage object law is deemed outdated and too narrow in terms of its definition, said BPPI executive director Catrini P. Kubontubuh.

“The 1992 law [on heritage objects] mainly considers monuments as heritage to be protected,” she said.

However, she pointed out there had been a shift in the understanding of what constituted “heritage”.

“Heritage is no longer confined to monuments or objects left behind by kings,” Catrini said.

She added a more holistic definition should include community sites, buildings and other sites that should be considered in city planning.

“The current law, for instance, failed to prevent houses in Menteng being torn down [and altered] that were supposed to be preserved,” she said.

Several homes in the leafy Central Jakarta neighborhood were built in the tropical deco style and are widely considered heritage objects.

Nevertheless, Catrini said the administration could have done more to prevent the alteration of those houses.

“While the new law is being deliberated, the protection [of heritage sites] can still be enforced through local ordinances,” she said.

The Culture and Tourism Ministry is in the middle of deliberating the bill for a new law, Catrini pointed out.

“Lots of places can be categorized as heritage sites, including the Old Town area and the Jalan Veteran area [in Central Jakarta],” she said.

The Old Town is home to historical buildings such as the Kota train station, the National Archives and the Tugu church, as well as several museums, including the Bank Indonesia Museum in which the seminar was held.

The Veteran area also holds a key place in the city’s history, renowned as an upscale residential area in colonial times.

The seminar also highlighted further legal weakness concerning heritage sites, particularly for buildings, in the 2002 law on buildings, which participants said did not have the requisite technical guidelines to preserve buildings.

Setyanto said the government should provide tax deductions for companies carrying out programs to save and preserve natural heritage.

“When companies contribute to help sports activities, they get a tax deduction,” he said.

“We hope the same treatment can be given to [companies that preserve] cultural heritage.

Companies are obliged to conduct corporate social responsibility, so that’s a good way to help.” (dis)