Jakarta New Year Eve Revelry to Be Moved From Monas

The Jakarta Globe, Nivell Rayda

Crowds ring in the start of 2009 in Central Celebrations this New Year's Eve will be moved to alternate parts of the city. (Photo: EPA)

The city administration has announced plans to move New Year Eve celebrations from the center of the city in a bid to ease the crippling effects of the often deadly celebrations on traffic, as well as to cut down on the damage caused to the National Monument Park.

Muhayat, Jakarta’s provincial secretary, said the city would hold its official celebrations at Ancol in North Jakarta and the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah theme park in East Jakarta, and not at the National Monument (Monas) as in previous years.

“Gardens inside the complex have sustained a lot of damage after previous New Year’s celebrations and the surrounding streets have also experienced heavy traffic. We want to avoid that by moving the celebrations elsewhere,” he was quoted by Antara as saying.

He said other moves by the administration to reduce disorder included limiting this year’s New Year celebrations to 3 a.m., adding that restaurants and bars that breached the regulations “would be fined.”

Another policy was a crackdown on dangerous firecrackers, very much a feature of celebrations in the past, with raids planned for traditional markets between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar, Jakarta Police spokesman, said they were still discussing which places required heavier security.

“We plan to have more officers along the major streets where traffic is usually congested. We will allow people to parade in the street but we shall not tolerate any infractions,” he said.

Last year, police estimated a crowd of 300,000 people, including 100,000 motorcyclists, flocked to the city’s center, bringing traffic to a standstill. The areas most badly affected included the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle and roads leading to Monas, Ancol in North Jakarta, and Taman Mini.

Dozens of major traffic accidents and numerous deaths or injuries are also a feature of the annual, often rowdy celebrations, mainly involving young males, a number of whom are drunk.

Boy said more than 16,000 police officers from Jakarta Police would be deployed to safeguard the capital.

He said on a normal shift, 9,000 police officers were deployed in the capital, but that would be boosted by 7,300 during the festivities. That total number accounts for two-thirds of Jakarta’s police force.

“The additional officers will include those from Jakarta Police’s crime prevention department, traffic control, detectives and the Mobile Brigade [Brimob],” he said. “The bomb squad will be on high alert and standing by although they won’t be deployed to patrol the streets.”

Boy said that on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, every church in the capital would be guarded, particularly during prayer services.

The Christmas Eve bombings, including five attacks on churches in Jakarta, in 2000, left eight people dead and many others injured. The attacks, blamed on Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah, were allegedly planned by Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, who was once described as Asia’s Osama bin Laden. He is currently believed to be in detention in Guantanamo Bay.

Another implicated in the plot was hard-line cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, though he was found not guilty of involvement in 2003.

On Friday, it was reported that a church under construction in the Harapan Indah Housing Complex in Bekasi was attacked by hundreds of people marching home from a parade to mark the Islamic New Year on Thursday.

Boy refuted the story, which was reported by a number of media outlets, including the Jakarta Globe, saying the incident was a case of theft.

“A man broke into the construction site and stole drills and equipment. By coincidence there was a parade nearby: the two weren’t related,” he said. “It wasn’t an attack. So we won’t be taking extra precautions such as increasing patrolling officers.”