At 486, populist Jakarta parties on

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta  Sunday, June 23 2013,


Under Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, Jakarta celebrated its 486th anniversary in a populist manner.

Somewhat similar to the 2013 New Year celebration, an estimated two million Jakartans poured in to the National Monument (Monas) square and the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle on Saturday evening to attend the Jakarta Night Festival, the peak of a series of events held in the past weeks. The city, for once, looked friendlier than usually with streets turned over to pedestrians and glittering lamps on trees along Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan.

Visitors, including many from the outskirts, thronged to temporary stages on the square and near the traffic circle to enjoy music and or just sit and relax, chatting in groups or taking photographs on streets sterilized of cars and motorcycles since the afternoon.

The celebration was marked with the cutting ceremony of a giant tumpeng (cone-shaped rice) in front of City Hall on Jl Merdeka Selatan, led by Jokowi.

He presented the first two slices of the 4.860-meter tumpeng, to Evi Ngantung wife of former governor Henk Ngantung, and former deputy governor Edi Nalapraya. Subdistrict and district leaders, as well as agency heads followed by giving away 486 small tumpengs to Jakartans flooding into the area.

He and deputy governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama proceeded by taking a walk to join the stage of popular TV show Opera Van Java at Monas. Beforehand both hosted a dinner which was attended by several ambassadors, Betawi organization leaders and public officials in the city administration. No officials from the central government and other state institutions were seen in the event.

Hundreds of people danced in front of a JakTV stage in Sarinah when a female singer sang Terajana, a popular dangdut song while thousands swarmed along Jl. Thamrin.

Presenters on city-owned Jakarta Propertindo stage in front of Sinarmasland plaza offered a quiz to three visitors, challenging them to sing while hundreds of others enjoyed blues on the MRT Jakarta stage in front of the Pullman Hotel.

Yunita Kartini, a resident of Lenteng Agung in South Jakarta, said she was happy and proud of the all the celebrations although she had to take a train to arrive as early as 4 p.m at the scene. “I want to watch the entertainment on all stages,” she told The Jakarta Post.

Asked separately on their hopes for the city, Jokowi and Ahok were of the same opinion they had traffic jams and floods as two acute problems they wanted to solve soon.

“I hope the traffic jams and floods can be solved thoroughly. We are focusing on those two problems. All works begin now towards their settlement,” said the governor. Prior to the peak of celebration, Jokowi led a series of celebratory events. Donning a Betawi traditional suit ujung serong, Jokowi led a ceremony attended by city civil servants in the National Monument (Monas) compound in Central Jakarta, in the morning.

In an unexpected move, Jokowi delivered his speech in Betawi dialect. “Babe babe encang encing izinin aye pidato gunain bahase Betawi. Aye mohon maap ame para tokoh Betawi kalau bahase aye campur. Karena kurang pas logatnya eh logatnye (Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to speak in Betawi. I apologize if I get it all mixed up),” Jokowi said to the cheering civil servants.

The governor repeated the gimmick during a special plenary session in the Jakarta Legislative Council, opening his speech with a Betawi pantun (poetic quatrains).

“Ke Cimanggis beli kopiah, kota Bogor dekat Ciawi. Para tamu cantik dan gagah, semua pake baju Betawi (Going to Cimanggis to buy kopiah, Bogor city is near Ciawi. All of the guests look pretty and handsome, because they are wearing Betawi attire),” he said.

After the plenary session, Jokowi left city hall and headed to the recently flooded Jl. Pemandangam III in Pademangan, North Jakarta to cut and give away cakes to the residents.

Hundreds of residents swarmed into the cramped street, trying to make contact with the governor.

“I didn’t expect to get a slice of the cake. I only wanted to shake the governor’s hand,” a resident said after accomplishing her goal.

In the afternoon, Jokowi attended the opening ceremony of the Monorail exhibition at Silang Monas. The exhibition runs until July 14.




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Jakarta Globe  June 23, 2013.




The Jakarta Night Festival produced almost 100 tons of garbage. (AFP Photo)
Though Saturday’s Jakarta Night Festival may have been fun for attendees, the people cleaning up after the city’s 486th anniversary party didn’t have much to celebrate.
“I have to work four hours longer because there is so much garbage,” Santi, a sanitation worker, “Usually it isn’t like this.”
Thousands of people poured onto Jalan Thamrin and Jalan Sudirman on Saturday night after the Jakarta administration declared a car-free night for the Jakarta’s anniversary celebration.
“We predict that around 100 tons of garbage was thrown away. And that’s only for the National Monument and the surrounding areas,” Unu Nurdin, the head of the Jakarta Sanitation Agency, .
The whole city produces anywhere from 5,500-6,000 tons of garbage per day on average, he said.
The figure, Unu pointed out, is only an estimate since the agency is only counting the waste piled up in receptacles and not the garbage tossed out on the streets. Once collected, the garbage is brought to the Pulogebang waste facility in Bekasi, West Java, for processing.
He said that even though the agency carried out proper sanitation procedures for the festival, there are still weaknesses in the system that need to be addressed.
The Jakarta administration deployed 800 personnel, 23 garbage trucks, four street sweepers, 40 garbage pickups, 14 motor-carts, 30 mobile toilets, four clean water tanks and three dirty water tanks to help keep the city clean during the event.
Santi said that most of the garbage was leftover food and plastic bottles.




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