Jakarta

Modern buildings have reshaped the city skyline along the Husni Thamrin Road leading to the Welcome Monument.

Spacious well-planned squares, such as Fata Lillah Square are a feature of Jakarta. Such squares provide pleasant open spaces for city workers and residents.

Bird-lovers enjoy visiting the Bird Park, one of Jakar­ta's main recreational attrac­tions, which has well-stocked aviaries, and attractive gar­dens.

The Dutch built European-style buildings in Batavia, now Jakarta. A Dutch church is shown in this 1793 painting from the colonial period.

Old-style wooden and bam­boo houses are still plentiful in Jakarta. The Dutch-built ca­nals and boats are still used by some local people.

Jakarta (pop. 6,761,886) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. It is also the country's chief economic centre. When Indonesia was a Dutch colony, the city was called Batavia.  The name Jakarta comes from Jayakarta, its old name, which means "invincible and prosperous." It was formerly spelt Djakarta. Jakarta is situated on the north coast of the western end of Java, on the Bay of Jakarta where the Ciliwung River flows into the Java Sea. For location, see Indonesia (map).

Jakarta has a hot humid climate because it is close to re equator. Its average rainfall is about 200 centimetres. There are is a dry season from July to September. During lie rest of the year the city often has heavy tropical downpours.

Much of Jakarta is only a few metres above sea level. The city has been built on former swamp land.

City

Greater Jakarta is the capital of the Republic of Indonesia. It has the status of a province and a special territory. It is divided into five administrative regions: Central Jakarta, East Jakarta, West Jakarta, North Jakarta, and South Jakarta. The territory covers 650 square kilometres. Jakarta is a vast sprawling city. The layout of the metropolitan area as it exists today can be understood best from the history of its development. The original Dutch settlement grew up around the port at the mouth of the Ciliwung River in the 1600's. This area is now mown as Kota.

By the 1880s, the harbour at Kota had silted up. The Dutch then built a new port at Tanjung Priok about 10 kilometres to the east. Tanjung Priok was linked with Kota by a road, a railway, and a canal. But for a long time there were few houses along these transport routes. To the south there were some houses between Kota and the city square then known as Koningsplein. Today, the square is known as Medan Merdeka (Freedom Square), and is the centre of Jakarta's most modern buildings. South of the square are large busy streets lined with multi-storey hotels and office blocks.

In the late 1800's, Weltevreden, now called Gambir, was already a built-up area. But the rest of what is now Jakarta was largely rural. New suburbs to the south of Koningsplein, such as Menteng and Gondangdia, were developed in the 1900's. Today, they are fashionable suburbs.

In August 1948, the Dutch colonial government ap­proved plans for a satellite city in the district known as Kebayoran. Called Kebayoran Baru, it is now a well- known residential suburb. Jakarta has continued to ex­pand steadily to the south.

Places of interest. In Medan Merdeka stands Jakar­ta's outstanding landmark, the National Monument, a marble obelisk 137 metres high, on top of which is a flame covered with 35 kilograms of gold. In the base is the Museum of National Struggle. The monument repre­sents Indonesian independence, proclaimed on Aug. 17, 1945. This obelisk is one of a number of monuments built during the fiercely nationalistic time of President Sukarno, in the late 1950s and early 196ffs.

Medan Merdeka is surrounded by government build­ings. On the north side is the presidential palace, Istana Merdeka (Freedom Palace), the official palace of the president of Indonesia. In colonial days it was the resi­dence of the Dutch governor general. It was here that the transfer of sovereignty took place on Dec. 27, 1949, when the Dutch flag was lowered and the Indonesian flag raised over the palace.

On the west side of Medan Merdeka is the National Museum. This was established by the Dutch in 1778. Its building is popularly known as Cedung Gajah (Elephant Building) from the elephant sculpture standing in front of it. This statue was presented by a king of Thailand in 1871. The museum has comprehensive collections of Asian art, particularly sculptures from the Hindu and Buddhist periods in Java. It also has Muslim tombstones, examples of handicrafts from different parts of Indone­sia, and a library with thousands of manuscripts in Java­nese, Arabic, Malay, and other languages.

In addition to the National Monument in Merdeka Square, President Sukarno was also responsible for many of the landmarks that can be seen in Jakarta today. His aim was to impress on the world that Jakarta was the equal of any other modern great city. Statues put up by him include the Liberation of West Irian monument in Lapangan Banteng and the "Welcome" statue near the Hotel Indonesia. The multistorey modern hotel was also one of Sukarno's projects.

Other monuments put up by Sukarno include the vast Istiqlal Mosque and the Asian Games Complex at Senayan. He was also responsible for the erection of the Sarinah Department Store and the reconstruction of the Senen Market.

Government projects of more recent origin include the Taman Mini, or Indonesia in Miniature Park, put up by the wife of President Suharto. This park presents the great diversity of the 27 different provinces of Indonesia, particularly as regards architecture. There is an orchid garden and an aviary. It also has recreational grounds, restaurants, and a swimming pool. Entertainment is of­

fered in the vast cinema theatre complex called Keong Mas (golden snail). There are museums devoted to ce­ramics, postage stamps, puppets, and textiles.

Located in one of the city's residential areas is Jalan Surabaya, a road known for its interesting market. All kinds of old goods, including porcelain and some genu­ine antiques, are sold in the market.

Jakarta's largest recreation park is the Jaya Ancol Rec­reation Park. It is built on reclaimed land in the Bay of Ja­karta. It has an amusement park called Dunia Fantasi (fantasy world). It also has swimming pools, an artificial lagoon for boating, salt and freshwater aquariums, and restaurants. Dolphins and sea lions perform daily for the public.

There are several beach resorts near Jakarta, where visitors can enjoy boating, fishing, and swimming. Visi­tors can also make boat trips to some of the Thousand Islands (Pulau Seribu) offshore, which have facilities for skin divers.

Memories of the Dutch past are evoked in the old town, Kota. The Dutch Town Hall, built in 1627, had dun­geons built into its basement. In the 1970's, the old town hall was turned into the Jakarta Historical Museum, and was made the focus of a plan to restore old parts of the city. It has on display historical documents, furniture, and porcelain from the time of Dutch rule. The Maritime Museum is housed in two warehouses, all that is left of the first Dutch East India Company fort in Java. In the same area is Sunda Kelpa, known better as the Pasar Ikan (fish market). This is the site of the original harbour of Jakarta, before the Dutch came. It now serves fishing vessels and many inter-island sailing vessels.

People. Jakarta is a crowded city. The density of pop­ulation is 12,288 people per square kilometre. Average population growth is over 3 per cent a year.

People in Jakarta, as elsewhere in Indonesia, are free to choose their religion. About 85 per cent of the popu­lation are Muslims. Protestant Christians make up 6 per cent, and Roman Catholics 5 per cent. Buddhists are about 4 per cent of the population.

The local language is the Jakarta dialect of Indone­sian, formerly called Betawi, and now known as Dialek

Jakarta. However, as elsewhere in Indonesia, standard Indonesian is spoken by all the Indonesians living in Ja­karta.

Jakarta is the most cosmopolitan city in Indonesia, its inhabitants include people from all parts of Indonesia, and from other countries. The foreign embassies and consulates are concentrated in Jakarta.

Education. As the capital of the Netherlands Indies, Jakarta (then Batavia) became a centre of learning. In 1851, the Dutch established a school of medicine there. The government Bureau for Popular Literature tBalai Pustaka! was established in 1908 to publish books in In­donesian languages. In 1926, the Dutch established a law school. In 1940, they established a school of arts. Now there are many universities and other higher edu­cational institutions there. The best known is the Univer­sity of Indonesia. Other institutions of higher education include the Christian University of Indonesia and the Na­tional University.

Economy. Jakarta is the economic centre of Indone­sia. It has the headquarters of the state-owned trading corporations, and most of Indonesia's private compa­nies, locally owned or foreign, are based there.

Factories in Jakarta process food and manufacture glassware, machinery, margarine, paper, rubber goods, soap, textiles, and other products. The first industrial es­tate in Indonesia was established at Pulogadung, 15 kilo­metres from Tanjung Priok. In addition there are brew­eries and iron foundries.

Transportation. The harbour of Tanjung Priok han­dles a large proportion of the country's foreign trade. Most of the Indonesian shipping lines, serving the is­lands of Indonesia and overseas ports, are based in Ja­karta. The city has a modern international airport, the Sukarno-Hatta Airport.

Extensive road and railway systems link Jakarta with other parts of Java. The city's streets are crowded with cars, buses, taxis, and lorries. Traffic jams occur regu­larly during the morning and evening rush hours. The becaks (passenger-carrying tricycles) that were once part of Jakarta's transport system have been banned gradually from most parts of the city. In 1990, the provin­cial government banned them from Jakarta altogether. They were considered inhuman for the pedallers, and they interfered with the flow of motorized traffic.

History

The place where Jakarta stands has had human settle­ments from prehistoric times. There is evidence of a Hindu-Javanese kingdom existing there in the A.D. 400s. In the 1100s, the site became a port, known as Sunda Kalapa. Portuguese fleets interested in trade had visited the region in 1509. The Portuguese tried to establish a trading post at Sunda Kalapa in 1522. But before they could do so the neighbouring Muslim state of Banten captured the area, and renamed it Jayakarta.

In the early 1600s, the prince of Jayakarta allowed the Dutch East India Company to build a warehouse in Jaya­karta. In 1619, Jan Pieterszoon Coen took over as gover­nor general of the company's possessions in Asia. In the same year he captured Jayakarta, which the Dutch re­named Batavia. The Dutch resisted attacks from Banten and from Mataram. For more than 300 years, Batavia was the base for Dutch expansion through the East Indies, as Indonesia was then called.

In this low-lying, swampy area the Dutch set out to recreate a town like those they knew at home. They straightened out the Ciliwung to make a main canal, so that vessels could sail right into their settlements. They cut other canals around and through the town. Along­side these canals they built brick houses. Over the years the canals became polluted with rubbish and sewage.

Batavia was infamous as one of the unhealthiest cities on earth. In the 1820's, of every 1,000 Europeans living there, 230 died in a year. When medical research re­vealed that malaria was spread by mosquitoes, meas­ures were taken to prevent them breeding in local

swamps. Better hygiene was also introduced and the death rate fell sharply. By the early 1900's, only 30 out of 1,000 Europeans died each year.

From 1745 the governor general had a country house in the cool of the hills at Bogor, which was known to the Dutch as Buitenzorg. In the 1930s, the Dutch decided to transfer their capital from the low-lying, swampy Batavia to Bandung, a much healthier site up in the hills. But this was forestalled by the Japanese invasion in 1942.

During the Japanese occupation of the country, they changed the name of Batavia to Jakarta. In 1959, the In­donesian government made a decision that Jakarta would be the permanent capital of the country.

Ali Sadikin, a former naval commander, was governor of Jakarta from 1966 to 1977. Fie brought to the task the disciplined efficiency of a trained naval officer, and was the naval officer, and was the most successful governor Jakarta has had. He was appointed by President Sukarno. But it was under the fa­vourable economic conditions brought by President Su­harto that Ali Sadikin was able to achieve most. Ali Sadikin built up a well-regulated urban system based on modern highways flanked by imposing buildings. He completed a number of Sukarno's projects, such as the Istiqlal Mosque, which was at the time the largest mosque in the world. He also completed the parliament buildings at Senayan, as well as several shopping cen­tres. Under Ali Sadikin's regime, hotels were built with private capital. He improved roads and public transport. Telephones and the water supply were also improved.

The problem for Jakarta has long been its ever- increasing population. When the Dutch took over in 1619, the population was 10,000. In 1850, the population was less than 70,000 in the town. By 1935, it was about 435,000. At the end of World War II in 1945, it was 844,000. By 1965, the population had swollen to nearly 4 million, and by 1976 it was nearly 6 million. In 1970, Ali Sadikin had declared Jakarta a "closed city" for immi­grants, and residents were required to carry identity cards. But these administrative measures have proved ineffective in discouraging Indonesians from coming to live in Jakarta. The population has continued to grow. See also Indonesia; Java.