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.
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