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  Straits Times 26 Aug 07
Centre of attraction: Chronic shortage of green areas leads Jakarta residents to turn into mall rats
By Devi Asmarani

DEPRIVED of clean air and public space, Jakarta residents are hanging out at shopping centres.

There is no shortage of these places. There are four shopping centres (one of which is still under construction) within walking distance of my office in central Jakarta, and at least nine within a short drive.

Just next to my apartment building, there used to be a golf driving range. But this unusual and precious sight of downtown greenery has disappeared. Last year, the developer started to break up the earth to make way for an ambitious complex of offices, apartments, and - what else - a shopping mall.

Drive further out towards the city outskirts and the numbers multiply, with new shopping centres seeming to pop up every month or so.

According to the Indonesian Association of Shopping Centres, since 2005, an average of eight shopping malls have been built every year. They include the traditional retail centres, air-conditioned complexes containing mainly small shops with some cheap food outlets, and American-style malls designed also as leisure centres, ranging from 50,000 sq m to 230,000 sq m in size.

The scene is a stark contrast to a decade ago when many high- rise buildings and plans for them were either abandoned or shelved, following the Asian financial crisis.

At the time, many office workers laid off from their companies explored their entrepreneurial side. Many of them went into the food business, setting up modest warung tenda (Indonesian for tent foodstalls) to sell everything from traditional local comfort food such as fried rice to Chicago-style barbecued ribs.

Several open-air complexes for warung tenda in the city provided trendy hangout places for young and old to dine out al fresco without the usual hassle of buskers, beggars or pickpockets that thrive in traditional hawker centres.

Well, those days are gone.

As the economy picked up, purchasing power strengthened and, the property sector being one of the first to boom, many of the open-air spaces have made way for malls.

Malls have become the new town centres. On weekdays, they are filled with office workers on their lunch break or waiting out the rush- hour traffic. On weekends, they are swarming with middle-class families with kids in tow and flocks of trendy teenagers.

A 2005 online survey by AC Nielsen showed that Indonesia, especially Jakarta, has the highest proportion of 'recreational shoppers' in the Asia-Pacific region, at 93 per cent compared with 84 per cent for the region.

Indonesians are not strangers to the concept of hanging out. The old slang word nongkrong refers to people hanging out at foodstalls or at sidewalks over coffee or cigarettes.

Shopping malls are not a new phenomenon in Jakarta either. In 1960, founding president Sukarno built the city's first shopping centre, the 14-storey Sarinah Department Store, which still stands today.

The number of retail centres grew in the 1980s, and a decade later new ones integrated shops with movie theatres and dining places.

In the past few years, new malls have sold themselves as 'lifestyle venues', allocating less area to shops and giving more space to restaurants, cafes, theatres and bowling alleys.

Ms Audrey Cahyadi, 36, the owner of an English-language training centre, goes to the mall near her office in south Jakarta every day. 'I go to the mall for lunch, sometimes for coffee, and sometimes at night for dinner or while waiting for my husband. During the weekend I go to a different mall for a change.

'I get tired sometimes and I wish I could have some place different to go to, but what other choice do I have? The mall is comfortable and I can find everything I need there.' She lives in the satellite town of Serpong, about 30km away from central Jakarta.

Jakarta has very few open spaces where residents can hang out without spending money.

Its museums are poorly maintained buildings with dusty collections that open only during office hours.

The few public parks in the city are either poorly maintained or have been converted for other uses. Worse, some have gained a notorious reputation as places for unsavoury activities such as prostitution and haunts of cheap or second-hand goods vendors.

The main park in central Jakarta, where the city's landmark Monas monument is located, was fenced off four years ago and cleaned up to get rid of the vendors and prostitutes. But it is still not a top destination for residents.

The heat and pollution make being outdoors in the city just too unbearable.

Two other major recreational centres for city people - the Indonesian miniature park Taman Mini and the seaside recreational centre Ancol just outside the city - are also hardly crowd-pullers.

Built in the 1970s, Taman Mini has not changed much over the years. It gets busy only during long holiday weekends, when lower-income families picnic there.

Ancol fares slightly better. It boasts the amusement park Dunia Fantasi, Sea World and Ice World. Still, it is most crowded only when it hosts musical concerts.

Urban planner Yayat Supriatna said Jakarta residents need more green spaces that are designed for comfort and are properly maintained.

The law says the city should set aside 30 per cent of its area for green spaces - an ambitious target, with the unbridled urbanisation that has led to overdevelopment in the city. Only 9 per cent or 65,000ha are green areas in the city now.

Governor Sutiyoso once told The Sunday Times that the city's efforts to increase the green spaces to 14 per cent are a lengthy and complicated process because much of the land would have to be bought from private owners.

For now, those who can afford it go to the malls where the air is cool and their kids can run free without worries of being run over by a motor vehicle or falling into a hole.

But the middle class makes up only about 20 per cent of some 12 million people living in the Greater Jakarta area.

What about the poorer folk? The lower-income groups tend to avoid the big, glitzy malls because they feel that they do not belong there. Public buildings in Jakarta now have security guards equipped with metal detectors to check for bombs; and the guards tend to be suspicious of less well-dressed people and make plain their disdain.

A recent survey by an association of psychologists said 90 per cent of Jakarta residents suffer from mental problems. They are easily upset, suffer from chronic headaches and insomnia, or are stressed out or depressed from putting up with the problems of traffic, lack of open space and the annual flooding problems.

Said Mr Yayat: 'There is no space for people to contemplate, to relax. 'Now, everywhere you go, the air is so polluted or the place is swarming with buskers or beggars demanding money.

'The malls may be a haven for those seeking a refuge from the daily reality that is Jakarta, but it is a haven beyond the reach of most people.' asmarani@sph.com.sg
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