Jakarta Artists Among The Issues Of The Commercialization Of The TIM Revitalization Area

JAKARTA - The Jakarta Arts Council (DKJ) admits that it cannot do much in suspecting the polemic of artists' rejection of the commercialization of the revitalization of Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) carried out by PT Jakarta Propertindo (JakPro).

The Acting Head of DKJ, Danton Sihombing, said that initially they had sent names as representatives of the revitalization discussion. This name was ratified in the Decree of the Governor of DKI Jakarta No.1018 of 2018 concerning the revitalization team.

There were 3 names of DKJ representatives sent, including Danton. When the registration of names took place in 2018, Danton served as Secretary General of the DKJ. However, the name that was sent by DKJ to the Provincial Government of DKI Jakarta was actually crossed out.

"The name proposed by the DKJ in the TIM revitalization team has been crossed out by anyone, so that the DKJ was eliminated in the area of revitalization discussion," said Danton in a discussion at Taman Ismail Marzuki, Central Jakarta, Wednesday, February 19.

So, in the Kepgub, only five artists were listed as representatives in the revitalization of the TIM. They are Arie Batubara, Arsono, Hidayat LDP, Yusuf Susilo Hartono, and Mohammad Chozin.

Danton acknowledged that DKJ was never involved in any planning, nor gave consideration to the TEAM revitalization process. Danton added, they only received planning information that had been prepared.

"For a year we were blinded by the information (TEAM revitalization) in accordance with the work of the decree," said Danton.

Even so, Danton does not want to explicitly show that his party rejects the commercialization of TIM by JakPro such as hotels and retail or continues to support all ongoing revitalization developments.

"I don't want to answer (support or not). The word support will give a different interpretation regardless of the events and facts," he concluded.

Artists Doubt

Artists who are members of the Taman Ismail Marzuki Artists Forum (FSPTIM) do not believe that PT Jakarta Propertindo (JakPro) is not taking advantage after working on the TIM revitalization project.

FSPTIM spokesperson, Tatan Daniel, said that basically JakPro is a DKI Jakarta Regional Owned Enterprise (BUMD). It is clear, according to him, that JakPro will seek profit from the regional capital investment (PMD) costs for the revitalization of the TIM that come from the DKI Regional Budget.

"We reject Jakpro looking for money here (TIM). Here is an expression space for artists. If a hotel and cafe are to be built, then the Jakarta bourgeoisie will hang out here," said Tatan when met in the TIM area.

FSPTIM asked DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan to cancel DKI Governor Regulation Number 63 of 2019. This Pergub assigned JakPro to work on the revitalization of the TEAM. In addition, JakPro is also mandated to manage the PKJ TIM Infrastructure and Facilities for 28 years.

"If we are still in Pergub, we will sue in court,"

Tatan Daniel, artist

Previously, Operational Director of Jakarta Propertindo (Jakpro), Muhammad Taufiqurrachman, claimed that he would not look for loopholes to commercialize the TIM area. Dwi said, the artists' interests would still be accommodated.

"We do not manage commercially for the arts. We are only responsible for adequate buildings and parking. We will not be commercial and later the price will be expensive," said Taufiq.

After all, said Taufiq, the plan to build a luxury hotel under the name Wisma TIM was not being built. They complied with the DKI DPRD's decision to cut JakPro's budget due to objections to the construction of luxury hotels.

In discussing the 2020 APBD draft in November 201, the DPRD only cut the Jakpro budget by Rp400 billion. Thus, the budget that JakPro gets for TIM revitalization is Rp. 200 billion, from the initial proposal of Rp. 600 billion.

"The guesthouse that was built for tourists was not built. The DPRD has provided input so that a hotel is not built, so we will follow what the DPRD said. However, we still create a kind of guesthouse for artists with the name Wisma Seni," he said.