Javanese cities used to be built around an alun-alun or rectangular, grassed common. Around the sides of the alun-alunyou would find the palace of the ruler (called the kraton in Javanese, or istana in Malay), a prison (penjara), a mosque (mesjid), perhaps a church (gereja), and sundry other official buildings. The centre of the alun-alun was dominated by banyan trees (pohon bringin, usually a pair of them) that symbolised the central, protective authority of the state.
Almost buried amid the vast turbulence of Indonesia’s capital city, Jakarta, are a few faint reminders of this traditional layout. The broad open area of the Medan Merdeka in central Jakarta is dominated by a modern analogue of the banyan trees – the towering column of the National Monument. This was built by President Soekarno in the early 1960s in the face of considerable criticism that it was an extravagent waste of money. It is called the Monumen Nasional in Indonesian, but almost everyone refers to it by its shortened form of Monas. The Monas is topped by an enormous stylised flame representing the flame of Indonesia’s independence. The flame is thickly coated in pure gold said to weigh 35 kilograms. Under the monument there is a museum dedicated to the nationalist movement and the Revolusi. Unless you go to some trouble to indicate otherwise, in Indonesia the term Revolusi is automatically taken to refer to a period of about four years between August 1945 and December 1949 when Indonesia’s nationalists fought to defend their newly proclaimed republic against efforts by the Netherlands to reoccupy, or at the very least to dominate, their former colony of the Dutch East Indies.
Along the edges of the Medan Merdeka there are several buildings that correspond with those you might expect to find around a traditional alun-alun. The Istana Merdeka (Freedom Palace) used to be the official residence of the Dutch governors-general of the Indies. Today it is the most important locale for Indonesia’s state ceremonies and houses an important collection of art works. Not far from the Istana Merdeka there is the cavernous Istiqlal Mosque, Indonesia’s national mosque, and on the eastern side of the Medan Merdeka, the old Dutch protestant church. On the opposite side of Medan Merdeka there is the National Museum and the studios of the state radio network Radio Republik Indonesia. And on the south side of the square we find the offices of the Jakarta regional government.
This map shows Medan Merdeka with the Monas at its centre and important buildings around its perimeter.
