The Soul of the City

KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI

The atmosphere was quiet in the Fatahillah Square on Sunday (15/3/2020) in the Kota Lama (Old Town) area of West Jakarta. A banner at the entrance announces the temporary closure of the historic site, which is included on the list of tourist destinations the Jakarta administration has temporarily closed for the next two weeks, along with schools and public events, as a measure to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

The ideal city in the image of Plato\'s Republic is a city with a leadership philosophy that possesses three main characteristics: a spirit of reasoning, a competitive spirit, and enjoyment.

Leadership must contain the power of reasoning that can stimulate healthy thinking and creativity among the citizens. With the spirit of reasoning, cities develop with sound planning and policies accompanied by high creative power. Everything is decided by means of deliberation (deliberative-argumentative), not by means of irrationality and violence. The city is not led with unreliable management, relying on image impressions or divide-and-rule politics, where all the weaknesses and ugliness of leadership are covered by the irrationality of demagogy and buzzer defense.

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Leadership must also contain a highly competitive spirit. Not only the courage to compete in the electoral arena, but also the ability to apply all power to overcome problems and catch up, ensure high achievements and persevere in maintaining principles, policies and integrity. City development is not allowed to be driven by individuals and groups who can undermine the principles of governance and spatial planning; nor are they left to be trapped in the same hole of problems, which makes residents\' seasonal suffering a normal thing.

Leadership as a result of the two spirits must contain the power to leverage the enjoyment of the life of citizens through economic productivity, welfare, and recreational vehicles. Urban development provides citizens with spaces for self-actualization. In such cities, the culture of literacy is strong; talent, tolerance, and technology are flourishing. Various communities grow as safety nets and citizen connectivity in meeting material and spiritual needs. Cities are not allowed to lead to gentrification that widens social segregation and inequality; nor are they allowed to lead to social alienation and deprivation due to the narrow and closed spaces for the encounter.

In other traditions, cities are also imagined in a positive connotation with titles such as civic, madina, which means civilization, nobility and order.

From the presence of such a city soul there emerges the term "politics", which originates from the word "polis" (city) in the Athenian tradition; namely, where everything is decided in a rational and civilized manner. In other traditions, cities are also imagined in a positive connotation with titles such as civic, madina, which means civilization, nobility and order. Max Weber defines a city as "a place planned for a cultured and rational group". The ideal city is an "orthogenetic" city that expresses a high moral order, beauty, and welfare, such as the Islamic Cordova, Kyoto Buddhism, Roman Catholicism and Hindu Banaras.

AFP/BAY ISMOYO

This picture taken on October 30, 2020 shows light traffic along a main road in central Jakarta after months of the government\'s policy implementing work from home.

In contrast to this ideal, the development of cities in Indonesia tends to be "anti-theory". Mismanagement, irrationality, disorder, indiscipline, poor planning, low standards, backwardness, dirty culture, social disorganization, social inequality, and corrupt "culture" ultimately lead to the rebellion of nature: floods in the rainy season, dryness and smoke in the dry season. And Jakarta, as the nation\'s capital, has rapidly changed from "the Queen of the East" in the Dutch image to the dreadful city (city of horror) in Rudyard Kipling\'s paintings.

Beneath skyscrapers and luxury apartments, the mentality of "hicks" persists, the cities are like a soulless concrete jungle.

Cities grow ambiguously without strong character. The characteristics of the traditional cities of the East are fading away, while the rationality of the modern cities has not yet manifested itself. Urban physical infrastructure development imitates European architecture without any ideational aspects. Beneath skyscrapers and luxury apartments, the mentality of "hicks" persists, the cities are like a soulless concrete jungle.

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The settlement pattern is built to resemble a collection of “tribus” satellites based on ethnicity, then based on occupation, which are not integrated into a unit of citizenship. Each satellite grows separately in inter-urban relations, not integrated in intra-urban relations. Infrastructure development is fragmented, not forming a coherent network. The endemic inward-looking focus of various sectors serves parochial interests without sensitivity to the common good.

The upstart people in urban areas are sedated by the desire for commodification and showing off their wealth. Houses are built with little space for sharing. A plot of land is too valuable to be left for public use or environmental balance. Self-worship destroys the ecosystem and shrinks public spaces.

Kompas/Irene Sarwindaningrum

A visitor admiring an old ginkgo tree which is estimated to be 450 years old at the yard of the Nishi Honganji in Kyoto, Japan, in October. The tree is supported by wood and is fenced so that it is not disturbed. Kyoto takes care of its old trees, which is part of the city’s history and has now become a tourist attraction.

The losers live on riverbanks as the lumpenproletariat who have no commitment to survival. Because persons who have no hope, have no responsibility for the good and beauty of the city. The watershed areas become places for living by littering and killing life.

Cities without character are like dead cities; hollow cities in the image of Clifford Geertz, which expand with a vacuum without values, vision and heart. It is not enough to complain about such cities as a jungle. Isn’t it that, among the animals in the wilderness, there is still order and protection of their family groups that seems large in comparison to the care of the city governments for its citizens?

TOK

Yudi Latif

Natural disasters come as a warning to revive the soul of the city. As the Al-Quran says, “Damage has appeared on land and sea because of (the evil) which men’s hands have done, that Allah may make them taste a part of that which they have done, in order that they may return to the right path (QS 30: 41).

YUDI LATIF, National Alliance Expert

(This article was translated by Hyginus Hardoyo).