Let’s Re-Open TANAMUR, NOT the Stadium!

Intrigued at the apparent arrogance  indicated by the rumoured re-opening of the Stadium, that horrible den in North Jakarta, which was ordered closed by Governor Ahok only a month or so ago, I checked out the news links and found that   http://megapolitan.kompas.com/read/2014/08/15/16321171/Bekas.Diskotek.Stadium.Dijaga.24.Jam the ghastly dive is still shut, the seal of the Provincial Government of Jakarta still plugged into its brown tiled walls.

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Ahok has posted guards, and one of them,  Pujiman, told reporters they’re on 24 hour duty . ” As long as it takes, we’re here awaiting orders. “

• Everyone knew what went on there, and Ahok, unlike many other Jakarta leaders, had the guts to act, attracting opprobrium from all sorts of weirdo media creeps.

But there’s big money in drugs, and I’m sure powerful forces are at work to thwart him.

 I went to the Stadium once, and that was more than enough, a hellish place, dark as a dungeon, hideous jungle music, deafening.  

But I know some people liked it. Up to them, but nobody should think any disco, or bar, or public park, for that matter, is a no-go area for law-breakers. 

Ahok was perfectly within his rights to close it odwn, and he had perfectly good reason to do so.

That was not the case with a well-loved disco now long gone, the world-famous Tanamur. It’s – was – located hardly a stone’s throw from the HQ of the IslamoNazi FPI gang, but that was not what brought about its downfall.

Instead, a most iniquitous situation was to blame, according to those more au fait with events than I..

A splendid new mosque was constructed – again barely a stone’s throw away.

Now if a mosque, or a church or any house of worship, had been used for years by the faithful, and suddenly plans were announced to build a noisy disco nearby, I could see the case for the congregation to lodge objections with the authorities. Disturbance nd disruption would be a serious potential problem. 

But Tanamur was there first!  

So a triumph, the first of many, for intolerance.

 I went back along that road recently, during the Idul Fitri holidays.  The idea was to take a photo of the KPU, where so much election aggro has been centred, but since I was out on the loose with the camera, I of course snapped away. I seem to recall coming along that KPU street 15 years ago, one night, morning rather, heading home from Tanamur.

 

 

tanamur corner

All that’s left of Tanamur

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

But then getting home from Tanamur (a task generally undertaken around 3am) was always something one ‘seemed to recall,’ given that beer was consumed there and sometimes one’s journey home included a take-away-  whose chatter distracted attention towards her and away from the buildings passed!

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Now it’s a desolate scene. The building remains, it’s glorious old name etched in the concrete, but nothing more.  I’d been back before, a year or two ago, and had hoped it might at least have been turned into a cafe or something interesting.

But no.

Sic transit gloria mundi.