A Monument for J.C. de Groot

I have known this for quite sometime but when I introduced myself to Komunitas Aleut to explain the whole background of what brought me to all this, the leader of the community (Ridwan Hutagalung) reminded me that there was once a memorial monument for Dr. J.C. de Groot in Citarum street in Bandung and that his name was later to be a street name of what is now known as Jalan Siliwangi (Siliwangi Street). Then I was like taking this into my writing agenda for this blog. It has some importance at least for 1) The fact that the monument is now no longer existed, 2) Some people mistakenly refer to the wrong name. The latter I figured out just as I begin to write this blog entry.

Ridwan showed me how the monument looked like. It’s a back cover of a book and it’s not in any way decent to be shown here. Luckily, there’s a website called KITLV in the section of Digital Image Library. One of the pictures is the monument in question :

To its left is one of Bandung’s landmark: Gedung Sate. It is said the the monument was destroyed as it was considered indecent (showing nudity).

The late Bandung historian, Haryoto Kunto, has another picture of this monument from different angle. With some other details, it can be found here. I put it here for the sake of comparison with the above :

The detail there is quite interesting. I should translate it :
—
Di tempat Mesjid Istiqomah sekarang berdiri (Taman Citarum), dahulunya terdapat dua buah monumen peringatan yang sangat fenomenal dimasanya. Pertama Patung dada S.J. Aay, anggota Volksraad yang juga pendiri Ikatan Bintara Militer Belanda (1920) dan Monumen Radio Telefon Holland-Nusantara. Untuk monumen yang kedua, warga Bandung tempo doeloe lebih senang menjuluki monumen itu sebagai “Bloote Billen Plein” alias “Taman Pantat Bugil”. Monumen berbentuk globe dengan dua patung tanpa busana, berhadapan pada masing-masing sisinya. Monumen itu dibuat untuk mengenang pembicaraan pertama kali melalui radio telefon, antara Holland dan Nusantara yang terjadi pada tanggal 5 Mei 1923, melalu instalasi Pemancar Radio Telefon di lereng Gunung Malabar. Untuk memperingati peristiwa bersejarah itu, Walikota Bandung B. Coops, meminta bantuan kepada arsitek Prof. C.P. Wolff Schoemaker, untuk merancang dan mendirikan monumen bersejarah itu. Nasib kedua monumen ini, seperti nasib monumen-monumen lainnya, musnah ditelan jaman.

There were two monuments once considered phenomenal in the place that today is where the mosque of Istiqomah is located (Citarum Garden). The first is the statue of S.J. Aay; the member of Volksraad who were also the founder of Dutch Military Non-Com Union (1920), and the second, the monument of radio telephony between Holland – Indonesia. Bandungers prefered to call the latter “Bloote Billen Plein” or “The Statue of Nude Butt”. It showed a globe with two nude statues in the two side of it. The monument was built to recall the first conversation using radio telephony between the Netherland and Dutch Indies, taken place in 5^thMay 1923 using radio telephony transmitter installation in the slope of Malabar Mountain. To commemorate the historical event, the major of Bandung, B. Coops had asked Prof. C.P. Wolff Schoemaker, an architect, to design and build the monument. The monument, like all others, was detroyed.
—
I need to check Haryoto Kunto’s book myself because the mention of that specific date is really startled me! (but I believe the website should be credible enough, though). This is to do with ‘a little debate’ that I have with someone about why the commemoration should take place at 5^th May 2013. As you could read from my previous writing, my reason was simply the fact that at that day there was a momentum of the official opening. Now with this account, the date choice is somehow confirmed. If the Dutch consider the date to be historical (so that they need to build a monument for it), why should we think of another ? Okay, it says ‘the first radio telephony conversation’, … it’s somehow denoting the official recognition by the Dutch Government, because we could just imagine that de Groot must have tried the contact before exactly that date. Anyway, it also implies an irony because, as I have written before, at 5^thMay 1923, the transmitter failed to work.

Idon’t know what is written in the monument, but a conversation with one of Aleut member has informed me that Haryoto Kunto translated the words into :
Bertepatan dengan peresmian hubungan Radio Telepon antara Indonesia dengan Negeri Belanda tanggal 5 Mei 1923 itu, sebuah upacara telah dilakukan di Tjitaroemplein (Taman Citarum) (Kunto, 1984:262).
My translation :
“In conjunction with the official opening of radio telephony between Indonesia and Netherland at 5^thMay 1923, a ceremony was held in Tjitaroemplein (Citarum Garden) (Kunto, 1984: 262).”
I am not sure if it’s really the text. It just doesn’t sound proper.

Anyway, for the second, it refers to the naming of the street: one that is now called Siliwangi street. There are some internet websites saying that the name was once Dr. de Greerweg. I guess it could be more than just two, but at least what I found is here and here. The wording is almost the same, it could be a copy-paste from either one. There’s even a Youtube video mentioning Greerweg :

Now I can tell for sure, that it should be Dr. de Grootweg :)

A Meeting with Some Local Communities

Yesterday at Mr. Djaka’s office, we held a meeting with some communities in Bandung with Interest in history. I have contacted some of them in advance of the meeting. Unfortunately not all of them could come to attend. However, those who attended have represented every parties who are supposed to come. They represented; Bandung Heritage, Mahanagari, Komunitas Aleut, STBA Yapari-ABA, Orari, and Bastek.

The goal of the meeting was to achieve common knowledge of what initiated the plan and to discuss whether some kind of organizational body is needed to facilitate the whole plan and arrangement. The latter is the reason why we invited some local communities. We need them to be in the plan and organizing. For the first, I explained the whole story, and this blog was one of the slide I presented. I think they all have the same picture now. The second is a little bit demanding. If it’s going to take form in a legal body, some money and red tape are needed for the process. Luckily, there are some alternatives.

The result of elaboration of the alternatives are going to be one of the topics to be discussed in the next meeting. It is planned to be sometime after the Eid Mubarak day. That’s a month to go and a fasting period for all moslem here. However, I would not just sit still at that time. More interpersonal approaches are already in my schedule, before anything official contact should take place.

A Panoramic View around the Ruin

When Endro Purwanto asked me to go to Gunung Puntang, it was like a great chance to realise what I had in mind since the last time I went there: shooting a panoramic view. I’ve done this before in Bali, but not with my main SLR camera. It was only with a pocket camera, but with a stunning result! … as it has an in-built special grid at the viewfinder that would help me with continuous, frame-binded shooting, either horizontally or vertically. Mine is a Panasonic DMC-FH2.

It was a breeze. I took some series of shots, all of which are workable to be in one panoramic view, but the one that I present here are those that consists of 7 pictures. All are joined together in a row, so that you could have a very wide view of the location. However, unfortunately, I could not just put it here in this blog because the picture is horizontally long. The best way to view it is to download it. The link is here.

Have a click on it, or just take it as if you would download a file, and then you can view it on your computer. It’s really wide.

A Previous Attemp to Develop Gunung Puntang

As I did some searches on anything related to Radio Malabar, I found this website, tagged ‘Festival Gunung Puntang 2009’. My interest was on that last Dutch Soldier in Gunung Puntang that I have written, but then I also found someone familiar, whom I confirmed later to be my junior high school teacher; Mr. Hilman Firdaus. I did not try to contact him as I didn’t see why I should. Weeks later, however, as Mr. Djaka told me about the possibility that PT. Telkom would finance the commemoration, I was quick to realize that it’s a must that I had to see him. Later on, I also found a contact of someone who seemed to be responsible for the Festival’s blog: Endro Purwanto. I searched through Facebook and it took about two weeks before he replied and gave me his telephone number. Eventually, I managed to see these two gentlemen.

The reason for contacting them is clear. If anyone want to do something to (the ruin of) Radio Malabar, then he/she would have to deal with the area of Gunung Puntang as well. Both are just inseparable. Radio Malabar is within the area of Gunung Puntang. As it happened, there was a previous attempt to arrange for some activities in the area. So I thought it might be a good idea to contact the people in charge for those activities, for some information or insights that might help me planning for the commemoration. This turns out to be something fruitful for cooperation.

Thanks to this era of information, with one way or another I managed to get Mr. Hilman’s cellphone number. I visited his house and explained everything about the plan. He also mentioned that Endro Purwanto was his confidant back then. It only took me a day after that that I came to see Endro Purwanto and his wife in a small cafe. We had a chat and he told me everything about the event he managed 3 years ago. I was quite surprised to learn from his story that the so-called Festival did not actually take place. It was carefully planned and thorough (it took him 2 years of planning) until for some inevitable causes it had to be suspended. Anyway, he still keeps the passion for his old plan, … and so I thought, that’s the point where the ensemble would start, which hopefully would turn into a symphonic orchestra :)

We then had a plan to visit Gunung Puntang, and it was on 3rd of July. A day before that, Endro Purwanto gave me a DVD of almost 1 gigabyte of files of all the plan he had drawn before. It was meant to be a festival, so there were lots of events in the plan. Using his words, there were Adventure Motor Offroad, MTB Down Hill, MTB –X Country, BMX Trail, BMX Dirt Jump, Lomba Memasak Anak Rimba (Jungle Cooking Competition), Lomba Foto (Photography Competition), Lomba Model (Modelling Competition), Wall Climbing Open Competition, Jungle Walk, Lari Lintas Alam (Cross Country Running), Lari Rintangan (Running through Barricades), Outbound Competition, Three on Three. They sound very much like it was really intended to make the most of all Gunung Puntang potentials.  From what I can see, he has covered just about anything imaginable. I knew his mind must have been set on it. With his Photoshop mastery, he made everything in detail for all those events … to the point that I feel so darn sorry, why it all should be suspended.

Now that the door is opened, the ball is moving. I still don’t know how the cooperation should roll to, though. For sure, I think it’s not going to be exactly as he had planned. I suppose some further discussion are needed. And that’s what I & Mr. Djaka plan to take place in 12nd this month, involving some other communities with the same concern in history.

These are some of Endro’s image works for his plan, those that related to Radio Malabar :