Government says it wants to turn Senayan Golf into a public park as soon as March

For the first time in a long time, the government is on a roll with its pro-environmental policies, First, they finally forced people to start paying for plastic bags. Now, it looks like there is a chance that they are going to turn one of Jakarta’s biggest golf courses into a park that everybody can enjoy.

Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya revealed that the government could soon change Senayan National Golf Club into a hutan kota (city forest), possibly as early as next month.

“We want to turn the former Senayan Golf Course and and Driving Range into a hutan kota. Later we want to make a big show of it,” Siti said at the State Palace last Friday as quoted by Kompas, adding that the new area may be unveiled as soon as early March.

Everybody living in Jakarta knows that the city is seriously lacking in green open spaces. Currently, government data shows that only 9.98% of the capital is made up of green open spaces, while most city planners say that ideally that number should be at about 30% to provide health and recreational benefits to citizens (not to mention water cachement areas to prevent flooding).

Many of Jakarta’s largest green open spaces consist of golf courses, which are of course accessible only to a wealthy few. Last year, Governor Basuk “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama had promised to try and turn Kemayoran Golf into a public space, but we haven’t heard any updates about that plan since then.

So this news about Senayan Golf being turned into a public park is pretty exciting. But…. don’t let your hopes get too high, as it seems like this might in fact just be a government plot to pressure the golf course’s management into paying their overdue taxes.

Yup, last November the Jakarta Tax Department revealed that Senayan Golf owed the government about Rp 8 billion in delinquent payments. So it looks like the threat of turning their playground for rich people into a public space is the government’s ultimatum meant to the golf course’s owners to make them finally pay up.

“This is an example to other taxpayers to pay off their tax arrears, while applying pressure to the [golf course’s] owners to immediately pay up,” Central Jakarta Mayor Mangara Pardede said.

The chief of Senayan Golf’s board of directors, Suwito, said they still intended to pay the overdue taxes but asked the government for leniency.

The government has already given Senayan Golf plenty of leniency. If it is really serious about improving the environment and the welfare of its citizens, the government needs to take this opportunity to open up a huge green space for Jakartans in the middle of the city. It would make a huge statement about the direction the administration wants to take the capital in the future.

If Senayan Golf can’t get its rich members and owners to pony up the Rp 8 billion by the end of this month, the government needs to do right by the people and give the land back to them