Still, never let it be said that I don't look after my constituents. In this election year, as Jakartass, I am pleased to announce that my nigh on five years of lobbying City Hall and its varied municipalities here in Jakarta has produced some positive thinking and potential action on behalf of all we expats living in South Jakarta.
We are so deprived of recreational facilities that thanks to AZ Harahap, head of the South Jakarta tourism office, the renovation of Ayodya Park is for the 5,000 expats living in the municipality.
"We should use Ayodya Park as a new spot for them to picnic,"he said.
Well, that's most kind of you, dear sir.
But, this being Jakarta, not everyone is happy, and a thought must go out to the street vendors who were evicted to make way for we expats.
The park has been a part of Kebayoran Baru since 1948. One by one, vendors who sold pets and flowers started to surround the park in the 1970s, until there were about 100 shops in the 1980s.
They were forced to move from the area last year and they haven't yet been allocated an alternative area.
On a recent Monday, the new park looked deserted despite the sunny weather. Only seven people sat under a big old tree in one corner of the 7,500-meter-square park.
Lia and Ema, office workers from a nearby building, said it was their first time visiting the park. They both said it would be nicer if the flower vendors still operated.
Personally, I'd love to have a picnic and buy flowers, but then, although I do live in South Jakarta I can't say that travelling through the crowded and polluted streets in order to sit in an area which is poorly designed, at least according to Basuki Triwidodo, winner of the landscape competition who said he was not involved in the development of the park, would not be my cup of tea.
