UNAIR NEWS – The demolition of the former Bung Tomo Radio House is still a serious topic of conversation. Understandably, the building was already designated as a Cultural Heritage by the Surabaya City Government as one of the proof of Surabaya fighting for independence of Indonesia.
At that time, Bung Tomo Radio was a vital communication tool for the independence struggle. The radio began broadcasting on October 15, 1945, three days after the establishment of PPRI ( Soeara Rakjat, accessed on 15 October 1945). The building was established in 1935 and included in the list of Cultural Heritages according to the Decree of the Mayor of Surabaya Number 188.45 / 004 / 402.1.04 in 1998. But in fact the building has now been flattened to the ground.
“That’s what prompted FISIP Universitas Airlangga students to do research on the phenomenon of the demolition of Bung Tomo Radio Heritage Buildings,” said Leny Yulyaningsih, head of the research group. There are also Parlaungan Iffah Nasution, and Lisda Bunga Asih in the team.
They then wrote this research as proposal of Student Creativity Program of Humanities Social Research (PKM-SH) titled “The Phenomenon of Demolition of Bung Tomo Cultural Heritage Buildings Related to Law no. 11 Year 2010 and Regional Regulation of Surabaya City no. 5 Year 2005 “.
After being selected by Kemenristekdikti, the PKM-SH proposal of Leny Yulyaningsih qualified and obtained research funding from the Directorate General of Higher Education’s PKM program 2016-2017.
Based on Law no. 11 in 2010, one of the criterion of cultural heritage buildings is at least 50 years old. However, based on interviews with the team of Cultural Heritage experts in Surabaya, in 1997 the building was once restored, so it can not be categorized as a Heritage building.
It is similar to the statement of Prof. Ir. Johan Silas, Cultural Heritage expert team that the owner of the (building – red) applied for a permit to restore. Then the cultural heritage team allowed the restoration. But there is a misinterpretation.
“If there is a permit, then legally, the owner of the building can demolish the building. So he demolished the building because there is no specific law forbidding. Well that’s what happened. So the restoration permit does not relate to the permit to demolish, therefore the law itself is questionable, “said Johan Silas.
So when we study the sentence in the law “Someone can apply for a permit but not for damaging”, so he demolished. There is a flaw in the law. “Hence when it was brought to court, it is considered a minor offense, because there is no specific article of the act violated,” added the urban expert from ITS.
However, the restoration case process can only be followed up with the Surabaya City Regulation no. 5 Year 2005. As a result, PT Jayanatha (as the restorer of the Building) was fined Rp 15 million and they offered to rebuild the building of Radio Bung Tomo.
“So according to our team, administrative improvement in the management of cultural heritage in Surabaya is needed,” said Leny.
The solution offered by the PKM-SH team of Leny and friends is to avoid similar cases for cultural heritages, namely the policy brief : (1) Establish a network coordination model between related parties to prevent misinterpretation, (2) Revise some sections Surabaya City Regulation No 5 Year 2005 to comply with the new policy of Law No. 10 Year 2011. (3) Reorganize the structure of the cultural heritage team of Surabaya City to support the preservation of cultural heritage in Surabaya city. (*)
Editor: Bambang Bes
