The Balikpapan municipal administration has conceded that it lacks the funding to preserve historical sites across the city, many of which have fallen into severe disrepair, Jakarta Globe reported news.
Syaiful Bahri, the head of the East Kalimantan city’s culture and tourism agency, said on Tuesday that 77 sites had been neglected for years because there was no money to preserve them.
“We have scores of sites that we’re responsible for maintaining, but because we have so little money, it’s inevitable that many of them have had to be overlooked,” he said.
“The situation has been like this for several years. Twenty of the sites are now considered severely degraded or damaged, and the rest are in various states of disrepair.”
Syaiful added that his office had applied each year to the city administration for more funding for the upkeep of the historical sites, but consistently received just 30 percent of the amount of money requested.
“We’ve always made it known how much money we need, but we never get it. So we’re in a situation where we can’t do anything about this problem,” he said.
With his office unable to carry out much-needed repairs to sites that include a World War II cemetery for Japanese soldiers and an abandoned Japanese cannon, Syaiful said the meager funding available was sufficient only for fencing off certain sites to prevent vandalism.
He added his office was calling on community groups to contribute to the restoration and upkeep of the sites, which have been nominated for official recognition by the central government in order to be eligible for more funding.
The culture and tourism office initially nominated 35 sites for central government funding, but a reassessment of historical sites in the city identified another 42 sites that were also badly in need of maintenance. To qualify for recognition for historical importance, a site or object must be proved to be at least 50 years old.
“Balikpapan played a key role in the nation’s history because of its strategic location and oil resources, which have long made it a magnet for outsiders and colonizers. That’s why there are so many historical sites around the city,” Syaiful said.
“We’ve tried our best to keep them from falling into disrepair, and when we get official recognition from the central government of their status as historical sites, we’ll be able to do even more.”