Indonesia has joined the race to build the world's tallest tower. Work has begun on the Jakarta Tower in Kemayoran, the site of the city's airport. The project is due to be completed by 2009, at a cost of more than 300 million US dollars. But while the Jakarta authorities say it will enhance the city's image, the project faces widespread opposition.

Presenter/Interviewer: Marion MacGregor

Speakers: Wardah Hafidz, director, the Urban Poor Coalition in Jakarta; Yuswadi Saliya, architect and lecturer, the University of Technology Bandung

MacGregor: When it comes to cities and their status symbols, size certainly does matter. For years, Kuala Lumpur's famous Petronas Towers were the envy of the region. Now Jarkarta is getting its own back, with a multi-million dollar, 558-metre tower on the site of the city's former airport. The Jakarta Tower will take about five years to build. Once it's complete, the giant structure, housing a convention centre, a four star hotel, eight thousand square metres of office space, and the obligatory revolving restaurant, will enhance the city's image. That's according to Jakarta's provincial governor Sutiyoso, who recently presided over the start of construction. But not everyone is impressed. Architect and lecturer at the University of Technology Bandung, Yuswadi Saliya:

Saliya: Architecturally speaking I think it's meaningless because the design is so bad. I saw in the papers the photographs of the models of the tower. It's very old-fashioned I think, compared to the tall buildings nowadays being built in Malaysia or China. I think it's a mere economic gimic. I think it's being built just to attract the investors, to give their capital here in Jakarta so that perhaps they will believe that Indonesia is capable of building a tall building...here in Indonesia.

MacGregor: The government has been trying to get the project off the ground for over a decade. It was originally to have been developed by a firm headed by a cousin of former president Suharto, at a projected cost of four hundred million US dollars. After the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the tower acquired a new developer, PT Prasada Japa Pamudja, and a more conservative budget of 314 million. But critics of the project say this saving is hardly significant when sixty percent of Indonesia's population live on about two dollars a day. They're outraged that governor Sutiyoso is continuing to evict tens of thousands of city dwellers to make way for showpiece developments. Wardah Hafidz, director of the Urban Poor Coalition, says at least five thousand homes have been demolished in the Kemayoran area since the Jakarta Tower project was first planned.

Hafidz: It started since Suharto time, some ten fifteen or twenty years ago, so evictions have been happening since then. It's an insult to the urban poor, because their economic situation is still very bad now. And the local government continues to evict informal economic activities and also the poor settlements and yet on the other hand, they are planning for this tallest tower in the world or whatever.

MacGregor: Wardah Hafidz says the evictions have resulted in unemployment as well as homelessness. And she'll continue to try to force the authorities to rethink their approach.

Hafidz: I think they should stop the evictions. And what they have to do is to make an inventory of lands say for instance in Jakarta...vacant lands, the occupied lands and so on. I think the policy should be that the city is replanned to accommodate those business activities traditional activities and economic activities and communities, so each can support each other for a city for all.