With its Gucci-filled shopping malls, Indonesia's capital shares the emerging superficial affluence of many other Asian cities, but while many in Jakarta are now better off, new wealth has brought an embarrassing and unusual side-effect: child malnutrition.
Indonesia is no stranger to starvation. The dark days of economic mismanagement under President Sukarno in the 1950s and 60s saw many go hungry, while famine continues to resurface in far-flung provinces prone to drought.
But in Jakarta, where a generous yearly budget of more than 1.45 billion dollars is regularly splashed on sprucing up monuments to national pride, the revelation that thousands of the city's children are underfed has drawn anger.
Jakarta's health agency reported last month that more than 8,000 infants under five were suffering from malnutrition, prompting scathing reports in the local media about 2.7 million dollars lavished on a "Las Vegas-style" fountain.
"With music and choreographed laser beams, the project is simply an embarrassment amid recent reports that 8,455 toddlers in the city are suffering from chronic undernourishment," the Jakarta Post newspaper said last month.
However, say experts, the fault lies not with Jakarta's free-spending Governor Sutiyoso, but with the fact that people in the city – and across Asia – are feeding their children with more expensive but more unhealthy food.
Though particularly evident in Indonesia, it is a problem that is being seen in many developing countries, where once frugal but nutritious meals are being lost under an avalanche of fast and greasy food as household incomes rise.
"In a good number of communities, even in a city such as Jakarta where there is lots of food, malnutrition is a serious problem," said Vanessa Dickey, a health specialist with the US-based aid organisation Mercy Corps.
Dickey, who is working with authorities in Jakarta to remedy the situation, says that in some areas of the city, up to 50 percent of children under five show signs of malnourishment – indicated by slow growth rates.
The problem, she told AFP, is that with cash to spend, many Indonesians eschew traditional healthy fare of rice and vegetables in favour of fatty fried foods and sugary snacks that satisfy hunger cravings but offer few nutrients.
"This leads to the situation where in some cases, you see an overweight mother looking after a malnourished child," she said, adding that in some cases the problem occurred in families that were considered wealthy.
Dietary ignorance is the main culprit, says Dickey, with many Indonesian parents using unhealthy snacks as pacifiers for unruly children in between main meals, meaning that obesity can strike just as easily as undernourishment. "Our biggest foe is fast food," she said.
Rahmatullah, a Jakarta slum kid who measures six kilograms (13 pounds) short of the 14 kilograms considered normal for a 32-month-old infant, is a textbook example of the cases Dickey and her Indonesian colleagues are facing.
Still unable to stand or walk, Rahmatullah has just returned home – a shack in a fly-infested alley close to the city's Sunda Kelapa port – after several weeks in hospital, where he was admitted weighing just five kilograms. "He wouldn't eat the rice or porridge we gave him, but he liked fried fish and candy," his 65-year-old father, Junaidi, told AFP.
With eight children to look after since his wife died last year, Junaidi admits spending part of his meagre labourer's income on snacks to keep his offspring quiet. The wrappers that litter his doorway testify to their tastes.
"It hasn't been easy since my wife passed away. Because I'm the only parent, I have to work, clean and cook, I find it difficult to cope," he said, cradling Rahmatullah, dressed in a grubby "Spongebob Squarepants" T-shirt, in his arms.
To prevent other children suffering the same fate, Mercy Corps and local health workers are hoping to create better eating habits, using a tried and trusted sociological trick known as "positive deviance".
This examines the diet of the few families with healthy children in otherwise malnourished communities – in other words, those who deviate from the normal trend with positive results – and uses them as an example for others.
Parents and children take part in a two-week programme in which they are provided with three high calorie, high protein meals, including tofu, coconut milk and inexpensive fish, and urged to abandon snacks.
Says Dickey, although the programme requires considerable commitment from families taking part – and has been rejected by some – it has so far been successful, possibly paving the way for broader health awareness in Indonesia.
"It is very well received, communities latch onto it and enjoy it. It's a catalyst for change."