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Gentrification we know can take racial and ethnic dimension (depending on the social relation of the place). It can also take other group identity. People in Jakarta for instance know that the political elites cluster themselves in the Menteng area; the families of high ranking officials including the army love to live in South and Central Jakarta; The Chinese (this is quite divided as well) tends to live in North and West Jakarta since colonial era (but those who don’t speak any Chinese language would prefer to live in Central / South Jakarta); the Betawi in North and East part of Jakarta. The interesting thing to consider is how gentri- fication harnesses or breaks this grouping. I am not sure how much a poor city planning has contributed to the targeting of ethnic Chinese. Is it because they are clustered in certain places, but spatial exclusivity can be seen in other social groups as well? Is it because Chinese were perceived as dominating the econo- my? Or the majority of developers were ethnic Chinese? Maybe but for sure, the May riots was politically motivated with the state and the military re-playing the racial/ethnic card known since colonial time.
Often in Australia, USA and Europe, there is an explicit racial element to gentrification. Usually in the form of more wealthy middle class white people moving into areas that are predomi- nantly people-of-colour neighborhoods, and displacing the original inhabitants. Does this dynamic exist at all in Gen- trification projects in Indonesia? Perhaps expats moving in
In your opinion, when people criticizing gentrification, is there a risk of romanticizing poverty?
A: The question I think is in whose interest the gentrification is carried out, and what are the condition that makes it possible? What is the as- sumption behind it? What kind of spaces it tries to open up, and with what implication? And what might be its limitation? This set of questions need to be asked by those who are pro-gentrification and those who criticize it.
to Kemang in Jakarta? Or certain ethnic groups in Indonesia displacing other ethnic groups?
A: Expats taking over Kemang? Haven’t thought about this – a good one - should we retrieve the colonial past? To contin- ue the discussion about ethnic Chinese, we should add that they are minority and the population growth of this ethnic group is the slowest compare to other ethnic groups. They are not the middle class white of the American case. In jakarta the Betawi ethnic group, who claims indigeneity, has been arguing that they have been displaced by capitalist develop- ment, not so much by an ethnic group in the city. Whether there are certain ethnic groups in Indonesia displacing other ethnic groups? Yes, if you want to consider the transmigra- tion project (- this is a state project of population transfer from Java to outer islands)..