Achmad Subchanuddin Alwy, director of the Center for Strategic Studies and Regional Development (PKPSD), called on the 150 delegates at a recent seminar on cultural heritage protection to demand that the former mayor of Cirebon be held accountable for turning several historic buildings into supermarkets.
“During his two consecutive terms of office between 1988 and 1998, Kumedhi converted four historical buildings into supermarkets for business interests,” he told them, adding that the buildings should have been preserved as cultural treasures, as required by the 1992 law on cultural heritage protection.
According to the Jakarta Post, the chairman of the local chapter of the Indonesian Nationalist Student Movement (GMNI), Moch. Egi Burhanuddin, has said that he will take the mayor to court over the issue.
Kumedhi had declined to comment.
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