Challenges for Heritage Conservation and Management in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia

This paper describes the issues and challenges in safeguarding and protecting the urban heritage in Medan by observing the town heritage of Medan and interviewing the local communities. The Indonesian Law on Cultural Property Conservation number 11 the year of 2010 allows the provincial and local government for the greater representation in managing and conserving their cultural heritage. This paper also discusses the gaps in that current town planning to assist the heritage conservation in Medan. Through a semi-structured interview, field survey and the SWOT analysis, the research found a broad overview of the challenges in heritage conservation in Medan. For example, overlapping duties, lack of clarity regarding jurisdiction and the lack of inter-organization coordination between government agencies that are significant obstacles to meeting the goals of heritage conservation. Another critical problem in Medan is registration and designation. In conclusion, the local government of Medan has paid less attention to the protection of their heritage during the last three decades. Meanwhile, the awareness of the local community at the grassroots increased; however, the concepts of an active role for the community and integrated conservation linked to the town planning are underdeveloped. Therefore, it has also caused the recent heritage conservation program challenging to achieve its objectives.


Introduction
The city has been the most complicated human creation since the beginning of human society. For ten millennia, they have become places of power, culture, technology and conflict. In the first twentieth century, more than half of humanity lived in the city. This is and will be, the essential environment for the human species. Managing it carefully and guiding its development, with attention to its past and its cultural meaning, will be a significant challenge for the urban age [1].
Urban planners argue that cities as dynamic organisms, therefore, there is not a single 'historic' city in the world that has retained its 'original' character: the concept is a moving target, destined to change with society itself [2]. Besides, this is natural: social structures and needs evolve, the natural fabric adapts continuously.
In consequence, essential conservation objectives, for example, the safeguarding of the authenticity or integrity of the physical and social fabric of an urban complex are doomed to remain a myth or, at best, an approximation. The purpose of conserving traditional structures in the historic city remains an aspiration that is subject to continuous compromise and adaptation. Various rapidly modernising historic Medan has plenty of immovable cultural heritage that remained until today. Since Medan is categorised as urban, therefore, through inventory carried out by Fitri et al. [3], the immovable cultural heritage is dominated by the buildings (97%) which is less than 10% protected by the Law. Furthermore, most of the historic properties in Medan was identified belong to private or individuals (96%), only 4% of governmental assets. Almost fifty per cent of them are showing a sign of deterioration, and five per cent is in danger of disappearance.
As experienced in other cities in Indonesia, the rapid growth of Medan following the independence of Indonesia primarily due to its importance as a provincial capital and economic centre is inevitable and occurring naturally. Also, the development of one of the world's most essential plantation areas still becomes the economic basis for the growth of Medan city and the settlement pattern of the hinterland. Even today, the export trade with the plantation product still dominates the commercial scene of Medan. However, in the planning of the city, many factors have caused historical assets from their glory as industrial plantations on the east coast of Sumatra to be neglected and extinct. In the late 1980s, people have started realising how intensive the damages had been done for many architectural heritages in Medan thus has been raising awareness the local people to the heritage conservation. Up to date, the awareness of the local people shows gradually increasing; nevertheless, the attention and commitment of the Medan Municipal Government in the last decade has no significant progress.
The study explores the issues and challenges in safeguarding and protecting the urban heritage in Medan by observing the town heritage of Medan and interviewing the local communities who play a role in heritage conservation. Indonesian Government has implemented decentralised heritage management since the Indonesian Government amended Law No.5 year 1995 into Law No.11 year 2010. According to the Law on the cultural properties conservation in Indonesia [4] have allowed provincial and municipal governments in managing and safeguarding their cultural heritage, Medan Municipal Government should be active to publish a heritage listing and policies regarding the protection and conservation of their historical assets. This paper also discusses the gaps between the current town planning and heritage planning to find the recommendation for the better effort in heritage conservation of Medan.

Method
The study was started by carrying out the literature review and documentary source. It was then continued by interview and field survey to the historic areas of Medan city in 2018. There were 30 local people interviewed to brainstorm the issues and challenges of the conservation of historical assets in Medan. The main criterion for the selection of participants was the interest in the protection of heritage conservation. The recruitment of the participant used the strategy of "gatekeepers". Gatekeepers are people who have access to their population/sample and can help others also to access them [5]. Methods of data collection for this study include an extensive review of secondary sources, field survey, and interviews. In general, the study was divided into three parts; first, it began with the movement of urban heritage conservation in Medan by compiling the information on heritage conservation efforts in Medan from the past through internet, old newspapers and article as well as the interview. Secondly, this section provided information on the regulations and existing heritage management, mainly at the local level; this part also explores the regulations at national levels. The last part identifies the problems and challenges summarized from the semi-structure interview and observation. To address the issues and challenges, SWOT/C analysis conducted to find various approaches and solutions for improving heritage conservation effort in Medan.

The movement of urban heritage conservation in Medan and Indonesia
Indeed, the discourse of cultural heritage conservation in Sumatra mainly in Medan had evolved since the 1980s. In 1988, the local government published Regulation Number 6 concerning the conservation of historic buildings and environment. Since then, the issue of heritage conservation, particularly safeguarding the heritage buildings has increasingly been discussed in local conferences and government meetings. A significant meeting discussing on heritage conservation in Medan was conducted in 1995 in cooperation of both Indonesian Institute of Architects (IAI) and Bond van Nederlandsche Architekten (BNA/ Netherland Institute of Architect). However, it spread out rapidly since the establishment of or Badan Warisan Sumatra locally known abbreviated as BWS in 1998. According to its vision, SHT is a non-profit and non-government, community-based organization. The objective of the Trust is to conserve tangible and intangible heritage in Sumatra. The activities are ranging from conservation, publication and documentation, Networking, Public Education, and Consultative Role. SHT has become active members of the Indonesian Heritage Cities Network. At that time, NGO's in the heritage sector in Indonesia is a relatively recent phenomenon. NGO's, although being poorly funded and lack of resources, it has been shown that such bodies can do touch to promote the essentials of heritage conservation, mainly by networking with other organizations. Based on this phenomenon, SHT was perceived ideally serves and manages the heritage conservation issue and work in Sumatra Island. Therefore, SHT initiated the idea to create a network for public trust organizations in Sumatra emphasizing on sharing information, knowledge, experience and walk together in preserving cultural asset in Sumatra.   Bandung city which well-known by "Paris van Java". Wutcher et al [7] stated that the role and efforts made by this organization for safeguard heritages in Bandung gained respect from other architects, planner, humanist and historian whom interested in the cultural heritage conservation nationwide so that motivating the establishment of similar organizations in other cities in Indonesia, such as Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Semarang. Some of them were Yayasan Pelestarian Budaya Bangsa (National Cultural Heritage Foundation) in Jakarta (1989) Internationally, professional and scholarly interest in the identification, conservation, and promotion of twentieth-century heritage places is growing, yet significant works of the era are underrepresented on heritage registers from local inventories to the World Heritage List. This awareness is also experienced by many scholars and heritage professionals in Asian countries, including Indonesia, over the past decades. They are starting to realize the importance of conserving their cultural assets and have transferred this awareness to the widened community [8]. As a result, it has influenced the improvement of heritage protection for each bureaucracy. It can be traced back from the increase in the number of charters, guidelines, and declarations issued during the last three decades mainly in Asia which had impacted on the regional, national, and local level. It is seen by a lot of research, papers, books, and meeting forums discussing and exploring the heritage conservation. From the early 1980s, aspects of heritage significance have become famous in the discourse of cultural identity, the spirit of a place, sustainability development, and community involvement. In sum, the rise of heritage conservation discourse at the global level in the last three decades is a growing need to safeguard the past, both for enhancing economic growth and for strengthening national cultural identity.
At, one hand, governments face essential challenges in their efforts to safeguard and manage their historic assets. In the present day, public resources show a deficiency in supplying the necessary funding, personnel, skills, and resources are needed to reach all their conservation objectives. While classical conservation theory perceived government to be the primary protector of a community's heritage resources, as of pressure to satisfy other public demands, combined with worldwide development tendencies, society commitment and private engagement are required to assist governments retaining heritage assets for future generations. For those reasons, the private and third sectors are thus becoming more participated in conveying conservation outcomes that have traditionally been attained by the government [9].
It is noteworthy from the movement of urban heritage conservation in Medan that the awareness of local people and government for safeguarding their heritage has begun in the late 1980s after the Mayor of Medan Municipal Government (MGM) issued a decree of heritage buildings listing. However, it was not followed up by policies and operational guideline how to conserve the listed buildings. Even quite many historical assets that belonged to Medan Municipal government has been abandoned and even demolished after listing. Those abandoned properties require creative approaches to finding sustainable solutions for their ongoing use and care. Fortunately, the efforts were made individually by the owners and the managers of the historic building mainly for the building belonged to the plantation companies,

The current regulations and management on heritage conservation in Medan
The policy to conserve the modern city, as reflected in international recommendations and charters, has set the focus on the conservation of historic urban areas. However, current and future challenges require the definition and implementation of a new generation of public policy that identifies and protects the layers and historical balance of cultural and natural values in urban environments. At the global, UNESCO as the body organizing World Heritage Site and other agencies such as ICOMOS and ICCROM have issued numerous conventions, recommendations and charters that can serve as a guide for countries in the safeguarding of cultural heritage [10]. One of the positive roles of the international doctrines in developing countries can be seen from the increasing of a new awareness of cultural, regional and national identities and interest of the local ways of life, which have increased the local, national and international efforts and heritage protection effort worldwide. Stubbs [8] emphasized vivid examples are found in countries such as Indonesia, Cambodia, and Morocco, which are endowed with significant, -though until recently underappreciated -cultural or natural asset. Effectiveness of those conventions, recommendations and charters was described by Birabi [11] in his article titled The international urban conservation charters which catalytic or passive tools of urban conservation practices among developing countries, especially countries. He pointed out that the fact is instantly visible that most international conservation charters are not imposing significant impact among the Least Developing Countries (LDCs). In addition, he revealed that those LDCs countries were facing some problems making them ignore the doctrines and international conventions, one of which is a weakness in the law enforcement measures and monitoring mechanisms formally within the vertical constitutional level.
Furthermore, he mentioned a lack of political is aggravated by the lack of awareness of the publicprivate sectors on the value of cultural heritage conservation of cultural heritage right from the upper political echelons to the grass-root village levels, and both local and central governments. This shortage is driven by spontaneous political, socio-cultural and economic changes, especially in changing the responsibility of the State and fluid patronage of cultural and urban heritage resources. Member of the LDC's often pursue attractive development objectives for industrialization; cultural issues rarely cross the minds of their leaders. These leaders attend to culture only when external money is included, and thus they view international urban conservation charters as 'dry bones with no meat'. Although Indonesia is not included as a member of LDC's, what Birabi has revealed in his article is a reality occurring in Indonesia cities as well, including Medan.
At   [12] in Article 39, there are seven historical areas in Medan protected by the law. Those are the Kesawan, Deli Sultanate, Polonia, Kampung Kling/Madras, Pulo Brayan, Labuhan, and Belawan areas. However, during almost six years after issuance, the local government was unable to mention what criteria have been used for the designation. Also, it was not followed by determining the delineation and publishing the operational guidelines. As a result, it seems this regulation issued merely to fulfilling their obligations following the law, in this case, Law No. 26 of 2007 on Spatial Planning. Therefore, it appears to not influence the conservation effort in Medan. As Hasti [13] argued a lack of political and legislation, guidelines, and politics would have caused many cultural heritages in Medan demolished, although they are listed to be protected under the Local Regulation.
Due to having no guidance and support, many owners and managers of cultural assets in Medan are frustrated and wish to be removed from the listing. Then, it most often occurs that; 1) they do not comply with regulations to preserve the cultural assets, 2) they do inappropriate changes without permission from the government, and 3) they even destroy it. Apart from the absence of proper documentation, it could be found that the issues were started from the blurring of criteria to assessing the value of the historic asset on why it is essential to keep, which consequently has caused difficulty in establishing a conservation plan, policy, and guidelines. Another significant issue of heritage conservation in Medan is the lack of proper documentation on cultural heritages. In other words, from 1988 to present, there has not been any significant progress in terms of legal aspect, policy, and guidelines for heritage conservation in Medan.
In term of the Indonesian governmental structure, there are many government agencies involved in heritage conservation and management. According to Law Number 11 of 2010, the central government has outlined the procedure for nominating and listing of every level of administrations. There are three levels of administrations starting from the national, provincial and local (municipal/regency). The responsibility for establishing the heritage register is under the leader of every level of administration, as shown in table 2. However, due to the transfer of Directorate of Culture from the Ministry of Cultural and Tourism to the Ministry of Education and Culture in 2012, the situation for managing the cultural heritage at the provincial and municipal levels are still chaotic. Even though, the Directorate of Culture had returned to the Ministry of Education and Culture, while at the provincial levels, the Department of Culture has not yet been transferred to the Education and Culture Office and are still managed together with the Culture and Tourism Office.
Regarding the heritage management at the local level, there was no such a heritage city council which has the responsibility and obligations for managing and conserving the cultural heritage. Specific departments such as tourism and cultural office, city planning board, housing and spatial office can manage a heritage project as shown in Table 1. Therefore, inevitably, it often occurred the overlapped programmes without any coordination among the departments. In 2017, the MGM implemented new regulation by splitting the Office of Culture and Tourism into two departments (Cultural Office and Tourism Office). Then, the main body for protecting, managing and conserving the cultural heritage in Medan today is the duty of Cultural Office. After issuing this regulation, another problem arose such a lack of human resource capacity in heritage management. In reality, most of the cultural heritage in Medan is categorized as building; however, nobody has the background from the field of architecture, archaeology, urban planning and engineering employed in the Cultural Office within the MGM. Indeed, this problem is experiencing at the national level as well. The Directorate of Culture under the Ministerial of Education and Culture is dominated by the staffs that have an academic background in Archaeology or social science such as history, law, language and cultural science. In another hand, the majority staffs of Ministerial of Public Work and Housing have an educational degree in engineering, architecture and planning. Therefore, the projects of heritage conservation, mainly building and historic district or city are developed and managed by this ministry. On the other hand, the Directorate of Culture is more focus on intangible heritage, archaeological sites, and movable heritage such as objects of antiques may be a single item and group of items. In the last four years, both ministries established a , a team who has expertise in heritage building conservation. In short, as Fitri et al. [14] asserted the main problem is not only a gap among the government agencies within the hierarchical level but also the lack of inter-organization coordination between government agencies involved in heritage conservation starting from the national to the local level. Government agencies and institutions rarely communicate or coordinate their program. They often carry out their responsibilities without considering and coordinating with other units, departments, or ministries, which has similar duties on heritage conservation. As a result, there are overlapped and ill-fitting projects, over-expended budgets, stalled work, and sectoral fragmentation. To address this issue, it is strongly recommended that both ministries have good coordination for managing the heritage conservation project in the cities in Indonesia included Medan to do integrated heritage project. Also, it is suggested that MGM, mainly the Department of Culture, must conduct specific programs for "capacity building" in each of its services for improving institutional performance, particularly in heritage management (Table 1).

Identification of Issue and Challenges in heritage conservation of Medan
This part identifies a broad range of issues and challenges in Medan for heritage conservation from the recent years summarized through semi-structured interview and observation. From the issues and challenges faced in the preservation and development of cultural heritage in the city of Medan, in addition to the compilation of data and information containing documents on all aspects that contribute to the preservation and development of cultural heritage in Medan city both from historical aspects and characteristics of the city, inventory and baseline data on Medan's cultural heritage as well as the existing condition of buildings and historical areas of Medan, aspects of legislation and management of cultural heritage and identification of problems and challenges in the preservation and development of cultural heritage in Medan. One of the solution approaches to this work plan (roadmap) needs to be done by SWOT analysis so that the resulting work plan will be more targeted and useful. SWOC analysis is an analysis based on a logic that maximizes Strengths and Opportunities but simultaneously minimizes Weakness and Challenges. The nature of the SWOC analysis is more situational, meaning the results of the current year analysis will not necessarily be the same as the results of the next year's analysis. This is because the development of a region changes from year to year.
From the results of the analysis, there are some potentials and problems in planning areas that can be used as the basis of consideration in building strategies through SWOC analysis. SWOT or, SWOC analysis, still serving the same needs. Because the term Threat is originated from military strategy, prefer using "C" as Challenge or Constrains is recommended to create a more positive approach. The constraints /threats (Threats), which are encountered in planning areas, are mainly derived from external factors. Besides, this provides the SWOC (Strength-Weakness-Opportunity-Challenge) analysis to address the issues. The SWOT/C analysis of heritage conservation effort in Medan (Table 3).  Based on the SWOT/C analysis, the issues found are divided into four categories: legislation or rule, managerial, resource and social. To address the issues and challenges, the recommendation for improving the heritage conservation in Medan as follows: -Empowering the government agencies that have duties in protecting, safeguarding, and managing the cultural heritage in Medan. There is a great need for a comprehensive and coordinated conservation approach in order to ensure better heritage management. -Establishing and Enhancing regulations, policies, planning and guideline for cultural heritage protection and conservation. The conservation effort can be performed without supporting legal aspect and political will from the local government. -Developing and improving cultural resources, facilities and amenities such as improving recreational and green areas in the old town, carrying out preventive and reactive measures for natural hazards and climate change -Encouraging and raising the awareness and involvement of the local community and private sector by developing public-private partnerships (PPPs) programs

Conclusions
Heritage conservation effort in Medan, which has begun in the late 1980's face numerous issues and challenges. Many challenges are intrinsic to cultural heritage conservation itself. The issues found are divided into four categories: legislation or rule, managerial, resource and social. In term of heritage legislation, it clearly shows a lack of guideline and policies regarding heritage conservation in Medan. MGM seemed to be very slow to accept and develop local regulation, policies and operational guideline anticipating the problems of conservation of cultural heritage in Medan.
Besides, the legal aspect of the protection and management of cultural heritage in Medan still need more strengthening in certain regards. One of the crucial problems is that many government agencies are involved in heritage conservation. Each agency refers to the respective laws as guidelines for carrying out their tasks. However, the lack of inter-organisation coordination between government agencies harms the overall policy implementation process. It also has led to overlapping, conflicting, and ill-fitting projects, over-expended budgets, stalled works, and sectoral fragmentation. Another critical problem of heritage in Medan city up to the date is still on publishing heritage register or designation.
The last important point for better heritage conservation effort shortly, the Municipal Government of Medan should involve the local community and private sector by establishing the Public-Private Partnerships program.