Wisma Atlet in Kemayoran, North Jakarta has served many useful purposes. It first housed athletes for the 2018 Asian Games before it became the capital’s main COVID-19 emergency hospital. And now one councilor says she doesn’t want to see it occupied by kuntilanak.
As the COVID-19 crisis dissipated in Jakarta and throughout the country, the apartment complex stopped accepting patients on Dec. 31. One of the 10 towers is on standby until March 2023 in case we see a resurgence in COVID-19 infections.
Ida Mahmudah, a member of the Jakarta Regional Council (DPRD) representing PDI-P, told the Jakarta Provincial Government in a meeting yesterday that now is the time to repurpose Wisma Atlet so it isn’t left abandoned.
“Make it into apartments, or a hospital and a children’s hospital. We need those,” she said.
Ida says she has one good reason why the provincial government must act swiftly.
“We can’t let [Wisma Atlet] be empty for too long. There are many kuntilanak there. I’m serious. I live near there. I know that that’s where kuntilanak dwell,” she warned.
While we can’t speak for the kuntilanak’s dwelling preferences, we do hope that the threat of Wisma Atlet being swarmed with vengeful spirits of murdered pregnant women is enough for the immediate repurposing of such a vast and potentially useful complex.
Indonesians, after all, are believers of the supernatural. If men dressed up as pocong (Indonesian zombies wrapped up from head to toe with white cloth as is customary in Islamic burial rites) were enough to convince an entire village into self-isolation at the onset of the pandemic, why can’t the arguably more terrifying kuntilanak spook some sense into policymakers?
