Hotels are packed with crowds fleeing Jakarta during weekends. But a few years ago, it looked like all this was in danger of going the way of the Dutch, as unbridled development ate away at Bandung's colonial charm and blanketed it in a layer of blue haze. Foreign investment began to pour in and the region took off. Jakarta-based property developers were allowed to ride roughshod over building regulations. Old theaters which used to screen silent movies were knocked down to make way for shopping centers, as was the 1871 jail in which a young Sukarno wrote angry anti-colonial pamphlets.
Critics blame many of the city's social ills on the commando mentality of past leaders.
Bandung is a garrison town and most of its mayors in the past 20 years have been military men. They study territorial strategy and warfare. Corruption was rampant. Regional elections were rigged, with village and neighborhood heads intimidating citizens into voting for the military candidates. The local parliament, known as the DPRD, did not regulate the civil service properly.