MONPERA (Monument of people's struggle)

Monument of people's struggle or commonly abbreviated as MONPERA is a tourist attraction in the form of a museum and was built to commemorate the history of the heroes of the Five Days Five Nights War in Palembang City. This museum is located at Merdeka Street No. 1, close to the Great Mosque and Kuto Besak Fort. This monument was inaugurated on February 23, 1988 by the former Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare (Menko Kesra) Republic of Indonesia H. Alamsyah Ratuperwiranegara. To get into this place, you only pay voluntarily and operating hours every day are from 8.00 to 16.00.

The architecture of this monument is quite interesting. Can be seen in the middle of the monument, you can find the icon of a large eagle that stands proudly and looks so beautiful. Under the Garuda bird there is an inscription:

"Monument of the People's Struggles of South Sumatra. The function is to re-discover awareness of the history of the struggle in upholding national independence. The nature of reminding all activities of the struggle for wisdom so that they become role models for the next generation of the nation's ideals. The purpose is to remember the services of the nation's heroes as the zero point of the younger generation in filling independence and development"

The Monpera building has a shape like a jasmine which has 5 petals. The jasmine building with 5 petals has a symbol of the holy struggle of the Palembang people. The five-petalled also shows that there are five residency areas that are members of the South Sumatra Sub-Commander (SUBKOSS).

MONPERA is flanked by two reliefs describing a battle that took place for 5 days and 5 nights as well as the struggle before Indonesian independence against the Dutch colonialists.

MONPERA has special rooms which are collection rooms that can be witnessed by visitors. Then you will find a room which is a room describing stories that happened during the colonial period. You can see various kinds of weapons, uniforms and war equipment carried out at that time. On the second floor, you can see a collection of several weapons, currency from the Dutch VOC, Japanese, and Republican times that were used to items that were usually carried by fighters. There are pistols, rifles, short guns, mines and bomb-throwing devices that are often used by fighters of the past. These weapons are deliberately placed in a glazed room for security reasons.

On the third to fifth floors, there are many statues of the six independence heroes during the war. The heroes consisted of Dr. A. K. Gani, Drg. M. Isa, H. Abdul Rozak, Bambang Utoyo, Hasan Kasim, Harun Sohar and H. Barlian. As well as paintings and photo shoots about the background that occurred during the pre-independence period and the 5 days 5 nights war.

Besides coming to visit to see history, since there was a renovation carried out in 2020 by the local government, now there are interesting photo and relaxing spots located on the side to the backyard of MONPERA. In the backyard there is parkour and a playground for children, making it suitable for families who bring their children and relax for a while.