Flats culturally suited for Indonesian people

"Many people have said that flats are culturally not suited for Indonesians. I think this is not true," the vice president said when opening a national working meeting of the Indonesian Developers` Association (Aperti) here on Thursday.
To support his argument, the vice president pointed at the traditional `rumah gadang` (big house) in West Sumatra and the `rumah panjang` (long house) tribal house in Kalimantan.
Kalla said rumah gadang and rumah panjang were basically flats in other forms. Each of these typically traditional houses was home to many families.
"The difference between rumah gadang or rumah panjang and flats is that the former are built in horizontal direction while the latter are built vertically, one storey on another," the vice president said adding that the concept of both kinds of dwelling was the same, namely houses for large numbers of communal families.