Observers criticize Sutiyoso's 5-year plan<\/p>\n
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Urban observers criticized the five-year strategic plan (Renstra)
\nof Governor Sutiyoso, saying that he was giving too little
\npriority to a variety of significant urban issues, such as
\npoverty, the environment and transportation.<\/p>\n
Chairwoman of the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) Wardah Hafidz
\nsaid the five-year plan still contained no concrete ideas on how
\nto resolve the urban poverty problems that had been ignored
\nduring his previous five year administration.<\/p>\n
\"Just as I thought, Sutiyoso will not prioritize the
\nresolution of urban poverty problems in the city. He also
\nperceives the urban poor as unproductive citizens,\" Wardah said.<\/p>\n
Wardah added that policies opposed to the urban poor were also
\nbeing promoted by Sutiyoso through his policy on population
\nmigration, which will strictly control the flow of poor migrants
\ninto the city.<\/p>\n
He has repeatedly stated that people could migrate to Jakarta
\nif they had sufficient money to support themselves; if they
\nwished to become Jakarta citizens, they would have to be able to
\nshow that they had a job to go to and a place to live.<\/p>\n
She regretted that Sutiyoso had not changed his policy on the
\nurban poor in his second term, which will end in 2007.<\/p>\n
Tubagus Haryo Karbianto of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute
\n(LBH Jakarta), who deals with environmental affairs, also
\ncriticized the governor's plans for the environment.<\/p>\n
Tubagus cited as an example that the city administration
\nplanned to increase green areas in the city, but the strategic
\nplan provided no detail on how to achieve it.<\/p>\n
Based on the master plan 2010, the city will increase its open
\nspace to up to 13.94 percent of the total area of Jakarta's 645
\nsquare kilometers. Open space currently accounts for about 9
\npercent of the total.<\/p>\n
\"Without any detail on how to achieve this goal, I am
\nskeptical that the green area will increase as we have often seen
\ninconsistencies in Sutiyoso's environment policies,\" he added.<\/p>\n
According to Tubagus, Sutiyoso's administration had developed
\nseveral sites, which should have been retained as green areas or
\nopen space, into commercial facilities, such as the sports mall
\nat Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Other examples, said Tubagus, included shopping center
\ndevelopments and other buildings at Senayan, Central Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Both Tubagus and Wardah also criticized Sutiyoso's plan on
\nurban transportation. \"Mass rapid transit (MRT) systems have
\nrepeatedly been mooted, but he has never really been serious in
\nimplementing them,\" Tubagus said.<\/p>\n
Another example, he said, was that Sutiyoso and his officials
\noften made contradictory statements over the busway project,
\nwhich will connect Blok M, South Jakarta, with Kota, Central
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
Tubagus added the city administration had not implemented a
\nproper MRT system as so far it had only focused on road
\ntransportation, the development of which would never be able to
\naccommodate the growth of vehicles in the city.<\/p>\n
Wardah added that the city administration was not serious in
\nthe MRT project because the city's income was significantly
\nderived from taxation on private cars, whose number increased
\nevery year.<\/p>\n
\"You may be aware that private cars use around 80 percent of
\nthe roadspace in Jakarta, while the majority of travelers are
\npacked like sardines into city buses or commuter trains,\" she
\nadded.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, a number of councillors also criticized the five-
\nyear strategic plan after the governor presented it at a City
\nCouncil plenary session. They said that it contained only banal
\ngeneralities and lacked detail.<\/p>\n
The council has until the end of this month to discuss it and
\ndecide whether or not to approve it.<\/p>\n
Sutiyoso's strategic plan:<\/p>\n
1. Poverty:
\nImproving city administration policy on social welfare to
\nguarantee services and protection for those experiencing social
\nwelfare problems.<\/p>\n
2. Environment:
\nEmpowering the public to deal with pollution, providing green
\nareas, inviting the public to manage city parks and forests and
\nenforcing legislation on the environment.<\/p>\n
3. Transportation:
\nMaintaining and developing roads and bridges, including
\nfacilities for pedestrians; improving the quality of services and
\npublic transportation, improving cooperation with adjacent urban
\nareas at Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi.<\/p>",
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