August set for transport council establishment

August set for transport council establishment

Damar Harsanto
Jakarta

Responding to public criticism on the city's transportation
policies, the Jakarta administration is to establish a
Transportation Council in August at the latest.

The deadline under Bylaw No. 12/2003 for the establishment of
the council -- which is to accommodate public input regarding the
transportation policies -- was this month.

Jakarta Transportation Agency head Rustam Effendy Sidabutar
said a gubernatorial decree on the establishment of the council
would soon be issued.

"We cannot simply form a council without good preparation,
because we want to have an effective council," he said at City
Hall.

In preparation, said Rustam, the agency had designed a
screening process to select the 15 members of the council, which
was to consist of transportation experts, scholars, non-
governmental organization (NGO) activists, police, transportation
agency officials and owners of public transportation companies.

"A representative of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation
(YLKI) will represent the public on the council," he added.

Selection will be carried out by a joint committee supported
by the Center of Applied Psychological Studies at the University
of Indonesia.

The selection committee -- members of which included city
councillors, traffic police officers, green NGOs Pelangi and
Swisscontact, and transportation experts from Trisakti University
and the University of Indonesia -- has finished drafting
selection guidelines.

"Governor Sutiyoso agreed today to the draft we made of the
establishment of the council," Paul Butar Butar of Swisscontact
said on Friday, following a presentation of the guidelines to
Sutiyoso.

"Our next task is to proceed with the implementation of the
guidelines," he said.

Critics have said many transportation policies, which had been
decided solely by the Jakarta administration, such as the three-
in-one policy, the busway and the monorail project, failed to
accommodate the hopes of residents for convenient intra-city
travel.

They also reprimanded the administration for not providing
transparent reports to taxpayers on most of the high-cost
transportation projects financed by the city budget.