Bekasi proclaimed new mayoralty
Bekasi proclaimed new mayoralty
BEKASI (JP): Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M.
inaugurated the Bekasi mayoralty yesterday, hoping the new
administration would immediately deal with its lingering urban
problems.
Prior to the induction of Kailani A.R. as Bekasi's acting
mayor, Yogie said the town administration had lacked the
authority and expertise to carry out its mission.
"Without better management and a more balanced administrative
structure this town cannot cope with public service problems such
as sanitation, population, security, traffic, housing and city
planning," Yogie said.
Since 1981 Bekasi has been governed by the Bekasi regency and
a buffer area for neighboring Jakarta. It lies some 30 kilometers
west of the capital.
With yesterday's ceremony the Bekasi mayoralty became the 26th
second level administrative division in West Java and the 301st
in the country. It occupies 210.5 square kilometers, comprising
seven districts divided into 27 subdistricts and 23 villages.
Bekasi regent Mohammad Djamhari said last week Bekasi faced
three major problems: the escalating migration of Jakartans,
traffic congestion and the haphazard development of housing
complexes.
The town's population growth is estimated at 6.35 percent a
year, growing from 713,000 people in 1991 into a semi-
metropolitan area with about 1.5 million people.
Yogie said Bekasi's recent rapid growth was behind the
government's decision to form a new administration.
"I urge the Bekasi mayoralty to make population and city
planning problems their top priority because it is one of
Jakarta's buffer areas," Yogie said.
Stereotypical change
Bekasi is undergoing a stereotypical change from rural area
into urban area, he noted. He predicted nationwide urbanization
would raise the number of people living in towns to 40 percent of
the population by the end of the millennium and 55 percent by
2013.
Yogie asked the Bekasi and Jakarta administrations to
cooperate and avoid incompatible use of land when they draw up
their respective master plans.
He added Bekasi's inauguration as a mayoralty was part of the
government's program to curb socioeconomic disparity in Greater
Jakarta.
A 1976 presidential instruction said there was a need for
comprehensive development of Jakarta and its West Java neighbors,
Bekasi, Tangerang and Bogor.
A former cabinet minister Emil Salim suggested last year that
Greater Jakarta have one governor of ministerial level authority.
Emil's proposal received a warm welcome from the public and
Yogie himself. But Yogie said comprehensive feasibility studies
were still required.
The latest poll by the Media Indonesia daily revealed that
58.5 percent of 215 respondents agreed to the unification, while
39.6 percent disagreed.
New Bekasi mayor Kailani, a civilian, said after his
installment that he would continue all programs inherited from
the Bekasi regent.
"We will do it step by step because we need a lot of staff,"
said Kailani, a graduate of Bandung-based Padjadjaran
University's School of Social and Political Sciences.
The new mayoralty office will need 6,000 staff, he said. Some
will come from the former city office and some from the West Java
administration and the Minister of Home Affairs office. (amd)