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)