Blaming the crisis

Blame it on the ongoing crisis. The shortage of funds, rising unemployment, increased poverty among the populace and the resulting social and economic disorders that these factors have brought since the outbreak of the economic crisis in 1998 are the reasons the city administration has given for its inability to control the security situation in Jakarta. With this admission, Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso on Thursday defended his administration of the city in the five years he has been in office.

To be fair, nobody can deny that under currently prevailing circumstances a host of difficulties are in the way of any government official or administrator governing as if nothing had happened since the Asian financial crisis started biting in 1997.

In those past five years, drastic changes have taken place. On the positive side, a popular movement for greater democracy and good governance has been set rolling and the demand for transparency on both business and government is heard loud and clear. On the other side of the coin, the dramatic fall of the value of the national currency against the U.S. dollar has brought repercussions whose effects are still felt in almost every sector of society.

It is also true that countless people have been made jobless as many banks went under and business corporations crashed. Most of those who have been fortunate enough to be able to keep their jobs have seen their incomes sharply reduced. Needless to say, all this cannot help but have a huge negative impact on the community as a whole.

Nevertheless, all these circumstances, true as they may be, must not and cannot be used to justify the capital city of Indonesia falling into a state of utter lawlessness and anarchy. Only a few days ago, five armed robberies occurred on one single day in different sections of the city. Days earlier several women were robbed inside the taxies they were riding, by men hidden in the trunk and operating in teamwork with the driver.

Particularly frightening was the fact that in one of these incidents, the name of one thus-far trusted taxi company was involved. And earlier this week, Jakartans were further appalled to find that their city was not immune to the kind of ethnic turmoil that has characterized some more remote parts of this vast archipelago. Bad news as all this is, the personal safety of citizen's lives and belongings is not the only problems Jakartans must be ready to face daily.

Lawlessness has extended to the city's road users. The sight of motorists violating traffic lights and signs without regard for other's safety has become the norm rather than the exception and often occurs just a few meters from police posts. Many law- conscious Jakartans fear that if all this is allowed to go on unchecked, it will be difficult in the future to restore order on the roads in the Indonesian capital.

All this of course makes one wonder at what moment precisely Jakarta's city administrators will find it worth the effort to try and restore some order in the capital. For obviously, lawlessness cannot be allowed to go on unchecked, funds or no funds, crisis or no crisis.

One possible answer was provided by Vice President Hamzah Haz on Wednesday when he suggested that the agencies in charge of maintaining security, including the intelligence services, step up their capabilities to give Jakartans back the sense of security that has been missing for years. Jakarta, the vice president said, needs a thoroughly capable governor. "The persons most knowledgeable about these things are the governor and the chiefs of the military and police," the vice president said.

Order and security, of course, are problems not exclusive to Jakarta alone. This city, however, holds a special position in the social, economic and political framework of Indonesia in that it is a barometer of this country's overall situation. Any turmoil or disorder in Jakarta will be perceived, not only in the provinces but abroad as well, as disarray in the country as a whole.

For that reason, it is the task of all city administrators, but first and foremost that of the governor of Jakarta, to find all the ways and means, whether conventional or unconventional, to see to it that life in the Indonesian capital proceeds safely and orderly. As the vice president remarked on Wednesday, that is the test of a good governor.