City authorities fail to address poverty issue

Benget Simbolon Tnb., The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The year 2002 has ended. But as in previous years, there have been no encouraging moves on the part of the city administration to tackle the problem of poverty.

Almost all news stories that emerged on the administration's poverty policies were concerned with negative measures that hurt poor people. Evictions of squatters, street vendors and other poor people whose economic situation forces them to squat on vacant land or to do business in inappropriate or forbidden places (facilitated by the bribing of local officials), dominated the city's measures in dealing with the poor.

Many of them, like in Penjaringan, North Jakarta, have been evicted several times. But since they have no money to resettle in other places and the city administration fails to provide compensation for the loss of their simple homes, they keep coming back after the forcible evictions.

Others, like those in Pulongandang, Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, had been residing on the same land for decades before the city administration forcibly evicted them.

The city public order agency maintained that they were squatters. But these "squatters" have access to electricity, piped water, telephones and regularly pay taxes to the city administration.

There were, however, some moves made to deal with the problem of poverty. The city administration, for example, distributed some Rp 250 million to each subdistrict under the Subdistrict Social Empowerment Program (PPMK), which is designed to alleviate urban poverty. But most of the funds allocated to the city's 167 subdistricts ended up being embezzled. Reportedly, some subdistrict officials even used the money illegally to build or renovate their houses.

Throughout last year, many people, including those from non- governmental organizations, have been protesting against the city's poverty policies. But city officials still appear to base their decision-making on the idea that all poor people in Jakarta are illegally residing here, and always end up breaking the law.

And to make matters worse, the City Council's 84 members have consistently failed to side with the poor, strengthening the impression that the councillors are the representatives of those in power rather than the general public.

This has caused many people and non-governmental organizations, including the Urban Poor Consortium under the leadership of Wardah Hafidz and the Jakarta Residents Forum under the leadership of Azas Tigor Nainggolan, to stage a number of protests. On one occasion, they mocked the councillors by bringing along 11 ducks sporting ties on their necks.

But both the city officials and councillors have never changed their stances. And despite the fact that they are real in everyday life, the problems of poverty have never been properly tackled.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistic (BPS), of the total 8.2 million people living in the city, some 100,000 of them are poor.

And according to the National Family Planning Board (BKKBN), of a total 1,429,000 families in the city, some 114,290 are poor.

But according to the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC), between 30 and 40 percent of all Jakarta residents are poor.

We do not know why there are discrepancies in the figures. But they could be the results of different definitions of what is absolute poverty and relative poverty.

But whatever the true figures, the poor really exist in the city. And their numbers have dramatically increased since the economic crisis in 1997 as many people have lost their jobs. Most of them are migrants from cities in West, Central and East Java. And the others come from cities outside Java.

It is only natural that they left their hometowns as they saw no chance of improving their lives there. And they came to Jakarta as they considered it a "promised land" where they truly expected they could improve their lives.

As a result, the number of the urban poor tends to increase as new migrants keep coming to Jakarta. As they have no skills through which they can secure proper jobs, they have to rely on the informal sector, which has been mushrooming since the economic crisis.

But despite all this, they still have the right to come and live in Jakarta. The city administration cannot deny their existence and their rights. It has to start addressing their problems properly. Otherwise, it risks increasing other problems, particularly the problems of crime and environmental degradation in the nation's capital.