City councilors not sure they can curb urbanization
JAKARTA (JP): City councilors agree with Governor Surjadi Soedirdja that population remains the most serious problem in the capital but they appear a bid skeptical that the municipality can successfully impede the pace of urbanization.
Lukman F. Mokoginta from the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) faction, Nitra Arsjad from the Golkar faction, and Helmy R. Syihab from the United Development Party (PPP) told The Jakarta Post separately that efforts to curb the influx of migrants to Jakarta are doomed to failure as long as development efforts continue to be focused in the capital.
"Thus, Jakarta can not solve the problem without any support from the national level administration. People will automatically stop migrating to Jakarta if they find 'milk and honey' in their native region," said Helmy.
The councilors praised the joint-cooperation between Jakarta and other provinces that are considered the major places of origin of migrants, which include all three provinces in Java, Bali and Lampung.
Under the joint-cooperation, which is called sad praja, the city administration is to take part in financing workshops aimed at providing migrants with various skills that will later help them to make a living in their respective regions.
"The scheme is good for the long term. But we don't know how well it is currently being conducted," said Nitra.
The councilors commented on the recent remarks by the governor that the municipality had applied various means of curbing the migration of less-educated and unskilled people in a bid to solve the acute population problem.
Lurah
Aside from the sad praja program, Surjadi said the city administration has also used what he called an "early tackling program" of migrants.
Under this program, the municipal officials would drive away squatters before they can illegally settle down on state land in large numbers.
"This way will make it difficult for them to settle down here. As a result, they will decide to leave Jakarta, and discourage their fellow villagers from migrating to the capital," the governor argued.
The governor said he had instructed all subdistrict chiefs (lurah) to regularly tour their own jurisdiction to implement the method.
However, both Nitra and Lukman appeared skeptical that the method could be effective.
"The officials who are very well informed of their areas are not lurah, but chiefs of neighborhood. They are chosen by the area residents and are not paid for their jobs. These men would not allow themselves be bothered with another task of inspection unless they were paid," Nitra said.
As an alternative to this "early tackling scheme", Helmy proposed the municipality fence in all plots of land owned by the state here so no squatters could settle on them.
"What happens frequently is subdistrict officials make extra income by letting the migrants illegally stay on the state land after charging arbitrary 'fees,'" said Helmy.
Nitra said he fully supported the city's migrant policy that would discourage uneducated people from moving to Jakarta.
He was upset, however, over what he saw as the inconsistency of the municipality in enforcing the policy, as it also issues the so-called "temporary ID's" to less-educated migrants.
"The temporary ID policy is useless. The municipality needs to revoke it as soon as possible," said Nitra. (jsk)