City needs to abolish all its districts

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta administration should dissolve its 44 districts as their presence has no direct impact on the performance and the work of subdistricts, East Jakarta Mayor Koesnan Abdul Halim says.

"Based on my research, I discovered that the leadership of district heads have no immediate impact on the work of subdistrict heads. If this is so, we should go ahead with the idea of dissolving the districts," Koesnan said, announcing the results of his doctorate dissertation in Educational Sciences at the State University of Jakarta (UNJ) in Rawamangun on Saturday.

Koesnan, who detailed his dissertation -- District Heads' Influence, Interpersonal Communications and Motivation in the Performance of Subdistrict Heads in East Jakarta Municipality -- conducted his research involving 65 subdistrict heads during a month from April 25 to May 25 this year.

He blamed the ineffectiveness of district heads on the inherent organizational failings of the district office.

"Subdistrict heads are proven to play a more effective leadership role (than district heads) as (subdistrict) heads are at the front lines of the administration's services to the public. Many problems could be handled immediately and effectively at that level," he said.

Koesnan said the dissolution of districts would save huge amounts of money from the city budget, funds which could be earmarked to subdistricts to boost their services and performance.

Currently, Jakarta has a total of 44 districts.

Koesnan also recommended reducing the number of subdistricts in the city.

"Jakarta's organizational structure could be squeezed down to 150 subdistricts instead of the current 267, but the municipalities could be increased to eight from the current five," he said.

Despite being pro-subdistrict, Koesnan acknowledged that many local heads in his municipality had failed to lead their subordinates in subdistrict offices in the improvement of services to residents.

"Complaints from the residents about unfriendly services, red tape and uncertainty in procedures still abound," he said.

The subdistrict offices' slow responses to problems, such as garbage, flooding, traffic congestion, illegal street vendors and the creation and maintenance of community parks were still evident, he said.

"Unfortunately, the district heads who supposed to supervise the subdistrict heads also fail to help the latter to solve the problems systematically," he said.