City to establish transportation watchdog

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta

Responding to public criticism on the city's transportation policies, the Jakarta administration is to establish a Transportation Council in August at the latest.

The deadline under Bylaw No. 12/2003 for the establishment of the council -- which is to accommodate public input regarding the transportation policies -- was this month.

Jakarta Transportation Agency head Rustam Effendy Sidabutar said a gubernatorial decree on the establishment of the council would soon be issued.

"We cannot simply form a council without good preparation, because we want to have an effective council," he said at City Hall.

In preparation, said Rustam, the agency had designed a screening process to select the 15 members of the council, which was to consist of transportation experts, scholars, non- governmental organization (NGO) activists, police, transportation agency officials and owners of public transportation companies.

"A representative of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) will represent the public on the council," he added.

Selection will be carried out by a joint committee supported by the Center of Applied Psychological Studies at the University of Indonesia.

The selection committee -- members of which included city councillors, traffic police officers, green NGOs Pelangi and Swisscontact, and transportation experts from Trisakti University and the University of Indonesia -- has finished drafting selection guidelines.

"Governor Sutiyoso agreed today to the draft we made of the establishment of the council," Paul Butar Butar of Swisscontact said on Friday, following a presentation of the guidelines to Sutiyoso.

"Our next task is to proceed with the implementation of the guidelines," he said.

Critics have said many transportation policies, which had been decided solely by the Jakarta administration, such as the three- in-one policy, the busway and the monorail project, failed to accommodate the hopes of residents for convenient intra-city travel.

They also reprimanded the administration for not providing transparent reports to taxpayers on most of the high-cost transportation projects financed by the city budget.