City told to boost self-financed transmigration plan
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Transmigration Siswono Yudohusodo has called on the municipal administration to promote the self- financed transmigration program due to budgetary constraints faced by the central government.
The minister said that each year the government can afford to finance the relocation of only 2,380 families from Jakarta to transmigration sites outside of Java.
"Therefore the self-funded transmigration program is very important and urgent," Siswono said.
Siswono was speaking on Monday evening at a gathering, organized by the municipality to boost the campaigns for the enhancement of public mobility and participation in the transmigration program.
Also in attendance were Jakarta Governor Surjadi Soedirdja and 265 chiefs of subdistricts.
The minister said transmigration is one of the solutions to the population problem faced by the capital.
With around 8.5 million residents, the capital, which measures 661.26 square kilometers in area, has an average population density of 12,435 people per square kilometer.
In some subdistricts where the population density is particularly high, such as Johar Baru (the most densely-populated area in the entire country with 51,624 people per square kilometer), Tambora, Matraman, Kemayoran, Taman Sari, Palmerah, Jatinegara, Tebet and Grogol Petamburan, there are an average of 106,016 farmers and 101,980 unemployed people, said the minister.
"For them, transmigration is a good alternative," he said.
The minister said the self-funded transmigrants would receive around two hectares of land from the government at the transmigration site they are resettled to.
The municipality has sent 20,672 families, or a total of 82,688 people, to transmigration sites over the past 25 years.
Background
Meanwhile, Governor Surjadi said the transmigration program for Jakarta residents should be designed so that it suits the urban background of the would-be transmigrants.
"Unlike rural people who make their living as farmers, urban people make their living through skills and services," Surjadi said.
The governor said the municipality long ago introduced the so- called "industrial service transmigration program" in cooperation with the provincial administrations of Southeast Sulawesi, South Kalimantan and Riau, where most of the transmigration sites are located.
Under the joint program, the city administration is obliged to train the would-be transmigrants in various industrial skills before they are sent to the designated settlement sites.
Surjadi said he fully supported the campaigns to boost the self-financed transmigration program, but noted "it will take a long time to ingrain the spirit of pioneering necessary for this endeavor in the people, because it encompasses a set of attitudes including bravery and the willingness to face risks and forsake primordial bonds."(jsk)