Don't close the gates

Apparently confident of being reelected for a second five-year term next month, Governor Sutiyoso is pushing ahead with his controversial plan to close Jakarta to outsiders. Early this week, he disclosed that his office had already drafted the bylaw that would make Jakarta, now home to about 8.5 million people according to official statistics, a closed city. The draft is now already in the hands of the City Legislative Council.

Sutiyoso has his reasons for wanting to push ahead with his plan. The city's infrastructure, much of which is already in a dilapidated condition for lack of maintenance, simply cannot cope with the burden of an increasing population.

Jakarta has already shown many of the symptoms of a city being stretched to the limits by the ever growing population, which during the day time increases to more than 10 million: heavy traffic congestion, rundown public transportation services, pollution, severe shortage of houses, ever expanding slum areas, water crisis and growing crime rates.

The current economic crisis affecting the whole country is not helping. Not only are jobs hard to come by, many manufacturing companies are being forced to lay off workers by the thousands.

Unfortunately, with the rest of the country in no better position, Jakarta continues to be a magnet to many poor rural people who are hoping to change their luck. Urbanization continues at a faster rate at a time when Jakarta least needs it.

But is closing Jakarta to new migrants the answer to this problem? We hardly think so.

First, the Governor -- and the City Council if it approves his proposal -- would be acting against the constitution, and would be violating a basic human right of many people.

Jakarta as the seat of the republic must remain open to every citizen who wish to come here for whatever reason. As the country's main trading and business center, it is pivotal to the lifeline of many migrants and their folks back home who depend on the money repatriated from the city. Our constitution guarantees people the right to live and work anywhere within the country.

To declare Jakarta a closed city would be discrimination, a practice that has no place in the republic. The whole idea of founding this republic was to ensure the free flow of goods and people within the country. Sutiyoso's proposal would be a betrayal of the dreams of our founding fathers and of their bloody sacrifices. While it may seem fashionable for some provinces, now that they enjoy a greater degree of autonomy, to give preferential treatments to their own ethnic groups, Jakarta of all the places should set the model of a modern and open city.

If and when the proposed Constitutional Court is established next year as scheduled, Sutiyoso's bylaw would be prime candidate for the first case it hears.

Jakarta is also the country's main cultural melting pot. That alone should be enough reason not to close the doors on newcomers, whose presence would only further enrich the cultural diversity of the capital city.

Second, it is preposterous if Sutiyoso thinks that closing Jakarta to people from other areas in the country could remedy the sicknesses of Jakarta.

Many of his predecessors have tried and failed.

Governor Ali Sadikin introduced the policy in 1970, arguing that urbanization had reached an alarming level and was jeopardizing the lives of Jakartans. He instructed subdistrict heads and neighborhood community heads (RT/RW) to reject newcomers unless they had already secured employment in Jakarta. Sadikin later admitted that his policy was a fiasco as it did not stop the migrants from coming in.

Other governors since then -- Tjokropanolo, Soeprapto, Wiyogo Atmodarminto, and Surjadi Soedirdja -- learned that urbanization was not a trivia that they could handle alone. Sutiyoso would do well to learn from their failures and certainly not repeat their mistakes. His proposal to turn Jakarta into a closed city is doomed to fail and will only create more problems.

So what is the solution to the problem of urbanization?

There are no easy and fast answers, but Sutiyoso's proposed shortcut, which is both unconstitutional and futile, is definitely not one of them.

Ultimately, the problems Jakarta faces today, including those caused by uncontrolled urbanization, can only be solved through the creation of a strong and credible administration, one that is under a solid and visionary leadership. We need a governor who commands the respect not only of the people and his staffers, but also of people in the central government. In the context of containing urbanization problems, we need a governor who has the respect of governors from other provinces to help stem the flow of migration of workers from their areas.

Sutiyoso is not one such leader. In his report to the City Council accounting for his leadership early this month, the governor unashamedly laid most of the blame for the shortcomings of his administration these last five years on the people. Unfortunately, however, it appears that we will be stuck with the same inept leader for the next five years, thanks largely to the equally inept Jakarta City Council, which is almost certain to reelect him next month.