Don't close the gates

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.