Effectiveness of ID card sweeps questioned

Effectiveness of ID card sweeps questioned

Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

City councillors questioned on Thursday the effectiveness of the
administration's plan to conduct a sweep on ID cards to curb the
flow of migrants, commenting that it might promote corruption
among city officials.

Muchayar, vice chairman of the Justice Party (PK) faction,
said that such raids would not solve the problem as it also paved
the way for officials to charge illegal levies.

"Subdistrict officials may give migrants the papers needed to
stay here; at a price, of course. Or the migrants can bribe the
heads of their neighborhood units (RT) and community units (RW)."

In the past few years, the city administration had conducted
Operasi KTP, or Operation ID Cards, in an effort to curb the
uncontrollable influx of migrants to the capital.

The City Population Agency claimed on Wednesday that during
the Idul Fitri holiday season, 2.64 million Jakartans left the
city, and at the end of the holiday, about 2.87 million had
returned.

The possibility of illegal levies and other forms of
embezzlement resulting from such operations was also the concern
of Syamsidar Siregar of the National Mandate Party (PAN) faction,
who questioned the accountability of funds provided to send the
migrants home.

"All this time, the population agency has always said that it
has returned migrants to their hometowns every year by providing
bus tickets.

"But who can guarantee that the number of returned migrants as
reported by the population agency is true?" she asked.

Syamsidar also revealed that the draft bylaw on new population
would require migrants to provide a guarantee fee of some Rp
50,000 to Rp 100,000 when entering Jakarta.

"The guarantee fee will cover the cost of returning a migrant
to his or her hometown if he or she fails to find a job after six
months," she said.

"This, again, opens the possibilities of swindling funds. Are
you sure the officials will refrain from misusing the guarantee
fees?"

She also said that there was also the possibility that
officials would not return the fees to migrants.

"On the other hand, who can guarantee that a migrant will
directly go home after the fee has been reimbursed?"

The city administration is now drafting a new bylaw which will
give them more authority to expel poor, unskilled migrants.

Activists have repeatedly criticized the government for trying
to make Jakarta a closed city, saying that it is against the
Constitution and is a violation of human rights.

Both Muchayar and Syamsidar, however, supported the
administration, saying that migrants wishing to come to Jakarta
should have a secure job offer, or at least someone sponsoring
them.

"It would be ideal if the migrants have secured a job here
already, because we know then that they would be able to support
themselves," said Muchayar, "but they should have their family
members or other relatives here to be responsible for their
presence in the capital."

Muchayar also supported the controversial raid on migrants,
saying that it was important to uphold population regulations,
while remarking that the raids were not intended to create a
closed city.

"The raid is not aimed at closing the city, but is purely
aimed at upholding the city population regulation, which requires
each and every citizen to have a valid ID card," he said.

"Such action is also needed to prevent people without clear
backgrounds and occupations from coming to the city.

"Jakarta is still an open city as long as the migrant follows
the population regulation of informing the heads of their RT and
RW of their presence ," he added.