Flood victims skeptical about free city services

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The City Population Agency started a week of free services on Thursday for flood victims seeking identity cards (KTP), birth certificates and family cards. However, the service has proven ineffective and has failed to meet public expectations.

Hasni Suhaimi, a resident of Bendungan Hilir subdistrict, Central Jakarta, who was queuing at the subdistrict office for documents said that he doubted the effectiveness of the free service as he would have to wait one or two weeks to receive his documentation and might end up having to pay a fee.

"I lost both my identification card (ID) and family card (KK) during the flood. Now they've made it easy to fill in a request form. But can anyone guarantee that it will only be one week and be free of charge?," he said.

Another resident, Ramdan of Kedoya Utara subdistrict, West Jakarta, who wasn't aware of the ease of document processing, said that currently he had no intention of obtaining such documents as his neighborhood was still under water.

"What I badly need now is some basic food and medical services, as the water level in my neighborhood has risen again," grumbled Ramdan, whose identification card (ID) was damaged in the floods.

The subdistrict has set up a special post to process documents for its residents. However, only residents living along the main streets in the subdistrict knew about it.

Secretary of Pengadegan subdistrict, South Jakarta, Muhammad Ali, questioned the effectiveness of the program, saying that what people currently wanted was to see the flood waters receding, not new ID cards.

"Processing an ID card is an easy thing, and it's free all the time, not just during this special program," he said.

The Pengadegan subdistrict was listed as one of those targeted for assistance from the Population Agency in the document processing service. But in fact the subdistrict has not received any assistance from the agency.

"I have not received any letter from the agency or from the district office about holding the program", he said.

Kebon Baru subdistrict in South Jakarta is in the same situation.

According to the subdistrict chief, Asmarih, no officers from the Agency had visited his office that day.

"If they want to hold the program here, we will welcome them, but for what? Here document processing is free anyway. We have offered easy processing for flood victims; for example, if their documents were completely lost, then they don't have to go to the police to report them lost. We will process their documents only on the unit chief's recommendation," he said.

The program excluded several of the worst affected subdistricts in the city, including Bidara Cina and Rawajati in South Jakarta and Penjaringan, Kapuk Muara and Pluit in North Jakarta.

The agency only listed 39 of the total 167 subdistricts affected by the recent floods. They include Kelapa Gading, Pademangan Barat and Papanggo subdistricts in North Jakarta, despite the fact that they were not seriously affected by the floods.

When pressed on the matter, Sylviana Murni, the head of the population agency said that some flood-affected areas had not been placed on the list due to the residents' refusal to come to the subdistrict office for document processing.

"It is impossible that the two subdistrict offices were uninformed about the program. We have been publicizing the program since Feb. 14," she said.

When asked about the absence of banners or posters during the publicity process, Sylviana said that her office had only printed a limited number of banners and posters due to budget restrictions.