Flood victims skeptical about free city services
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.