Getting more polluted

When Director General for Land Transportation Iskandar Abubakar launched the idea of having all private vehicles undergo a roadworthiness test in 2003, he was met with strong resistance from the public. There was widespread suspicion that the test would be a ruse to extort money from motorists.

Tests for roadworthiness have been enforced for years but only on commercial and public transport vehicles. However, the only testing station in East Jakarta has become a den of bribery. Car owners prefer to bribe the officials in charge to get a certificate for their vehicles, which in fact should not be given one due to their poor condition.

A road worthiness test, including an emission test, would be an appropriate way to curb the already serious levels of air pollution in Jakarta. And Abubakar seemed to have found the best way to help keep Jakarta's air clean. The problem is that the vehicle road worthiness test has become a profitable illegal business for the officials in charge.

Tests for vehicles for commercial use is no doubt a total failure, and the test for private cars planned by Abubakar has been aborted. The obvious result is that there are run-down and noisy vehicles, mostly city buses, emitting clouds of thick black smoke from their exhaust pipes freely plying the city streets.

Jakarta, the third most polluted city in the world after Bangkok and Mexico City, urgently needs to do something to curb air pollution.

With at least 2.5 million private cars, 3.8 million motorcycles and 255,000 public transportation vehicles traversing the city streets every day (according to 2004 official records), the capital needs a serious commitment from its citizens and its administrator to clean up the city's air.

Official records showed in 2003 that the city had 1.2 million private cars and 2.3 million motorcycles.

Moves and campaigns for clean air have been launched. The Blue Sky program which encouraged motorists to use unleaded gasoline had apparently failed, with no single institution claiming responsible for the failure. With poor law enforcement, violations of Law No. 14 on traffic and land transportation continue, despite harsh punishment stipulated by the law.

Article 54 of the 13-year-old law says, states, among other things, that anyone operating a vehicle that is not roadworthy is subject to three months in jail or a maximum fine of Rp 3 million. The law, which drew controversy when deliberated by the House of Representatives, also stipulates that those violating the tolerable emission limits are subject to a two-month jail sentence or a Rp 2 million fine. Surprisingly, there have been no reports of motorists jailed or fined for those offenses, as violations can be settled illegally on the street.

Though vehicles are not the only contributors to air pollution in the capital, it is quite clear that the administrator's seriousness in curbing air pollution is questionable.

The five air monitors now standing at separate points in Jakarta display inaccurate, outdated data. A researcher of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) has revealed that the air pollution indexes displayed by the monitors are years out of date, therefore they could not function as an early warning instrument for the public. Maintenance is another serious matter. This means that the exact level of air pollution in Jakarta is thus unknown. If that is the case, how can air pollution be dealt with properly?

The researcher also said that the city of 12 million people needed at least 60 monitors, not five. It is not surprising then that a South Korean professor who visited Jakarta at the end of April said that Jakarta was more polluted now compared to when he first visited the city five years ago. "The most noticeable change I found was the level of (air) pollution in Jakarta. It has become much worse," said the academician who has traveled many big cities around the world.

Sharing his experience when he visited India, he said that New Delhi, which is like Jakarta in terms of pollution and was badly polluted several years ago, is now much cleaner. The New Delhi administration now uses the European standard emission limit, and in the future, they will improve on the standard, he said.

If the New Delhi administration can make their city cleaner, why can't Jakarta?

We have to admit, whether we like it or not, that poor law enforcement is the main contributor to the failure of efforts to reduce air pollution. And, we are all aware that poor law enforcement is a reflection of poor leadership within the administration.

Therefore, the administrator should be held responsibility for the failure. The promulgation of a bylaw on air pollution control on Feb. 4, 2005 and political rhetoric are meaningless, unless law enforcement, including actions against fraudulent officials, is toughened.