Home Affairs Minister emphasises urban governance amid urbanisation issues

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Minister of Home Affairs Muhammad Tito Karnavian has reminded of the importance of planned and sustainable urban management amid the continuously increasing flow of urbanisation. In his address, the Minister emphasised that cities are currently the national economic centres as well as the most vulnerable points to various social problems. “If not managed well, they will become victims. Insufficient education, unable to compete, eventually they could enter crime,” said Tito in his statement in Jakarta on Monday. This step is deemed crucial to ensure that city growth remains productive, inclusive, and able to improve the quality of life for the community. The matter was conveyed by the Minister when he became the keynote speaker at the Working Meeting of Regional Commissariat I of the Association of Indonesian City Governments (APEKSI) in Banda Aceh City, Aceh. He explained that uncontrolled urbanisation phenomena would trigger various problems such as slum areas, increased criminality, and high cost of living pressures in cities. Indirectly, the Minister described that the role of cities in Indonesia is very strategic because they are centres of economic activity and home to the majority of the population. He even touched on the experience of advanced countries like Japan which experienced serious impacts due to extreme urbanisation. According to Tito, if city development is not well designed, the long-term effects could be very severe, from high living costs to declining quality of life for the community. He also highlighted the importance of disciplined urban spatial planning. “A good city is a city that has a design. Not a city that grows haphazardly,” he stated. The Minister also warned that inconsistent policies, especially changes in green spaces to commercial areas, would directly impact disasters such as flooding. In addition, added Tito, cities in Indonesia are still not friendly to pedestrians and have minimal open green spaces, whereas this has been proven to improve the quality of life for the community. In this context, the Minister exemplified practices in other countries, such as Singapore, which has successfully reduced healthcare costs through the development of green spaces and good public facilities. Tito reiterated that local governments must be able to control city growth so that it does not become a source of new problems. Indirectly, he reminded that without thorough planning, cities could turn from centres of growth into centres of crisis.