Humane treatment of job-seekers

Humane treatment of job-seekers

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Humane treatment for job-seekers

Beginning next week, the city administration will launch an operation to reorganize Jakarta's demographic population in anticipation of an influx of newcomers from throughout the region at the end of Idul Fitri.

As in previous years, Jakarta residents returning from their home villages will bring along thousands of friends or relatives.

Overall, these pilgrims come in search of jobs in the capital though they are, more often than not, just trying their luck -- as opposed to using their professional backgrounds to systematically apply for work.

It is these newcomers who eventually become part of the city's burgeoning, often informal, economy as manual laborers, domestic servants, hawkers, sidewalk vendors or sometimes more skilled workers like barbers or mechanics.

Jakarta is indeed a draw for lots of would-be settlers -- particularly for those from regions lacking adequate resources or infrastructure to provide job opportunities. Their villages have hardly any land to cultivate, nor do they offer employment in the form of factories or offices.

As Indonesian citizens, they deserve the right to earn a living anywhere in the country. Under the difficult economic conditions of today, Jakarta has no real way of restricting the arrival of job seekers either.

The newcomers, too, are obliged to heed the rules, however. In general, those wishing to settle here are required to hold identity cards, contribute to public order and grow accustomed to the norms of urban conduct, among other things.

It is our hope that the city government will put an even greater emphasis on a humane approach to these new arrivals at the first opportunity.

This can only happen when officials in charge of population affairs develop an empathy for their plight, and try better to understand them for who they are -- ordinary human beings.

-- Warta Kota, Jakarta