ID card raids ineffective and ridiculous, critics say

ID card raids ineffective and ridiculous, critics say

Primastuti Handayani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Critics condemned the Jakarta administration for continuing
its controversial door-to-door ID card raids Wednesday, saying
the policy violated human rights, and was also ineffective and
ridiculous.

Dadan Umar Daihani, director of the research department of
Trisakti University, said he did not see the point of the raids
and claimed they would be ineffective in solving current
problems.

"Is it true that someone is only allowed to work and be in the
province or city where he comes from? That's too much. It limits
one's mobility. What will happen if an Irianese travels to
Jakarta to see Monas (the National Monument) and fails to show a
Jakarta ID card? Does it mean he can't visit the capital?" asked
Dadan, who is also the chairman of the university's industrial-
technical post-graduate program.

"If the administration is conducting the raids to prevent
urbanization, the policy will definitely be ineffective. Do they
really want Jakarta to be an exclusive area?

"I don't see the urgency (of the raids). Is it to prevent
urbanization or crime? It seems the officials have nothing else
to do," he told The Jakarta Post.

Tubagus Haryo Karbyanto, head of the city and urban society
division of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, said that the
officials should stop the raids as they went against human
rights.

"They always claim to be conducting such raids to regularize
illegals as they don't have Jakarta ID cards. Their actions,
however, violate people's human rights as regards freedom and the
right to live in any part of the country."

He also questioned the procedures employed during the raids.

"Do the officials involved in the raids carry warrants from
the local district court? What usually happens is the officials
assault the residents."

In Tuesday's raids, 1,763 people were checked and 549 of them
were tried. A total of 76 were set free while 473 people were
fined. Thirty-seven others will be sent back home next month
after spending a month in the Kedoya rehabilitation center in
West Jakarta.

Tubagus claimed that during the trials the accused were not
informed of the violations they were alleged to have committed
nor their rights.

He also said that should the administration want to regularize
population affairs, it should set its own house in order first.

"How many civil servants at City Hall live in Jakarta? Most of
them reside on the outskirts of the capital. The first targets
for the raids should be within the administration itself, if we
want to be that extreme ..."

Urban Poor Consortium chairwoman Wardah Hafidz said separately
that the raids not only violated the people's rights but also
failed to solve the problem.

"It doesn't solve the problem. These persons can only do these
sort of jobs and they don't disturb others. Given that the
administration is checking on non-Jakarta people, are Jakartans
going to be treated the same way if they visit Yogyakarta or
Surakarta? Are we going to set up city states?"

She said that the ID card raids would not help to establish
order in the city, let alone solve urban and social problems.

"In general, urbanization is a national issue. As the capital,
80 percent of the money goes to Jakarta. Therefore, numerous
workers come to the city to find jobs."

"The government should implement decentralization to provide
more job vacancies throughout the country."