Influx of migrants a headache for the city administration

By Ida Indawati Khouw

JAKARTA (JP): The manic frenzy of the annual Idul Fitri exodus left behind it a pool of calm which will be finally shattered with most returning Jakartans expected back today.

The city administration says more than 2.85 million people left Jakarta for Lebaran this year and they are expected to follow the annual trend and return with some 300,000 friends or relatives in tow.

The bright lights of Jakarta, it would appear, are still a strong magnet for country people who dream of a better life.

For years the annual influx of would-be city dwellers who arrive in the wake of returning workers has created a headache for the government because few of the newcomers have marketable skills.

Now, with the worsening economic crisis battering the city the expected increase is adding to its woes.

Head of City Council Commission E for Social Welfare Affairs Soeparmo said: "There's no hope of these people getting jobs here now.

"As we all know, our draft state budget predicted zero economic growth; and economic activities are relatively dead now so how can the city provide them with jobs?"

Governor Sutiyoso earlier called on Idul Fitri travelers not to add to the city's problems when they returned.

"Holidaymakers, please don't bring back any of your relatives or friends, Jakarta is already too crowded. Don't burden the city," he urged.

He said "this is only an appeal" and that the government would not punish travelers who bring anyone to the city.

Worried about the potential social and economic impacts of many new jobless inhabitants, the city administration is looking for ways to deal with the problem.

One possible solution is to prevent all people without proper identity cards from entering the city.

Deputy Governor for Administrative Affairs Abdul Kahfi said the city would reenforce a six-year-old operation to catch people trying to enter the city without proper identity cards or employable skills.

Everyone rounded up in the so-called Yustisi Operation will be discouraged from moving to the city.

Head of the supervision and investigation division of the city population agency, Soedarsono, said the operation would be a kind of counseling program.

This operation was first launched in 1992 based on City Regulation No.5/1991 on Resident Registration and Identity Cards in Jakarta -- in an attempt to solve Jakarta's population size problem, Kahfi said.

"Jakarta belongs to everybody, but the city has a limited accommodation capacity. With these influx control measures we hope the size of the city's population can be kept to reasonable levels.

"We urge people without proper identity cards to go back to their hometowns. What's more, it is unsafe for them to travel without proper identity cards, especially if something bad happens (to them)."

Some scholars and city councilors doubt strategies to limit the number of inhabitants will solve the problem.

Mayling Oey-Gardiner, director of Insan Harapan Sejahtera Social Science Research Consultancy, once said that sealing off the cities was pointless unless the core of the problem was addressed.

She said urbanization was caused by poor management of economic activities, which were often concentrated in cities.

"Closing off cities will not work. I suggest the government draft economic policies to promote investment beyond Java, instead," she said.

Mayling said tax reductions, the facilitation of business permits and greater access to land outside urban centers were examples of economic incentives that could help reduce urbanization.

City councilor Lukman Mokoginta also believes that implementing control measures in Jakarta alone will not solve the problem.

"Other towns should help by creating employment back in the villages so that the people do not have to make a run for the capital," he said.

"It is important that the central government develop other cities until they become as big and attractive as Jakarta so that people will then have choices of places to migrate to," he said.

Sociologist Paulus Wirutomo from University of Indonesia said it was ridiculous and impossible for the city administration to hold back the flood of migrants by checking ID cards.

However, councilor Soeparmo and Nitra Arsyad from City Council Commission E for Social Welfare affairs both support the administration's campaign.

They say the city should enforce tighter control measures to handle the problem.

Nitra, however, believes the ID checking operation should be a last resort.

Preventative not repressive action should be taken by the city, he said.

"The mechanism should be that people are prepared before they leave for the Idul Fitri holiday. This should be done by telling them that there will be an ID checking operation running when they return, so that they will think twice before bringing friends or relatives back with them," he said.