Is Jakarta shaping Indonesia's future

Is Jakarta shaping Indonesia's future

By Ignas Kleden

JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta celebrated its 470th anniversary on June
22, 1997. It is a relatively young city when compared to other
world metropolises and capital cities, though the criteria of
being old and young are very elastic. Berlin, the capital city of
the reunited Germany, is considered relatively young according to
European standards, though the metropolis was founded at the end
of the 12th century and became a union in 1307. For Southeast
Asia, Jakarta might be considered an old city in comparison to
Bangkok which was founded in 1782 or Singapore which was built by
Raffles in 1819.

But history is only one aspect of the city's development. Like
many big cities of developing countries, Jakarta has become a
center for many things, including business, administration,
education, finance, economic growth, population growth, art,
literature, media, intellectual life as well as criminality,
political uproar, environmental degradation, the socioeconomic
gap and traffic jams.

Jakarta Governor Surjadi Soedirdja recently highlighted
Jakarta's impressive economic growth and improving quality of
life. He said, for example, that the 1996 per capita income in
Jakarta was Rp 8,500,000 (US$ 3,512). This figure is impressive,
but it is tragic when compared to the income per capita in remote
provinces such as West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara. In
other words, is Jakarta an indicator of national development or
is it a special case on its own? Of course Jakartans can say with
good conscience that they are responsible for development in the
capital, and let the people in other provinces take care of their
own economy.

But we are accustomed to the so-called family principle. It is
therefore improper for one member to ignore what is happening to
other family members, especially when they are living in much
less fortunate circumstances. The problem of redistribution in
general and regional redistribution in particular will concern us
for a long time. One cannot explain away the challenge by saying
that everything takes time.

The same can be said of the decreasing number of people living
below the poverty line. The governor said that in 1996 only 2.48
percent of Jakartans lived below the poverty line. This means
243,040 people of Jakarta's 9.8 million people were living below
the poverty line. Given the 43 subdistricts in Jakarta, with
228,000 people on average populating each subdistrict, this means
that among the 43 subdistricts in Jakarta, only one subdistrict
was still living below the poverty line last year.

Speaking in analogical terms, the problem of poverty has now
become so minimized in Jakarta, that it takes only a head of the
subdistrict, and not a mayor or a governor, to solve it. If the
chief of the subdistrict is clever enough, perhaps in two or
three years every person in Jakarta will be above the poverty
line, and we can happily begin to embark upon the next stages of
prosperity. We are evidently lucky if that is really the case
with Jakarta.

But figures, just like language, can be used both to show and
to conceal the realities. One can eliminate a percentage of poor
people from the statistics just by introducing a new definition
with softer criteria and different variables, just as one can add
so many percentage of poor people by introducing more rigid
variables and another definition. But in doing so, one does not
change the real situation of the poor, just like you can't help
salvage the people who are starving by saying they are just
lacking some sort of food. Working with figures is of course
practical, but it often runs the risk of equating the real
realities with their numerical representation.

But in one regard, Jakarta looks like a miniature Indonesia
because it is here that ethnic groups from throughout the
archipelago meet. Coming to the capital city, they bring with
them their cultural habits, their culinary traditions, their
patterns of social interaction, as well as the legacy of their
traditional art. The genesis of Jakarta as a melting pot is now
being continued as it becomes a place for harmonia oppositorum, a
place where contradicting elements might coexist peacefully.
Needless to say, to be peaceful certain requirements should be
met in order that the people are able to cope with the changes
they are facing.

The first change undergone by the newcomers relates to the
physical culture. Jakarta's physical environment is totally
different from that in the village. One has to elbow one's way in
the street, in a manner which might be impertinent in the
villages. People come across other people without saying hello or
asking much ado about the order of the day. In other words,
social interaction is changing, whether one is willing to accept
it or not.

The most difficult change relates to the way of thinking, the
beliefs, and the worldview, things which become the innermost
part of a culture. This includes individual responsibility and
self-interest, a concept of time and punctuality, a concept of
space and limited housing, private ownership and its businesslike
attitude, competitiveness and alertness toward opportunities,
straightforwardness in speaking and practical attitude toward
material culture and the willingness to deal with new
development. Nothing is so established as might be the case in
the villages.

As Jakarta celebrates its 470th anniversary, the question now
is whether the capital is powerful enough to change people's
mind-set or if it will become a refuge for those wanting to
escape social control of the traditional economy in the villages
without coming to terms with the challenges of an urban, market
economy.