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.