Jakarta needs strict, consistent law enforcement
JAKARTA (JP): The city administration should improve law enforcement to overcome the numerous social problems emerging along with rapid economic development, two observers say.
The advice comes from renowned psychologist Sarlito Wirawan and Bambang Widjoyanto, the operations director of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation.
Both Sarlito and Bambang expressed concern over law enforcement in Jakarta, which has about 10 million people and an ever-widening gulf between rich and poor.
They were interviewed in connection with the city's 468th anniversary on June 22.
"What we need, in order to alleviate the various social problems, is even-handed law enforcement," said Sarlito, who teaches psychology at the University of Indonesia.
He said that during former governor Ali Sadikin's term the law was enforced indiscriminately in respect of both ordinary and powerful people.
"For example, people were allowed to open casinos as long as they did not break any law. But now? The administration is swaying with the wind," he said.
Sadikin, a retired marine lieutenant-general, now well-known as an ardent critic of the government, was governor of Jakarta from 1967 until 1977. He is remembered for his innovative ideas about Jakarta's development.
According to Sarlito, Jakarta has the potential to become one of the world's foremost cities.
"The traffic here is still better than, for example, in Bangkok or Manila. Hotels are good, albeit expensive. Many coffee shops are open 24 hours. Transportation is okay," he said.
He ridiculed suggestions that Jakarta be closed to newcomers in order to check population growth. He argued that one of the best ways to curb people's movement to urban centers like Jakarta was for the central bureaucracy to give more autonomy to local governments.
Meanwhile, Bambang said that law enforcement in the city was appalling.
He said that security authorities are "very harsh" when dealing with crimes involving ordinary people, but otherwise when handling crimes involving people from the middle and upper classes.
In a recent crackdown on street violence, for instance, the authorities arrested thousands of suspected street hoodlums but in the crackdown on drug trafficking -- which is generally believed to involve individuals in powerful positions -- only a few arrests were made, he said.
"The authorities also increasingly use violence in dealing with common criminals. We often hear that suspected criminals have been shot because they were 'trying to escape'" he said.
Bambang said that land disputes in the city were on the rise as development continued. People in the suburbs were being forced to surrender their land, often the source of their livelihoods, in order to make way for projects, he said.
"Where demolition (of people's homes) is concerned, people only think about the compensation and never consider the question of human dignity," he said.
In some areas, such as Kemayoran and Manggarai, it was consortia of private companies -- not the state -- that were displacing residents, he added.
"They (the people) should have been involved in the developments in order that they, too, might have derived some benefit from the projects without losing their homes," he said.
The administration's efforts to accommodate the displaced people had also given rise to various legal problems, he said, because of the legal uncertainty surrounding the land acquisition process.
Numerous residents interviewed by the Jakarta Post said they were concerned about traffic congestion, bad public transportation, seasonal flooding, corruption and the lack of public telephones.
But they were doubtful that the host of social problems in Jakarta would deter people from poor areas flocking to the capital in the hope of prospering here. (hbk/bsr/29/pan)