Jakarta no longer a safe place to live: Minister, academic

JAKARTA (JP): A minister and a sociologist agreed on Tuesday that Jakarta was no longer a safe or healthy place to live due to its uncontrollable growth and development.

Speaking in a seminar to commemorate World Habitat Day 1998, State Minister of Housing and Settlement Theo L. Sambuaga and noted sociologist Sardjono Jatiman said the country's capital was swamped with a vast array of problems, from inadequate housing, rising crime and security fears to natural disasters and a polluted environment.

"The city is overloaded with social problems and other related predicaments. Therefore, creating a better and healthy habitat is an urgent issue at the moment," Theo told the media after opening the two-day seminar.

"We'll see later if some parts of the capital can be put in order, especially the poor enclaves," he said.

The plan to have a better habitat could be started by developing more low-cost apartments which could help create a better living environment although the work would not be easy due to the city's complex problems, the minister added.

According to Sardjono from the University of Indonesia, the capital had turned into a big survival pit where people from all walks of life faced numerous threats.

"It's not a safe place anymore as residents, ranging from the poor people to wealthy families, now faced a variety of threats including existing buildings, the bad quality of the environment, air pollution and an escalating crime rate," he said at the seminar.

He said that some parts of the densely populated metropolis were prone to fire, flood and even drought.

The unfavorable situation was exacerbated by the prolonged economic turmoil which had seen the number of unemployed in the capital and its surrounding areas soar, Sardjono said.

The better off tended to build their own environment by establishing exclusive residential estates for security and safety reasons.

Unfortunately, he said, such efforts were apparently inadequate as they created social jealousy.

"The social envy is an unpredictable motive for crime," the sociologist said.

During the mid-May riots, hundreds of luxury houses, mostly owned by Chinese-Indonesians, were ruined, looted and set ablaze.

"Even in luxury housing complexes and flush real estates robberies and murders are often reported," Sardjono, who is scheduled to be a speaker at the seminar on Wednesday, said.

The meeting is being organized by Theo's office.

Earlier in the day President B.J. Habibie opened a seminar on housing at the State Palace, also in observance of World Habitat Day 1998.

In his speech, Habibie pledged to continue rejuvenating the city's slum areas to turn them into suitable living areas.

"One way of doing this is to build simple apartment buildings," he said.

"This effort should involve not only the government but the private sector and the people as well, because without them, it would be difficult to create a comfortable and peaceful city for us to live in," he added.

The President noted that improving the city's physical appearance needed expertise and proper urban planning.

Indonesia's cities, he said, evolved unchecked from kampongs to small, medium and large cities.

Because there was no urban planning, the kampong turned into a crowded city, he explained, adding that improving such places would use up a lot of money.

He however stressed that such spending was a must.

In his address, Theo said his ministry was planning to build 100,000 simple and very simple houses this fiscal year. (emf/bsr)