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

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)