Jakarta's 499th Anniversary: Rano Karno Reveals Focus on Continuing Predecessors' Programmes

Continuing and completing the work of previous Jakarta governors is the main focus of the Jakarta Provincial Government under the leadership of Pramono Anung and Rano Karno.

This was stated by Jakarta Deputy Governor Rano Karno when discussing the significance of Jakarta’s 499th anniversary. According to him, a five-year leadership period is too short to introduce new programmes that run the risk of remaining unfinished.

“Therefore, if you ask what our programme is, we do not have a new programme. We are only continuing what previous Governors have done,” Rano said in an interview with CNN Indonesia.

He cited the removal of abandoned monorail pillars in the Jalan HR Rasuna Said area, which was recently carried out by the Jakarta Provincial Government, as an example. Following the removal, the area has now been refurbished.

“Perhaps for decades, no one dared to dismantle those monorail pillars, and thankfully, they were recently removed by the Governor,” he said.

He also touched upon river normalisation to combat flooding. Rano noted that river normalisation had been undertaken by previous governors.

“River normalisation was carried out during the era of Mr Jokowi, Bang Anies, and Ahok; we are continuing that river normalisation. Because in Jakarta, that is all we have—the Ciliwung and areas in West Jakarta. We are not going to open new rivers, for example,” he remarked.

Rano explained that the anniversary serves as a momentum to evaluate the development targets set within the Regional Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMD).

“The 5-year RPJMD remains, but we certainly divide it by year. How many kilometres of Ciliwung normalisation, how much road infrastructure, because the regional budget (APBD) must be allocated. So, the function of this year is to see whether our targets were achieved. Alhamdulillah, they were achieved. It is not just a ceremony,” he said.