Jakarta's anti-migrant stance is illogical and inappropriate

Tigor Azas Nainggolan, Chairman, Jakarta Residence Forum (Fakta), Jakarta

The Jakarta provincial administration and the City Council are preparing a draft regional regulation on population and civil registration to control the influx of people from other regions, which reaches no less than 250,000 people annually, in view of the increasing population density in Jakarta.

Only a small number of the migrants are employed in the formal sector, leaving the rest to struggle to find work in the informal sector as housemaids, street vendors, traditional market sellers, pedicab drivers and scavengers, to mention a few.

These workers are seen as a problem for Jakarta's development for their alleged violation of Regional Regulation No.11/1988 on public order. The stigma of being the source of urban poverty and development problems has been attached to them, thus justifying their expulsion.

Jakarta has thus deemed it necessary to introduce a new regulation on poulation to prevent the influx of outsiders. The rule will stipulate that Jakarta citizens are only those who possess local identity cards (KTP) and have registered themselves with the regional administration. Newcomers will be allowed only 14 days to obtain a KTP and registration. Any illegals staying beyond this period will be expelled.

The question arises whether the argument to prevent migrants from entering the city is valid and if the new regulation is really necessary. Or is this move merely intended to cover up the regional administration's incompetence in providing services to the public and the weakness of its public order regulation so far used to expel its own citizens?

According to data from the Central Board of Statistics (BPS) in 1995, the net migration rate from this metropolis in the previous five years was 7.87 percent, with 1,222,800 people leaving Jakarta as against only 505,501 entering the city. During the period of 1990-2000 Jakarta's population increased considerably due to births, not newcomers. The 1.13 percent annual growth in South Jakarta, for instance, comprised 1.09 percent birth rate and 0.04 percent migration.

The BPS figures even put Jakarta below other provinces on the annual average population growth list except Maluku and North Maluku, with only 0.17 percent, still lower than the national average of 1.49 percent. This growth decline since 1980 is estimated to continue.

The BPS data leads us to conclude that there has been no increase in the number of migrants entering Jakarta so far. At the same time the figures indicate the provincial administration's lack of accurate data on which its operational policy must be based. Consequently, it has failed to draw up the right programs for its citizens, forcing it to proceed with untenable arguments, eviction and expulsion as well as public deception, without offering any concrete policy to enhance Jakarta's capacity to accommodate a larger population.

Meanwhile, the crime rate has also served as an excuse for the administration to close the city, making the public order operation code named operasi yustisi a mere slogan and a move to legitimize eviction drives. No correct information has been provided, let alone accurate data, on criminal offenses committed by migrants. This indicates that crimes are used to justify the population law and projects and operations worth over Rp 100 billion a year from the city's budget.

Further, are the Jakarta citizens from other regions a problem or a potential force for development? Based on results of a Jakarta BPS sidewalk vendor census in April 2001 and May 2001, about 107,940 vendors were recorded. They have so far paid illegal levies ranging from Rp 7,000 to Rp 10,000 daily or Rp 210,000 to Rp 300,000 monthly to the Jakarta government through henchmen, which is not being transferred to the regional treasury. The 107,940 vendors therefore spend roughly between Rp 22.6 billion and Rp 32.3 billion a month or between Rp 272 billion and Rp 388 billion a year for regional officials and their men.

The above illustration shows that the migrants would obviously constitute a potential source of income of at least Rp 272 billion and Rp 388 billion per annum for the Jakarta provincial administration, if their presence is recognized and the public order regulation revoked. There is no need to spend hundreds of billions of rupiah a year from the regional budget on eviction drives either. And the amount of money saved will be bigger if contributions from the other informal workers like pedicab drivers, market sellers and scavengers are calculated.

Thus all the arguments to support the need for a new regional regulation on population are illogical and inappropriate. They are only meant to cover up the incapability of developing Jakarta to allow more space particularly for the urban poor. Preventing newcomers from coming to Jakarta implies restricting citizens' mobility in their own country -- a practice of colonizers. Similarly, the KTP should serve to facilitate the movement of citizens instead of controlling and restricting their mobility.

Unless the Jakarta provincial government wishes to be branded a colonizer of its own citizens, it should cancel the plan to enforce the new population regulation and revoke existing regulation No. 11/1988. Instead, it should introduce a regulation to provide facilities for the mobility of its citizens and to guarantee clean regional governance. Controlling the movement of citizens and escalating their eviction only reflects the behavior of colonizers and an infringement of human rights.