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Ethnic heterogeneity poses problems for the city

JAKARTA (JP): Ethnic heterogeneity, spurred on by rural-to- urban migration, leaves the city with a particular problem in carrying out the Least Developed Village Development (IDT) Program.

"The main objective of most people coming here is only to look for a job or make money. Their utmost concern is sending home the money they earn to help their families in their home villages," Governor Surjadi Soedirdja said yesterday.

Surjadi added that, "This makes them narrow-minded. They have no intentions of creating a healthy living environment."

The IDT program was launched this year by the national government throughout the country's 27 provinces, including Jakarta, to achieve even development across the country.

Results of a recent survey conducted by the City Development Planning Board shows that most migrants spend only 30 percent of their income in the city, while the rest is sent to their families in their hometowns.

Surjadi apparently referred to low-income people who live in slum areas or kampongs, the slums where many poor migrants live in ramshackle houses.

The governor also said that most migrants living in the city do not have a good sense of belonging, let alone sense of responsibility.

According to Surjadi, such attitudes are reflected in the way migrants respond to the Mohammad Husni Thamrin (MHT) kampong improvement project. This is a project designed to help kampong inhabitants by building better roads and installing electric and water facilities.

However, after they have their kampongs improved many of them sell or pawn the houses to housing brokers at cheap prices. Then they move to other locations to create poorly equipped, kampong slums, Surjadi said.

He said that if this continues again and again, the problem would become a vicious cycle of wasted government resources and land speculation.

The governor said that, as a result, the IDT program must focus on how to change the mentality of migrants and teach them how to work on their own. Surjadi added that this task is indeed very difficult to implement.

"At present, the city administration is trying to get patrons to help the poor start their own business."

The head of the City Development Planning Board, Eri Chayaridipura, said helping the city's poor people through the IDT program is difficult.

"Most city residents are migrants. Although they have been in Jakarta for 25 years, their hearts and minds are not here but in their hometowns. It takes a long time to develop a feeling of pride in where they are," Eri said.

According to him, the city administration has prepared a fund of Rp 10 billion to support the IDT program in the city's 11 least developed subdistricts. This is in the hope that they succeed in using the fund as working capital to start their business.

Through the IDT program, each poor subdistrict is entitled to Rp 20 million (US$9,520) per annum.

The 11 poor subdistricts include Galur in Central Jakarta, Kamal and Tegal Alur in West Jakarta, Cilincing, Kali Baru, Kapuk Muara, Kamal Muara subdistricts and four others in the Seribu Islands in North Jakarta. (06)