Just do it, Sut!

Just do it, Sut!

Few people really believed in Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso's
sincerity when he said that he was ready to resign if people
wanted him out in the wake of the worst ever flood disaster to
hit Jakarta this week. What gave his silly game away was when he
added the caveat that he would only resign if proper mechanisms
and procedures to remove him from office were observed.

His remarks, made in response to widespread criticism of his
administration's poor handling of the flood disaster, have
instead portrayed him as arrogant. The remarks only add insult to
injury because they come at a time when many residents of this
city are crying for a helping hand, and demanding for some
semblance of professional accountability from the administration.
The last thing they wanted to hear today was some self-serving
empty rhetoric from their governor.

That there are growing public demands for Sutiyoso's head is
understandable. This week's flood disaster caps a long list of
policy failures by his administration, which has far exceeded its
welcome. This list includes its inability to deal with the
problems of Jakarta's garbage, traffic, housing, law enforcement
and public order, and corruption. The list goes on and on. Here
is an administration which is better known for creating new
problems, rather than solving old ones.

Even before this week's floods, Jakarta already barely
functioned as a city, with its poorly maintained physical
infrastructure stretched to the limit.

This is no better illustrated than the severe traffic
congestion that many Jakartans have come to accept as part of
their "normal" life. For many residents, spending two-to-three
hours on the road getting to work in the morning, and two-to-
three more hours getting home in the evening is part of their
daily chores. When the floods struck the capital this week, many
of these people spent double the amount of time on the road,
grumbling but resigned in their helplessness.

The flood has exposed an administration that is not only
ineffective and incompetent in preventing a disaster, even when
it had plenty of forewarning, but one that was totally impotent
when the disaster did strike.

The flood brought untold losses and misery to the city and its
residents that it is only right and proper if we demand some form
of public accountability from the Jakarta administration,
particularly from the governor.

At least 17 people were killed and five reported missing.
Nearly 200,000 people had to be sheltered because their homes
were flooded. Now they are just beginning to count the material
losses. Millions of productive man hours were lost during the
three days as only a few people managed to turn up for work
because of floods. How many millions of liters of gasoline were
burned as vehicles were stranded in traffic jams across Jakarta?
Add the stresses, frustrations and anxieties that the disaster
caused on the people, the material and nonmaterial losses are so
huge that it is only appropriate that someone should be held
accountable.

Instead of explanations, however, we have heard more and more
excuses from the administration about why Jakarta became flooded.
And it is almost always somebody else's fault.

We have heard officials blaming the construction in areas
meant for the city's catchment areas, and officials blaming the
poor for building settlements along riverbanks. We have heard
officials blaming residents for recklessly disposing of their
garbage.

While these arguments make sense, the officials forget that it
is their job as the local government to put these things in order
in the first place. It is precisely because they failed to do
their jobs that these things were allowed to happen and we had
the worst floods ever this week.

Jakarta could be a much better city to live and work in if the
administration knew what it was doing. As luck would have it, we
are stuck with a governor who knows very little at all about his
job and even less so about public accountability.

If Governor Sutiyoso has no real intention of resigning from
his job, he should not go around mouthing off about it, at a time
when there are many people angry at his incompetence. If he
really has the interests of the people at heart, he should follow
the advice of a famous logo of a sneaker brand: Just do it!