Lack of public areas makes people stressed

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Lack of public recreation areas in the city causes many people, including children, to suffer from stress as they do not have enough places to ease the high tension resulting from the tough daily grind.

"People need open public spaces to ease the high tension caused by their tough routine," Jahja Hanafie an urban planning expert of the Indonesian Association of Planners (IAP) told the media on Thursday.

Jahja said the city's inconsistency in upholding property regulations had resulted in the decrease of public spaces significantly.

He cited the example of lenient sanctions given by the city administration against developers who violated the public facilities regulation, which requires them to provide up to 30 percent of their land area for social and public facilities.

He also deplored the city administration's plan to fence in the National Monument (Monas) park.

Jahja was speaking at a press conference to introduce the organization's working agenda for the next Jakarta governor. Other IAP's experts present included Holiq Raus, Abdul Alim Salam, Yayat Supriatna, and Wicaksono Sarosa.

Holiq said that the inadequate public spaces also encouraged children to play on the streets, in markets and other inappropriate places which tended to make unruly with some ending up as street children.

"This especially happens to poor families as they have only small houses and no money to go to other places," he said.

He noted that the availability of public places like parks, playgrounds and football fields were very important for children to develop their sportsmanship.

Unfortunately, he added, the development of the city has failed to provide enough public places as the city administration has only focused on physical development.

Data about the number of street children in the capital is sketchy, but data from the city administration shows that the figure is currently only around 9,000. Data from the Indonesian Children's Welfare Foundation (YKAI), however, places the figure up to 40,000.

Ib. Karyanto, chairman of Sanggar Anak Indonesia, a non- governmental organization which cares for street children, said the number of street children has continued to increase due to the economic difficulties of their families.

"For poor people, children can be an asset. Therefore there are many parents who ask them to work. Actually, there is no need to conduct a survey to confirm that the number of street children is increasing. We can clearly see more and more children singing on public buses, at traffic lights and other public places," he added.

Yayat Supriatna added that as many children spend a lot of their time on the streets and in the markets they lean toward violence.

He said that the rampant brawls among high school students in the city could be cited as an indication.

"Student brawls occur in all cities, but the number in Jakarta is extraordinarily high compared to other cities. Therefore whoever is elected governor in the next election should pay serious attention to the issue," Yayat said.