Megawati 'supports' divisive policy

Megawati 'supports' divisive policy

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Megawati Soekarnoputri was quoted on Friday as
giving support to the city administration's controversial policy
of curbing the flow of migrants into the capital.

"The President asked whether the city administration was going
to continue to let migrants flood into the capital and whether it
was not necessary to establish rules to curb the movement,"
Governor Sutiyoso told reporters after meeting with Megawati.

According to the governor, the President is concerned that
riverbank squatters would return to live along the riverbanks
even though they had already been relocated.

"That means the city administration must think of ways to
limit the influx of migrants," he said.

The government is planning to relocate riverbank squatters,
who mostly consist of migrants, as their unauthorized settlements
are considered to be one of the causes of flooding.

Last December, Sutiyoso said the city administration would
issue a bylaw to reduce urbanization as Jakarta had become the
destination of villagers nationwide who were seeking a better
life.

The plan to make Jakarta a closed city, however, has received
strong criticism from activists. They say that any such bylaw
would fly in the face of the basic rights of Indonesian citizens
to travel to any part of the country, and that the plan was
simply a reflection of the administration's inability to solve
urban development problems in Jakarta.

Many thousands of people, including many with no skills, flock
to the capital every year. One of the most obvious problems
caused by the phenomenon is the emergence of slums in many areas,
including along Jakarta's riverbanks.