Newcomers

Newcomers to Jakarta

From Media Indonesia

The following are a few suggestions for the attention of the governor of Jakarta so that this city with its huge population of over 12 million can become a safer and a more comfortable place to live in.

An annual quota system should be adopted to control the number of newcomers to the city, with the prerequisite being that the persons concerned should already have a fixed job (or a contract for a job), or at least be guaranteed by a sponsor who can vouch for the person and cover his/her living costs for, say, three months.

In this way those arrivals with uncertain prospects will be reduced as well as preventing them from becoming beggars, prostitutes, criminals and so forth, thereby reducing crowding in the capital city.

The increasing number of vendors should also be controlled. They should be properly located and, not like in today's situation, permitted to occupy pedestrian areas, or worse, be relocated to underneath flyovers.

Among numerous spots in Jakarta, Blok M may be taken as a good example of the disorderly state of the capital, where even the parking area is occupied by the vendors.

Though not a Jakartan, I would like to see the capital city of the Republic of Indonesia transformed into a safe, comfortable, and clean city just like any exemplary (and influential) capital city.

R RINA GLORIOSA

Purwakarta, West Java