Observers criticize Sutiyoso's 5-year plan

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Urban observers criticized the five-year strategic plan (Renstra) of Governor Sutiyoso, saying that he was giving too little priority to a variety of significant urban issues, such as poverty, the environment and transportation.

Chairwoman of the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) Wardah Hafidz said the five-year plan still contained no concrete ideas on how to resolve the urban poverty problems that had been ignored during his previous five year administration.

"Just as I thought, Sutiyoso will not prioritize the resolution of urban poverty problems in the city. He also perceives the urban poor as unproductive citizens," Wardah said.

Wardah added that policies opposed to the urban poor were also being promoted by Sutiyoso through his policy on population migration, which will strictly control the flow of poor migrants into the city.

He has repeatedly stated that people could migrate to Jakarta if they had sufficient money to support themselves; if they wished to become Jakarta citizens, they would have to be able to show that they had a job to go to and a place to live.

She regretted that Sutiyoso had not changed his policy on the urban poor in his second term, which will end in 2007.

Tubagus Haryo Karbianto of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta), who deals with environmental affairs, also criticized the governor's plans for the environment.

Tubagus cited as an example that the city administration planned to increase green areas in the city, but the strategic plan provided no detail on how to achieve it.

Based on the master plan 2010, the city will increase its open space to up to 13.94 percent of the total area of Jakarta's 645 square kilometers. Open space currently accounts for about 9 percent of the total.

"Without any detail on how to achieve this goal, I am skeptical that the green area will increase as we have often seen inconsistencies in Sutiyoso's environment policies," he added.

According to Tubagus, Sutiyoso's administration had developed several sites, which should have been retained as green areas or open space, into commercial facilities, such as the sports mall at Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta.

Other examples, said Tubagus, included shopping center developments and other buildings at Senayan, Central Jakarta.

Both Tubagus and Wardah also criticized Sutiyoso's plan on urban transportation. "Mass rapid transit (MRT) systems have repeatedly been mooted, but he has never really been serious in implementing them," Tubagus said.

Another example, he said, was that Sutiyoso and his officials often made contradictory statements over the busway project, which will connect Blok M, South Jakarta, with Kota, Central Jakarta.

Tubagus added the city administration had not implemented a proper MRT system as so far it had only focused on road transportation, the development of which would never be able to accommodate the growth of vehicles in the city.

Wardah added that the city administration was not serious in the MRT project because the city's income was significantly derived from taxation on private cars, whose number increased every year.

"You may be aware that private cars use around 80 percent of the roadspace in Jakarta, while the majority of travelers are packed like sardines into city buses or commuter trains," she added.

On Tuesday, a number of councillors also criticized the five- year strategic plan after the governor presented it at a City Council plenary session. They said that it contained only banal generalities and lacked detail.

The council has until the end of this month to discuss it and decide whether or not to approve it.

Sutiyoso's strategic plan:

1. Poverty: Improving city administration policy on social welfare to guarantee services and protection for those experiencing social welfare problems.

2. Environment: Empowering the public to deal with pollution, providing green areas, inviting the public to manage city parks and forests and enforcing legislation on the environment.

3. Transportation: Maintaining and developing roads and bridges, including facilities for pedestrians; improving the quality of services and public transportation, improving cooperation with adjacent urban areas at Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi.