Observers criticize Sutiyoso's 5-year plan

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.