Planned ID card raids spark public confusion

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The plan by the city administration to mount ID card raids in a bid to discourage unskilled outsiders from coming to the capital in search of work has sparked public confusion and criticism, while officials seem to lack a proper blueprint for the plan.

Several people arriving from Surabaya at Senen railway station, Central Jakarta, said the planned raids were ridiculous.

Amri, a construction worker who lives in North Jakarta, had brought along his cousin who wanted to find work here.

"The plan is ridiculous. As an Indonesian citizen, why can't I enter the capital city to get a better life?" he asked.

An elderly woman looked apprehensive when a reporter asked her about the plan. Her husband said that they lived in Surabaya and had not brought their ID cards.

"We came from Surabaya to visit our daughter, who married a Jakartan," he said.

Head of the City Population Agency, Sylviana Murni, kicked off the raids campaign at the railway station on Friday morning.

The station has become a focal point for the campaign as unskilled newcomers often arrive here on economy class trains.

The campaign is designed to persuade newcomers not to come to the city without proper documentation such as ID cards and employment notifications. Similar campaigns were launched at the same time in four other mayoralties here.

Similar raids held in the past have proven futile, while activists have criticized them as a violation of human rights and a reflection of the city administration's inability to resolve urban development problems.

Yet Sylviana was determined to hold the raids from Monday until Thursday.

The annual raids cost around Rp 100 million.

During Friday's campaign, Sylviana and her colleagues handed out brochures to people arriving at the station.

However, the campaign was poorly managed and became largely ceremonial, while attracting considerable media coverage.

An officer from the station's management made an announcement over a loud speaker warning people not to stay in Jakarta without a permit. He said that illegal newcomers could be jailed for three months or fined Rp 5 billion, in accordance with Bylaw No.1/2001.

However, this information did not tally with the flier distributed by agency staff, which stipulated that illegal newcomers could be jailed for six months or fined Rp 50,000 as stated in Bylaw No.1/1996 on population.

Sylviana said that illegal newcomers would be charged under Bylaw No.1/2001. "Yes, we are handing out the old version of the brochures stipulating the old sanctions since we haven't had the new ones made yet. We will make the new punishments public through banners and announcements," she said.