Satellite cities create exclusive enclaves: Expert
Satellite cities create exclusive enclaves: Expert
JAKARTA (JP): The spread of satellite cities in Jakarta's
neighboring towns of Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi is pushing out
the local people, most of whom are too poor to afford such
housing, says a leading urban planning expert.
Djoko Sujarto, a professor at the Bandung Institute of
Technology (ITB), said these new satellite cities are not making
provisions for the people whose land was procured for the
projects, the Antara news agency reported.
It is even more sad to find that many of the houses built and
sold in the satellite cities are left unoccupied because the
owners usually live in Jakarta, Djoko said in his scientific
oration at the ITB campus on Friday.
The three neighboring cities have virtually been incorporated
into the capital city as a result of Jakarta's rapid expansion.
The first of these was Bintaro Jaya in South Jakarta that
expanded into Tangerang. Then there is Bumi Serpong Damai also in
Tangerang, and more recently Lippo Village in Tangerang and Lippo
City in Bekasi. The sprawling administrative town of Depok in
Bogor has also virtually become part of Jakarta.
Djoko said that between 1985 and 1991, there were no less than
240 developers who applied to build 490,000 houses on some 8,100
hectares of land in the three townships.
Although incorporated into the Greater Jakarta Area, more
popularly referred to as Jabotabek (Jakarta-Bogor-Tangerang-
Bekasi), administratively, the three townships are under the West
Java provincial government.
Djoko said the previous inhabitants of areas that have been
procured for satellite cities were mostly laborers, farm workers
and small entrepreneurs. Very few of the former residents could
afford the houses that were built by the developers.
The stark contrast in the welfare between the former residents
and the newcomers has turned these satellite towns into exclusive
enclaves, he said.
Djoko said his investigation into the new satellite cities
found a disturbing fact that some of the land procured was once
productive farm land that had been connected with an irrigation
network.
The new townships have also disturbed the ecological balance
of the surrounding areas because they eliminated zones that had
previously been used for water catchment, and are polluting the
water and the air. More and more areas have now become prone to
floods. Then, there is also the over exploitation at quarrying
sites as developers dig out materials for construction, he said.
The presence of new satellite cities has further complicated
traffic and transportation problems because the majority of their
inhabitants commute each day to their work places in Jakarta, he
said.
In his paper, Djoko traced the establishment of satellite
cities in Indonesia back before World War II and concludes that
the present phenomena is not unprecedented.
He pointed out the establishment of Kotabaru (new city), in
Bandung, specially made for the Dutch community. Kebayoran Baru,
now an elite area in south Jakarta, was established in 1949-50,
Kotabaru in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, was established in
1954 and Kotabaru in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, was
established in 1955.
The kotabaru in Indonesia however violate the principle and
objective of the concept of "garden city" as promulgated by
Britain's Sir Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928), Djoko said.
Put simply, the concept calls on the creation of cities that
put people more in harmony with their surroundings. (emb)