Seribu islands now a regency

Seribu islands now a regency

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After being delayed twice, Kepulauan Seribu was finally
inaugurated on Friday by Governor Sutiyoso as a new regency with
Kamil Abdul Kadir appointed as the first regent.

The inauguration ceremony was held on Pramuka island. The
islands, located in Jakarta Bay, were previously a district under
the North Jakarta mayoralty.

At present there are 106 islands in the group but most still
struggle to cope with serious problems such as poor public
facilities and transportation, limited electricity, a lack of
fresh water and increasing environmental damage.

On Pramuka island, which will be the capital of the regency,
the residents only enjoy electricity for 12 hours a day, starting
from 6 p.m. There is no tap water and they have to rely on the
rain for fresh water as the ground water is brackish.

Those issues were raised by Sutiyoso in his speech, explaining
that the problems had affected the residents economically and
socially. Some 74 percent of 17,800 residents work as traditional
fishermen and most of those are near the poverty line.

However, the economic level of the residents is contrasted
with the Seribu image, which is of a relatively upmarket holiday
area with some expensive resort islands. Most of those resorts
are managed by private companies, or have become the private
property of certain tycoons.

Despite the economic condition of the majority of the
residents, the islands have been nearly neglected by its
administration officers. According to several Pramuka island
residents, the most recent district head refused to live on the
island.

"The district head and his family live in Jakarta. He came
here to do his job from 9 to 5 but his wife only came here when
there was an event," a 45-year-old resident said.

Sutiyoso specifically ordered the new regent to live on the
island and socialize with the residents so that he could
experience the problems, and not just hear about them.

Sutiyoso told reporters later that he gave the new regent six
months to set up the new regency. "If there is no improvement, we
will evaluate his position."

Separately, several residents on Pramuka island told The
Jakarta Post that they expected the new status to improve their
welfare. "We don't expect much. Just give us jobs," said Ali.

Ali's colleague, Rahmat, said he had heard that there was a
plan by the city administration to open a gambling center in the
islands. He said that the residents would support the plan in
hopes that they may be hired by the proposed casino.

Sutiyoso recently unveiled his plan to establish entertainment
and gambling centers on several islands, but that has, so far,
received mixed reactions from the city councillors as well as the
public.