'Sutiyoso unable to handle urban problems'

'Sutiyoso unable to handle urban problems'

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

City Governor Sutiyoso's plan to propose a bylaw banning
outsiders, especially disadvantaged people, from entering the
Jakarta reflects his inability to tackle pressing urban problems
and his contempt for human rights, a local activist said.

"Every citizen is free to enter the capital -- freedom of
movement is a basic human right in the United Nations Convention
on Human Rights," said Azas Tigor Nainggolan, chairman of the
Jakarta Residents' Forum (Fakta), on Tuesday.

Every year, the number of people arriving the city increases,
especially after Idul Fitri Muslim festivities.

Last year was no exception. Jakarta received about 250,000
newcomers, most of them unskilled. And even though they failed to
make a decent life for themselves, they remained in the city.

In an effort to force such people out of the capital, city
administration officials had ordered operations to crack down
street vendors, becak (pedicab) drivers and others who were
considered of disturbing the public order.

Recently, they also evicted poor people living in the shanty
towns along the riverbanks, to prevent deaths and injury from
flooding.

Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea
strongly criticized the policy.

He called on the governor to immediately cease the evictions.
A visiting sociologist, Arief Budiman from Melbourne University,
meanwhile, publicly suggested that Sutiyoso accept reality, and
make peace with the poor.

The National Commission of Human Rights has joined in to
condemn the evictions, especially for having taken place ahead of
Ramadhan.

Overcrowding, pollution, traffic jams and other problems
commonly associated with disadvantaged people, are also a big
sign that the city has been lax in monitoring and upholding the
law, according to Tigor.

In the case of street vendors, for example, they were allowed
to continue operating after paying illegal bribes to local police
officers, or hoodlums in the area, he said.

With better monitoring, Tigor added, hundreds of billions of
rupiah allocated for public order operations could be saved.

Unfortunately, many city officials still viewed the operations
against the disadvantaged people as a project from which they
could make an easy profit.

Tigor said that, instead of issuing the bylaw to make Jakarta
a closed city, Sutiyoso should improve his policies in handling
the social problems that have accompanied the recent influxes of
newcomers.

Actually, Sutiyoso's idea was not new. Former Governor Ali
Sadikin once issued a gubernatorial decree, No. 35/1970, which
declared Jakarta as a closed city. The decree banned outsiders
from living here without permanent jobs or houses.

The decree, however, has never been implemented due to
criticism that it violates human rights.

Jakarta is now home to at least 8.3 million people, but during
the day the number surges to about 11 million, when people from
bufferzone areas of Tangerang, Bekasi and Depok come to work
here.