Sutiyoso's challenge

How fares Jakarta's monorail system? A good question to ponder, but not an easy one to answer. No, indeed. Not even Jakarta's city fathers seem to have an answer that would satisfy the city's residents who have for years been yearning for a safe, comfortable and yet affordable public transportation system to go to work, or school, or to any of the steadily proliferating shopping malls, as the case may be.

For that matter, how fares the planned extension of the busway system now that the existing Blok M-Kota route has passed the acid test of public acceptance? It has been a long time since any news has been heard about this new extension that is supposed to run from the eastern part of the city to the west -- complementing the current north-south route. For weeks now, the foundations of the first concrete piles that were driven into the ground with so much pomp and ceremony a while ago, are standing deserted along Jl. Asia-Afrika in Senayan.

It seems that over the past several decades, the capital city has not managed to grow out of its classic problems, which stem from the inescapable pressures of overpopulation. It seems that the same problems that troubled governor Ali Sadikin in the late 1960s and early 1970s are still present under the city's current governor, Sutiyoso -- but have increased in scope and intensity.

Of course, Jakarta today is not the Jakarta of the 1970s, and Governor Sutiyoso is not Ali Sadikin. Still, a comparison between the two does not seem unfair since both have faced the same challenges and both have been dogged by the same, or similar, controversies.

To be sure, Jakarta has never been free of problems. Even in the 18th century, when it was a small walled Dutch colonial settlement named Batavia, the city was prone to regular floods and diseases -- which was the reason for its growth toward the healthier south, leading to the establishment of the elite residential areas of Menteng and Kebayoran Baru. Bad luck that Jakarta's big city allure, its apparent wealth and relatively high living standards, have worked like a magnet for the city, drawing people from elsewhere in the country toward it. The influx of huge numbers of migrants is Jakarta's most serious problem.

In the 1970s, governor Ali Sadikin sought to stem the tide by declaring the city closed to new settlers. The policy failed, not so much because of a lack of determination on the part of Ali Sadikin, but because of a lack of cooperation from governors and administrators in areas and provinces outside Jakarta. After all, how could he prevent citizens coming from other parts of the country from trying to improve their welfare in the nation's capital?

But if declaring Jakarta a closed city is not possible, what then can be done to prevent the quality of life from sliding further downhill? Simplistic as it may sound, a good part of the answer lies in better management of the city's traffic. Only a few years or even months ago, traffic along several of Jakarta's main streets and thoroughfares was still manageable, at least on certain hours or days.

At present, the same cannot be said of the city's traffic. Huge traffic jams clogging the city's toll roads are a daily sight during the morning and evening hours. Not only are office and other workers inconvenienced, the economic costs involved are huge. Many experts agree with Governor Sutiyoso that unless the rate of increase in the number of cars and other vehicles is stopped or lowered, it will not take long before the Indonesian capital city truly becomes unlivable -- which it already is, in the opinion of many.

In all this, however, the big question is, what are the chances that Governor Sutiyoso can solve this problem? Admittedly, this is a question that is hard to answer, not only for the public at large, but even for the governor and the city officials around him. However, if he can achieve this feat, he will no doubt go down in history as one of Jakarta's most effective governors -- as effective, perhaps, as his forerunner, Ali Sadikin.