Sutiyoso's challenge
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.