Synchronizing development
Synchronizing development
Jakarta's physical development has once again come under the
spotlight of public attention, and for obvious reasons. The
capital city of Southeast Asia's largest country, Jakarta, is
plagued by a host of problems that threaten its very livability.
A solution for most of those problems seems nowhere in sight.
On the contrary, many of them seem to have grown worse over
the past several years as settlers from the provinces continue to
come streaming in, straining the city's public facilities beyond
their limits.
Despite new road construction, traffic problems are getting
worse every year as an ever greater number of citizens and
commuters opt for driving their own private cars to escape the
city's appalling public transportation system. Seasonal floods
occur in greater frequency, inundating ever bigger areas of the
city as more and more agricultural land in the surrounding West
Java hinterland make way for housing developments and golf
courses. Clean water -- and clean air for that matter -- is
increasingly becoming a valuable commodity.
As in many other developing countries, urbanization is a major
headache for Jakarta. Obviously, Jakarta's problems cannot be
solved by the Jakarta city administration alone. Unless the
effective cooperation of other regions -- especially the
surrounding regencies of Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi -- can be
ensured, no satisfactory solution is possible.
It is not that this has not been long realized. It is to
establish precisely such a cooperation that a special agency to
coordinate development programs in Greater Jakarta -- the so-
called BKSP Jabotabek -- was created many years ago. As
experience has shown, however, the results have been paltry, not
to say nil altogether.
To be fair, the blame must not be placed at the BKSP's door.
For one thing, the agency's lack of authority to do what it was
expected to do -- that is, to coordinate Jakarta's and West
Java's diverse development programs -- made its existence
practically meaningless. For another, complicated and the time-
consuming administrative procedures, not to mention conflicting
regional interests, prevented the agency from performing
effectively.
Given all this, the recent establishment by the National
Development Planning Board (Bappenas) of a new coordinating team
provides hope that we may in the near future see a better
alignment of development efforts in this area. At the very least,
it means that the urgency for better coordination has been
sufficiently realized.
Basically, the Greater Jakarta idea is designed to lessen the
industrialization and urbanization pressures on Jakarta by
spreading out development efforts over a wider area. But for this
idea to work, effective coordination and synchronization of
development efforts is essential. As the floods which hit Jakarta
in recent years have so plainly shown us, unrestrained
development in the Bogor area can have disastrous consequences
for Jakarta.
The fact that various government agencies will be involved,
including those in the fields of nature conservation,
environment, transportation, as well as national planning and
government administration sends out a favorable signal. The fact
that the team is headed by a deputy chairman of the National
Development Planning Board is another good indication. For the
present, the best thing the public can do is to wait and see if
the new team will indeed live up to the public's expectations.