Talks on new status, face of Jakarta start

Talks on new status, face of Jakarta start

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With the start of deliberation on the law on Jakarta's status and
the idea of relocating central government offices to the suburbs
reintroduced on Wednesday, chances are Jakartans will see a new
face of the city in the future.

Jakarta Regional Representative Council (DPD Jakarta) deemed
that the relocation an answer to the limited space available for
further development in the city.

"That will give more leeway for the Jakarta administration to
rebuild the city in line with the needs of its residents. I think
the problems in the city, like transportation, office space,
housing and green areas, will be solved," said council member
Sarwono Kusumaatmadja.

Sarwono said the central government could also enjoy spacious
offices to improve its services to the public in a place that
"must be accessible to both the public as well as civil
servants".

Similar ideas had been fronted by former president Soeharto
in the early 1990s when the government planned to move the
government offices to the area of Jonggol in Bogor, started with
the relocation of the military headquarters to Cilangkap, East
Jakarta. But no other institutions followed suit.

The idea to move the government offices came up in response to
Governor Sutiyoso's complaint over various urban problems in the
capital, caused in part by an influx of between 200,000 and
250,000 migrants seeking work every year.

"The influx of unskilled migrants into the city has been a
headache since the city has to provide new housing, job
opportunities, means of transportation and schools for them,
too," said Sutiyoso.

He said that the migrants had made the city densely populated
with over than 14,000 residents living in one square-kilometer
area.

The House of Representatives said on Wednesday that it had
established a special committee to deliberate the revision of Law
No. 34/1999 on special administration of Jakarta as part of
efforts to give greater autonomy to the administration.

Legislator Ferry Mursidan Baldan said that the revision of the
law would be put on the priority list, with expectations it will
be completed within seven months.

The draft of the revised law had been proposed by the House to
the State Secretariat during the administration of president
Megawati Soekarnoputri last year. The draft had been passed on to
the Ministry of Home Affairs before being returned to the House
for final deliberation.

Ferry called on the Jakarta administration to establish a
special team to help prepare input to the committee over issues
and problems relating to the revision of the law.

"Jakarta is in dire need of focus to define its status as a
special province as distinct from other provinces countrywide,"
he told participants of a seminar on The fate of Jakarta ahead of
the Revision of Law No. 34/1999.

Meanwhile, Sutiyoso hoped that the revision of the law would
allow his administration to gain the autonomy to manage its own
area with less intervention from the central government.

He alluded to the government's intervention in prohibiting
Jakarta from developing the Jakarta New Port in North Jakarta and
inner city highways as examples of "how the central government
has undermined the administration's autonomy".