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".