Thousand Islands, a new regency need of people first development

Thousand Islands, a new regency need of people first development

Benget Simbolon Tnb., The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta city administration inaugurated Kepulauan Seribu
(Thousand Islands) off the North Jakarta coast as a new regency
in November, but many problems have still been left unsolved.

The 69,976-square-kilometer mini archipelago has great
potential in terms of tourism and marine-based industries. But
its basic infrastructure is very poor.

Most residents of the 110 islands only enjoy electricity for
12 hours a day, often less or none at all depending on the
particular island. And recently, for about three weeks, the
islands were hit by a total blackout due to technical problems
with the electric supply.

The islands are heavily dependent on sea transportation. But
the new regency does not yet have anything resembling a reliable
transportation system. As a result, residents cannot easily and
comfortably travel to Jakarta or to other islands in the area
unless they own a reliable seagoing vessel.

In terms of public facilities, the new regency, which is home
to about 17,000 residents, has only one Puskesmas or public
health center, four elementary schools, one junior high school
and one high school. As a regency it should have more public
facilities.

Residents in the area often find it very difficult to readily
access clean water and are usually required to gather rainwater
by crude catchment systems built around their homes.

The new regency is also facing serious environmental problems.
The most striking of which is the shrinkage or in many cases
complete submersion of many islets due to the destruction of
their protective coral reefs. It is estimated that some 70
percent of the islands are surrounded by reef. Other threats are
abrasion and over-exploitation of sand.

Several islands, including Umbi Besar, Umbi Kecil, Air Kecil,
Air Sedang, Nyamuk Besar, Dapur, Van der Smith and Jong, have
been sinking due to serious abrasion and environmental
destruction.

A number of islands have been literally shrinking into
oblivion. One, the historically valuable Onrust island home to an
old Dutch fortress, was reported to have shrunken from 12
hectares to nine in recent years.

At present there are 110 islands left in the group. If the
administration does not pay serious attention to this
environmental degradation then more islands will disappear in the
future.

The damage to the coral reefs is caused by the practices
employed by certain fishermen in which explosives are used to the
blow up the reef, and kill as many fish as possible to sell at
the market place. In the process they kill thousands of other
living organisms as well as the reef itself. Another reef killer
is unregulated poaching of the aesthetically pleasing coral which
is also sold. Rampant illegal mining of sand and global warming
are also factors in island destruction.

Environmental problems on the islands may worsen if the
government does not take the necessary steps to deal with them.
Trash problems, for example, which are still an unresolved
dilemma there, may worsen in the near future. People inside and
outside of the islands should not be allowed to simply throw
their trash -- especially toxins and plastics -- into the sea
because it will destroy all of the sea life that remains
eventually.

The private ownership of some of the islands has also
contributed to some basic social problems in the island group.
Some 44 of the 110 islands are privately owned by wealthy
individuals, including Probosutedjo, the half-brother of former
president Soeharto and several of Soeharto's children -- Bambang
Trihatmodjo and Siti Hardiyanti "Tutut" Rukmana -- Ponco Sutowo,
Tommy Winata, Ciputra and Surya Paloh.

Most of the islands have been developed into holiday resorts,
but only for the benefit of the owners and not for the interest
of the general public, particularly the locals.

The owners reportedly use the islands at their will and manage
them as if there are no other residents in the area. Worse still,
some of them have treated the local residents like criminals.
Whenever the local residents have to land on one of the private
islands -- for example when their boats develop engine trouble --
the owners have often shot firearms at the wayward boaters to
scare them off.

The City Administration has been called on by many groups to
recover its authority over the islands and to utilize them for
the benefit of the general public, particularly the residents of
the islands.

The islands' 17,891 residents are mostly impoverished
elementary school graduates who earn their living as fishermen.
If the authorities do not pay special attention to their
conditions then they will remain marginalized when, or shall we
say if, the city launches an improvement program there.

Indeed there are so many serious problems facing the new
regency, and yet there has been no indication whether the
government will address them quickly and thoroughly.

The national policy on regional autonomy has apparently played
an important role in encouraging the city administration to claim
and make the islands a new regency in addition to its current
mayoralties: Central, East, West, South and North Jakarta.

But actually, such an autonomous spirit should also encourage
it to reform a number of regulations or create new ones to spur
the development of the regency so that it can, at least, emulate
the other five mayoralties. And in doing so, the welfare of the
local people must come first.