Thousand Islands may get new status
Thousand Islands may get new status
JAKARTA (JP): The government is studying the possibility of
changing the status of the Thousand Islands in North Jakarta from
a district to a mayoralty in a bid to help promote the islands as
a major tourist destination, an official said on Thursday.
An assistant to the city secretary of human resources
development, Ma'mun Amin, said the idea of changing the status of
the islands was mentioned in a draft law on the capital which was
submitted by Minister of Home Affairs Syarwan Hamid on Thursday
to the House of Representatives (DPR) for deliberation.
The draft law was submitted to the House during a meeting
which was attended by Ma'mun and Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso.
"The suggestion is to upgrade the status of the district so it
would have its own administration. The upgrade could be in the
form of a mayoralty... Whether it will be accepted or not by
DPR members, I have no idea," Ma'mun told The Jakarta Post.
Jakarta currently has five mayoralties with 43 districts and
265 subdistricts.
Ma'mun said changing the status of the district would be
aimed at exploiting the tourism potential of the Thousand
Islands, a chain of islands north of Jakarta in the Java Sea.
"Development activities in the islands is going very slow. If
the islands status was upgraded, its new image would be expected
to boost development activities there," Ma'mun said.
Ma'mun added that the draft law, consisting of 10 chapters and
32 articles, was a follow-up to Law No. 22/1999 on regional
administration.
"Article 117 of law No. 22 states that the nation's capital
has to have its rules and regulations legalized into law," he
said.
The draft law suggests a different organizational structure
for the city administration.
According to the draft law, the positions of the governor and
vice governors would remain unchanged, but new posts would be
added below these two positions. Currently, the only post
directly below the governor and vice governors is the city
secretary.
If the draft law is approved, assistants to the governor would
be added to the city administration.
The draft law suggests that those filling the posts of
assistants to the governor handle city agencies and city
institutions linked to the technical development of the city,
including the Jakarta chapter of the National Development
Planning Board.
According to the draft law, the city secretary would
concentrate on administrative duties and handling city bureaus.
The same changes would also be made at the mayoralty level.
Each mayoralty would not only have a mayor and vice mayor, but
also assistants to the mayor.
"As one can see, this (organizational structure) beefs up the
administration... it would become more bureaucratic," Ma'mun
said.
An official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said on
Thursday that by adding new bureaucratic posts, the new
administrative structure would "eat through" the city budget.
"Each additional post will need subposts to be filled and new
posts will have to be created... this will eat through the city
budget," the official said.
Currently, below the governor and four vice governors there is
a city secretary, who, with five assistants, supervises the
administration of the capital and the city's bureaus, agencies
and "technical institutions".(ylt)