Thousands of newcomers enter Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): The City Population Agency reported that 329,468 newcomers have entered the city following the Idul Fitri holidays.

They came with Jakartans returning from their hometowns.

The head of the agency, Soemarto, said recently the number of post-Idul Fitri newcomers, an annual trend, was less than last year.

"In 1996, there were 368,374 newcomers," he said.

This year, the agency recorded 3,059,576 people left Jakarta between Feb. 2 and Feb. 8.

The agency said from Feb. 10 to Feb. 16, 3,389,044 people returned to the capital.

The number of people leaving the city also decreased from last year, Soemarto said.

Last year, the agency recorded 3,234,975 people left the city. A week after Idul Fitri, the agency recorded that 3,603,349 people had arrived.

Soemarto said the agency would conduct operations from Feb. 26 to March 11 to curb the number of illegal newcomers.

Operations which would include checking servants' identity cards would be targeted at rented houses or rooms likely to house job seekers.

The agency had distributed questionnaires at bus terminals, train stations and airports as Jakartans left, and when they arrived back to Jakarta.

Questions asked whether Jakartans had brought relatives or friends back with them.

From the 1,680 people who responded, 132 returnees said they brought one or two relatives or friends with them.

Of the 132, 68 said they brought relatives seeking jobs, 38 said they brought people who wanted to become housemaids, and 26 said they brought relatives or friends intending to continue their study.

The agency tried to assess the quality of newcomers through questions on educational level.

Governor Surjadi Soedirdja has repeatedly lamented the fact that unskilled newcomers could cause the city more problems. He said they were likely to work as illegal vendors, for instance.

The answers revealed that the biggest group, 39.83 percent, were senior high school graduates. But such graduates have cited difficulty in finding jobs.

Junior high school graduates made up 21.67 percent, and 16.43 percent completed elementary school.

Meanwhile 16.42 percent were university graduates and the remaining 5.65 percent did not finish elementary education.

Of the respondents, 67.74 percent had Jakarta identification cards, and 16.96 percent were residents from other provinces who had yet to report to local authorities.

Another 13.93 percent were temporary residents, (penduduk musiman), and 0.78 percent did not have identification cards.

According to city rules people from outside Jakarta should report to local authorities and apply for identification cards if they plan to stay for over six months.

The observation found 34.7 percent were private employees, 11.73 percent civil servants and Armed Forces members.

Another 6.96 percent said they were housemaids, 11.97 percent traders, 10.78 percent workers and 23.83 percent from other professions.

Of the travelers, 28.70 said they were heading to Central Java, 21.14 percent to West Java, and 15.18 percent to Yogyakarta. The remaining 15.53 percent were returning to East Java and 19.45 percent to areas outside Java. (ste)