Urban planners not keen on idea to move govt offices
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post,Jakarta
Urban planning experts expressed doubts that the idea proposed by Jakarta Regional Representative Council (DPD) member Sarwono Kusumaatmadja to relocate government offices to areas outside the city would be an effective solution to urban woes here.
"The problem is that the administration has no clear and comprehensive scenario on the future of the city after the relocation. Worse still, the administration has no idea at all about the development of the new location for the offices," urban planner Yayat Supriatna of Trisakti University told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Yayat pointed to the relocation of the Tangerang municipal offices to the area of Tigaraksa that failed to stimulate business in the area.
"Merely moving administrative services to another area without developing other supporting facilities that stimulate the economy there will make such a plan doomed to failure," he asserted.
The idea of moving government offices to an area outside the capital was floated again on Wednesday by Sarwono, the former environment minister during Soeharto's administration and the maritime and fisheries minister for president Abdurrahman Wahid, as an alternative solution to tackle Jakarta's problems, including traffic congestion as well as the limited housing space and green areas.
Sarwono cited the successful moving of Malaysia's capital city from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya.
Located in between Kuala Lumpur and the international airport in Sepang, the area is the country's first modern planned city. It is backed up by a sophisticated information network base on multimedia technology, hence it's called Intelligent Garden City.
Many other countries, such as Australia and Brazil, had also moved government offices to suburban areas, giving more space for the former capital city to be developed as a business, tourist, recreational and even housing area.
Jakarta, which is a home to more than 12 million people by day and 10 million by night, has grown into a densely-populated city with an average of 14,000 residents living in one square kilometer.
High population density will continue to cloud the city which is still a magnet for unskilled migrants seeking work given that at least 70 percent of the country's money is in circulation here. Between 200,000 and 250,000 migrants come to Jakarta every year.
In the early 1990s, the administration of president Soeharto has put forward the idea of relocating government offices to the area of Jonggol in Bogor regency in West Java. The idea was not taken seriously. Only the military acted on it by moving its headquarters to Cilangkap in East Jakarta.
Governor Sutiyoso often complained over various urban problems in the capital, hoping that his administration will gain the autonomy to manage its own area with less intervention from the central government.
Meanwhile, another urban planner of Tarumanagara University, Suryono Herlambang said that the idea would be very costly, while it would not help alleviate urban problems in the capital.
"I doubt that such an idea would be workable. If the administration moves its offices to another area, other urban activities, let say business activities, will take its place, then the relocation will simply be a waste," Herlambang said.
He added that the relocation idea also failed to address the root of urban problems and reflected the administration's inconsistency in its development policies.