Urbanization requires planning: Experts
Urbanization requires planning: Experts
JAKARTA (JP): Urbanization should be encouraged, despite a
host of accompanying problems, because it helps accelerate
economic development, a population expert believes.
Aris Ananta, an economist at the Demographic Institute of the
University of Indonesia, acknowledged that while urbanization led
to unemployment, the reduction of agricultural areas and the
emergence of slum areas, it should not be seen only as an ugly
consequence of development, he said.
"Urbanization is also a way to accelerate economic
development," he said at a seminar last Saturday. Besides,
"closing cities to migrants is useless as people find their own
ways to enter cities' industries."
Mayling Oey-Gardiner, director of the Insan Harapan Sejahtera
Social Science Research Consultancy, agrees that sealing off
cities is pointless.
She said that urbanization was not a demographic problem but
caused by the poor management of economic activities, which are
often concentrated in cities.
"Closing off cities would not work. I suggest economic
policies which promote investment beyond Java instead," she said.
She cited tax reductions, the facilitation of business
permits, and greater access to land outside urban centers as
examples of economic incentives that could help control
urbanization.
Indraswari, a sociologist at Parahyangan University in
Bandung, agreed with Aris.
"Urbanization occurs because various factors are at work in
both cities and rural villages," she told The Jakarta Post.
Indraswari said that urban industries need more workers, and
it was easy to see why rural people with no land of their own
sought livelihoods in towns where there are greater job
opportunities.
"In the villages, other than being a farmer, there are few
employment opportunities," she said.
Sociologist Pius Suratman Kartasasmita of the Center for
Social and Policy Research, also at Parahyangan University, said
Aris' view of urbanization was interesting but did little to
eliminate deep-seated problems.
Pius criticized Aris for looking at urbanization from only an
economic point of view, as this limited the scope of possible
solutions. People need to look at urbanization from social and
cultural perspectives as well, he said.
He said the myth of the superiority of cities -- people feel
inferior because they live in rural areas -- should be dispelled.
The government should display a "political will" to deal with
urbanization problems, Pious said, and enforce agreed-upon
solutions such as transmigration.
In his explanation, Aris said a successful transmigration
program would reduce the centralization of economic activities.
(12/05)