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)