Why Marco K. cannot be the next governor

Daniel Ziv, Former Chief Editor, 'Djakarta! - The City Life Magazine'

Of the various candidates proposed for the important election this September of Jakarta's next Governor, Marco Kusumawijaya, 40, is probably the least qualified.

o He has absolutely no military background (instead, he wasted his early 20s studying architecture and engineering in Bandung, and as a lecturer and researcher on public housing development in West Timor);

o He isn't a member of any political party (he's merely a senior advisor to UNDP national projects on urban management and development and president of the Indonesian Society for Built Environment);

o He hasn't been on any lavish overseas "study trips" for city councilors (instead, he possesses a silly little Masters of Engineering degree from Belgium and a thesis entitled: Jakarta's Thamrin-Sudirman Avenue: Problems of Modernization in a Developing Metropolis);

o He isn't considered a high-profile suspect in the horrific 1996 raid on the PDI Perjuangan party headquarters that left dozens of people dead or missing (he's only managed to participate in peaceful demonstrations with the Urban Poor Consortium against violent evictions of slums by the municipality);

o He isn't wealthy and doesn't own numerous houses or a fleet of luxury cars (in fact, the naive little sod lives way out by the airport, shares a used Isuzu Panther with his wife, and sometimes even travels by public transport!);

o Worst of all, he doesn't harbor any particular desire to become Governor, nor does he consider it "his destiny" or "his humble duty to the people."

What a loser.

I first met Marco when I was editor of Djakarta! - The City Life Magazine and we commissioned him to write a series of honest, hard-hitting articles on municipal issues ranging from Jakarta's flooding crisis to slum evictions and corruption at city hall.

I've had plenty of talented young writers come through my office with fresh and original takes on urban issues, but never anyone quite like Marco.

Thoughtful, soft-spoken and astoundingly knowledgeable about every imaginable aspect of city planning and management in Jakarta, he is the consummate urban development professional -- the kind of guy who is focused and really tuned in to the issues that matter.

The kind of guy in whose hands you'd happily place this city's fate for a year, or five or even 10.

And he's hardly one of those know-it-all urban engineering geeks. Quite the opposite -- he is confident, eloquent and charismatic.

Rather than citing endless statistics or jargon-heavy city planning theories, Marco talks sense, engages his listeners, and seems to delight in exchanging ideas and discovering new angles.

Perhaps most surprisingly -- considering how much he knows is so fundamentally wrong with Jakarta -- Marco comes across as an optimist and focuses quite stubbornly on the potential inherent in this city.

For all of these reasons and perhaps a few more, Marco will never become Jakarta's Governor.

He is simply far too good, and it would never occur to the self-serving, small-time politicians who make up the city council that elects the next governor, to choose somebody as fundamentally qualified as Marco.

These municipal wheeler-dealers condescendingly dismiss him as an "activist" or -- even worse -- "architect".

They do so because it would reflect badly on them to have a true professional at the helm, and besides, they will assume correctly that he cannot be bought -- certainly not a good thing for local politics and politicians.

Even if Marco's candidacy were taken seriously (which it is not, because it is proposed by good-governance NGOs like the Jakarta Residents' Forum rather than Machiavellian political bosses), he'd be up against impossible odds.

Incumbent Governor Sutiyoso has by all accounts made virtually every mistake in the book during his tenure and has in process alienated himself from the populace.

Yet incredibly -- for reasons having far more to do with his military ties than any supposed municipal policies -- he's secured crucial endorsements from President Megawati Soekarnoputri and Vice President Hamzah Haz.

Megawati herself will have plenty to answer for if, as expected, Sutiyoso is re-elected.

From among dozens of candidates (and at least two from her very own party) the self-described reformist President threw her weight behind a New Order-born-and-bred Lieutenant-General from the notorious Kopassus (special forces) brigade, a man who many members of Megawati's own PDI Perjuangan believe was directly involved in the deadly 1996 raid on their party headquarters.

With logic like that, the thought of anybody of Marco's caliber standing a chance in hell of winning the gubernatorial race is, well, utterly illogical.

Since Sutiyoso has done such a tremendous job of handling the February floods;

o since his administration has mastered the art of violently evicting penniless slum-dwellers from plywood shacks during the rainy season;

o since he is so adept at ensuring that he and all 85 of his city councilors receive outrageous personal clothing and health and travel and car allowances;

o since, according to his accountability speech a few months ago, he has planted 3.5 million (yup, three-and-a-half million!) new trees and created 37 new public parks in the city in the past year alone (don't say you haven't noticed them);

Because of all these impressive gubernatorial achievements, poor old Marco will have to miss out on the chance of living in the luxurious gubernatorial mansion and return to stupid urban planning consultancy gigs, to writing wishful little editorials in newspapers and magazines, and to living in that modest little house out by the airport.

He'll probably be happier all the same. But what a loss to this city.