One-hundred work day program of new Jakarta Governor reflects Jakarta's urban problems

amazing, originally uploaded by BESTPHOTO.

It is customary for new elected official in Indonesia to launch 100-days priorities when a newly elected official starts the job as the new Jakarta Governor Fauze Bowo did. His 100 work day program started on October 8, 2007 and will end on January 15, 2008. Mr. Bowo who is also publicly known as Foke asserted that his program represents the society’s need, implement transparently, developing society’s participation, based on law, oriented on the vision, supervised, effective and efficient, and doing professionally.

Governor Bowo's priority programs include:

1. Mitigating traffic jams caused by the ongoing construction of busway corridors VIII, IX and X
2. Managing and re-routing traffic
3. Preparing Mass Rapid Transit project
4. Improving existing city institutions and issuing related regulations
5. Mitigating floods
6. Giving aid to the poor in the form of scholarship, staple foods and health insurance
7. Providing more regulations, public facilities and easier access for handicapped
8. Revitalizing Jakarta's slums
9. Fighting drug abuse
10. Intensifying communication between the governor and Jakartans

He asserted that his priority programs "will help create a more comfortable Jakarta for everyone". He promised to finalize his priority program within 100 days and added that the programs have also been taken into account in the 2007 revised city budget.

He has able to identified the current and recurring problem of Jakarta which is transportation problem. Firstly, he addressed the traffic problem caused by the ongoing construction of busway lanes and he promised to "expand the streets alongside the busway lane construction and build ramps on busway lanes for motorists temporarily to use them, as well as assigning officers from the public order and city transportation agencies to monitor areas prone to traffic jams."

The governor also promised the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project stretching 14.3 kilometers from South Jakarta's Lebak Bulus to Central Jakarta's Dukuh Atas would begin by the end of 2007. He asserted that the loan for the project which is expected to cost US$ 910 million has been secured from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. He expected to recruit a company to handle the project by this year, complete the construction in 2012 and operate the MRT in 2014.

Governor Bowo also identified another big problem of Jakarta which is flood. He will focus to finish acquiring land for the East Flood Canal. He asserted that the administration needs to complete the acquisition of 13 hectares of land from residents of North Jakarta's Rorotan and Marunda subdistricts. Micro and macro drainage, flood control pump, and preparing the society on flood area will also be implemented.

city (11)1, originally uploaded by budibudz.

Other major problems of Jakarta such as poverty and slums in Jakarta are also included in the Governor Bowo's priority programs. I frankly commend Governor Bowo for his ability to identify the Jakarta's problems and his commitment to address such problems. However, the lauching of priority programs is just the beginning of the long way to solve Jakarta's problems. Let me cite a commentary piece by Wilmar Salim published by the Jakarta Post on November 3, 2007.

...the root causes of [Jakarta's problems] are centered around population
pressures and environmental deterioration.

... around 111,000 people move from Jakarta to its neighboring cities
annually, as many as 123,000 migrants come to Jakarta every year from other
places in the country... Unfortunately, many people who move from Jakarta to
Bekasi, Tangerang and Depok still need to commute to Jakarta everyday for work.
Traffic jams at notorious bottleneck areas of the inner-city toll road, such as
at Cawang and Tomang, are an everyday phenomenon.

... migrants from other regions are trying their luck in the big smoke.
Many are jobless, homeless, unskilled or uneducated and often end up on the
streets, begging, scavenging, or working casually, and living in slums. Many
probably didn't think of the consequences of moving to a big city before coming
to Jakarta, but the image of the capital city as a place of opportunity may have
persuaded them to come and just try their luck.