TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
EDITORIAL: Over to you, governor Anies
Anies and Sandiaga are up against serious challenges, simply because Ahok and his successor Djarot Sjaiful Hidayat had set the bar pretty high.
Change Size
Anies and Sandiaga are up against serious challenges, simply because Ahok and his successor Djarot Sjaiful Hidayat had set the bar pretty high. (JP/Budhi Button)
B
efore being sworn into office today, Jakarta’s governor-elect Anies Baswedan and his deputy Sandiaga Uno struck the right note as in the months after the Jakarta gubernatorial election, both decided to lie low and refrain from appearing frequently in public or making big political statements.
And beyond the move by Sandiaga to appoint his brother Indra as chairman of the much-ballyhooed entrepreneurial scheme OK OCE, which was soon rectified following a backlash, there was little in the way of unforced error that could jeopardize the duo’s prospect of having a smooth transition of power in the capital.
Anies and Sandiaga know fully well that after a divisive election that came close to tearing the fabric of the community, pitting one ethnic group against the other, or one neighbor against the other, what’s needed is a winner who is not presumptuous and is ready to stop spreading rhetoric that could further sow fresh seeds of division.
And given the deep division that was left by the 2016 gubernatorial election and its attendant political consequences, Anies has made gestures toward reconciliation. In a meeting with members of the media last week, Anies said he planned to visit former governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama at the Mobile Brigade (Brimob) detention center in Depok, West Java, where he is serving a prison term for blasphemy. In the meeting Anies also promised to work gradually and meticulously to heal the division in the city.
But even without the job of having to clean the toxic political environment in the wake of the gubernatorial election, Anies and Sandiaga are up against serious challenges, simply because Ahok and his successor Djarot Sjaiful Hidayat had set the bar pretty high.
What Ahok did for the capital in the past three years is a tough act to follow. In such a short span of time, Ahok greatly expanded the Jakarta Smart Card program, which provided poor Jakartans free access to education. The straight-talking governor also greatly improved sanitation for a majority of Jakartans by ensuring that “orange troops” worked around the clock to collect trash and in the event of heavy downpour, scour the city’s drainage system to find clogged waterways and clear them of garbage to prevent flooding.
Ahok also ordered the opening of more parks, children’s playgrounds and libraries, the biggest being Kalijodo Park. He also began to tackle congestion problems by kicking off construction on Jakarta’s first MRT and light rapid transportation (LRT) systems. And in the face of bureaucracy and opposition from politicians at the Jakarta City Council, Ahok pressed ahead with his drive for transparency and accountability with the e-budgeting and public broadcasting of his regular meetings. He also imposed a strict sense of discipline at City Hall, which resulted in the dismissal of under-performing civil servants.
Starting today, Anies will officially take charge and he has five years to outdo Ahok. Congratulations governor Anies, now it’s time to work.
