Jakarta off-key from UN's harmonious ideal

Triwik Kurniasari ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 10/13/2008 11:36 AM  |  City

The Jakarta administration prioritizes only economic growth and city revenues instead of sustainability for the capital, says a United Nations expert on urban affairs.

Dodo Juliman, country manager of United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) for Indonesia, said the capital still had far to go to match the harmonious city concept promoted by the international organization.

The UN has chosen the theme Harmonious City for this year's World Habitat Day, which falls annually during the first week of October.

The theme promotes harmony in several dualities: in economic-social relations, in city-rural relations and in growth-environmental relations.

Dodo said Jakarta was a commercial city which tended to put aside people's needs.

"Jakarta has not taken care of itself. The city has had to deal with a lot of instability. So far, the administration has only focused on how to acquire as much revenue as possible without considering the capital's sustainability," Dodo told The Jakarta Post.

"The capital used to consist of many big kampungs, but now the administration has razed most of them and converted those areas into upscale residential and commercial areas," he said.

He said Indonesia's kampungs were just the kind of urban settlement which offered the best affordable-housing solution for poor people.

"This disharmony in the spatial planning has fed a disharmony in social issues. There is a wide social gap here. Jakarta should be a city for all, especially for the poor, but that's no longer so," he said.

In economical terms, Dodo said, Jakarta also lacked the protection of a strong local economy.

"Traditional markets have been forced to compete with modern markets, which are economically stronger and more sophisticated. That's not fair," he said.

Dodo also said the administration had paid little attention to its environment, citing the decrease in green areas in the city.

New commercial and office-building developments have converted green areas which reduced water catchment zones and in turn made the urban areas more prone to flooding, he said.

"The administration has taken steps to expand green areas, but unfortunately it does so by evicting poor residents. The worst part is, it has never come up with any solution for the evicted."

For this year, UN-Habitat has scheduled several programs including a campaign on decent housing in cities across the archipelago.

Lana Winayanti, also from UN-Habitat, said other programs this year included holding poster and photography competitions, which aimed to encourage people to come up with creative suggestions on proper housing for urban people.

Another program has developed in cooperation with some mayors across the country to innovatively develop ideas for improving their cities.

Dodo, however, said it was hard to cooperate with the Jakarta administration.

"I thought Governor Fauzi Bowo was accommodating enough in terms of developing the city, but I was wrong. There is no openness."

While campaigning for office, Fauzi had said the city administration wanted to invite more participation from the community. Later he was criticized for failing to invite community participation in eviction cases against vendors operating at Barito park in South Jakarta and most recently, against thousands of the urban poor dwelling in the BMW park in North Jakarta.

City officials said the administration invited community participation by opening landscape design competition for the parks to the public. Fauzi also said the city had plans to build an "interactive park" where he would invite public participation.

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