Roy R. Ventura Jr. has spent the best part of his life designing roads and bridges in countries around the world.
When he fell into a massive hole in the sidewalk on Sudirman eight months ago, painfully dislocating his shoulder and toe, he didn't need years of professional experience to realize Jakarta was in dire need of an overhaul of its rundown walkways.
Ventura said recently he was lucky to escape the incident without having his foot amputated after wounds in his toe and torn ligaments in his ankle became infected. In order to fully overcome his injuries, he claimed he would need surgery for his knee and shoulder.
"I'm suffering the results of it *the fall*. I haven't had the operation and I don't know if I ever will," he said
Jakarta's sidewalks are dotted with gaping holes and uneven pavers, making the prospect of injuring oneself simply while out walking, very likely.
The head of the Jakarta Public Works agency, Budi Widiantoro, said in March that sidewalks along the main roads were in good shape.
He said no one had ever made a claim against the agency for injuries sustained as a result of dilapidated sidewalks.
"They could make a claim against us if they fell in a hole and injured themselves, but so far no one has. I don't know why," Budi told The Jakarta Post in March.
Ventura might just be launching the first ever claim against the agency.
Last month, he wrote to the Public Works Agency and the Central Jakarta mayor about his accident, attaching several pictures of dangerous holes in Sudirman and other parts of Jakarta. In his letter, he requested the agency reimburse him for medical expenses.
The Post's article in March prompted him to make a claim against the agency. "The comments of the person responsible for the road irritated me," he said.
"He said all the main roads were in good condition. Sudirman is one of the most major roads in this city, and is relatively new, so that's an outright lie."
A request for an interview with Budi was directed to the agency's head of road and bridges maintenance, Hasnil Hasan Basrie.
Hasnil said the agency was considering Ventura's request for financial reimbursement.
He said the problem with maintaining sidewalks in major thoroughfare areas such as MH Thamrin and Sudirman was that pavements in that area had remained under the responsibility of the Parks Agency ever since sidewalk widening projects started in 2004.
Despite these projects being completed, the Parks Agency has still not handed the responsibility for the Sudirman-Thamrin area back to the Public Works agency, Hasnil said. As a result, it is not clear who is really responsible for repairing and maintaining the pavements.
After receiving Ventura's letter, Hasnil said the Public Works Agency wrote to the Parks Agency asking them to hand back the responsibility for sidewalks on Sudirman-Thamrin so they could include maintenance costs in their annual budget. "The Parks Agency has still not responded to our request," Hasnil said.
If this were to happen, however, only around Rp 1 billion would be allocated for sidewalks, and even then that funding would be for ongoing projects and not specifically for repairing large holes.
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