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Administration open to feedback on spatial plan

The Jakarta administration says they are open to suggestions in drafting the Jakarta 2010-2030 spatial plan in response to a recent plea for greater public participation from a coalition of citizens

Prodita Sabarini (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, January 12, 2010

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Administration open to feedback on spatial plan

T

he Jakarta administration says they are open to suggestions in drafting the Jakarta 2010-2030 spatial plan in response to a recent plea for greater public participation from a coalition of citizens.

The Jakarta Development Planning Board chief Nurfakih Wirawan said Monday that citizens had time to submit their suggestions.   

“The city administration is currently offering a draft. It will take a long time for it to pass as a bylaw,” he said.

The city administration has not announced when the draft will be submitted to the city council.

In late December, more than 20 people from NGOs gathered to discuss the spatial planning draft and formed the Citizens Coalition for Jakarta 2030 to encourage public participation in planning the city for the next 20 years.

The coalition questioned the limited public participation in the process of the draft’s development and scrutinized the draft plan, saying that the future, as the administration saw it, was ambiguous and would likely take millions of Jakartans nowhere, with the city worsening in almost every aspect.    

Nurfakih said that there would not be much difference when the coalition gave its suggestions.

“The city council is the representative of the citizens,” he said.

Nurfakih said that suggestions for the spatial planning draft from the public would not be blocked during deliberations at the city council.

Nurfakih said that the city administration had invited public participation through forum group discussions but said disagreements were inevitable.

“The public is vast. There are some people who feel their interests are not accommodated for,” he said.

Citizens Coalition members met again Monday to discuss attempts to submit their suggestions before the draft goes to the deliberation process at the city council, and to gain more participation from the public.

In the discussion, members of the coalition expressed concern that if the draft was submitted to the council, they could not fully participate in the deliberation process as they could only watch councilor hearings.  

Marco Kusumawijaya from rujak.org said they were aiming to involve the whole city to participate in the movement.

The coalition has begun a website, koalisijakarta2030.wordpress.com, and a Facebook page called Koalisi Warga untuk Jakarta (Citizens Coalition for Jakarta) 2030.

The community organizer from Urban Poor Consortium, Edi Saidi, said that a group of representatives from eight kampongs in North Jakarta gathered Sunday to discuss the city’s planning.

“People living in poverty in North Jakarta feel the draft plan does not side with their needs,” he said.

The draft says that for vertical housing in the new reclaimed area, Kelapa Gading and Penjaringan, in North Jakarta, is for the middle- to high-income bracket. It also says low-cost apartments will be built in slum areas around Tanjung Priok Port, Kamal, Kalibaru, Koja, Cilincing, Pademangan and in Penjaringan, North Jakarta.

“Disadvantaged people want to be seen as a contributor to the city’s economic growth,” he said.

He said the disadvantaged in North Jakarta will stage a rally next week to the city council to protest the city’s spatial planning draft.

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