Some academics have come to the conclusion that there is no other solution but to move the capital of Indonesia to another part of the country. While the idea may be radical enough, it does not take into consideration that moving the capital may not be the most rational choice. Other possible alternative solutions need to be found.

From a governance perspective, one of the most immediate issues that needs to be reviewed as one possible solution for Jakarta’s daunting problems is its special autonomy status. Jakarta has three different, but interrelated functions.

It is the capital of the Republic of Indonesia. But at the same time, it is Indonesia’s main business center combined with the third function, Indonesia’s most diverse ethnic city.

Almost all ethnic groups can be found in Jakarta. The complexity makes it very difficult for any governor to effectively manage the city.

The complexity is further compounded by the fact that Jakarta has a special autonomy status, which places the capital as one of the most centralized provinces in Indonesia.

Apart from Jakarta, Indonesia has three other provinces with special autonomy status: Aceh, Yogyakarta and Papua. But different from these three provinces, Jakarta has a distinct characteristic, namely, its autonomy is on the provincial level and therefore it does not have second level autonomy at the city/district level.

Having this status has placed the governor of Jakarta as one of the most powerful governors in Indonesia. It also makes the mayors of the five areas in Jakarta (east, west, north, south and central Jakarta) and one district head (the Thousand Islands district), the least powerful mayors and district head in Indonesia.

The Jakarta province as the capital of the Republic of Indonesia has special autonomy. The autonomy of Jakarta is at the provincial level. It means that Jakarta is led by a governor and despite its division into five municipalities and one regency (Thousand Islands), the final say regarding Jakarta’s future development program is in the hand of the governor.

Mayors of North, South, East, West and Central Jakarta and head of the Thousand Islands regency do not have much to say with regard to their regions. Every important decision making is made by the governor.

Jakarta residents are represented by one local council (the DPRD). The 94 members of the local council represent 9.2 million people. It means that every member of the local council represents one hundred thousand people.

The Election Commission also adopts a policy whereby electoral districts in Jakarta Province are not at the subdistrict (decimating), but at the city level.

Therefore it is difficult to clearly demarcate the responsibility for every member of the local council since around 18 members of the local council represent one city. The unclear demarcation of electoral responsibility hampers the relationship between those who should be represented and those who should be the representatives.

The three different levels of complexity but management by one governor holding highly centralized power and 94 members of the local council representing 9 million people are factors that make it difficult to manage the capital effectively.

The argument by the drafter of the 2007 Law on Jakarta as Special Autonomy Region as the only possible solution to effectively manage the complexity of Jakarta needs to be challenged.

The implementation of the law, which is basically the continuation of the previous law, has proved to be unfounded. Redefining Jakarta’s special autonomy has to be regarded as one integrated package to resolve the most challenging problem such as traffic jams or flooding that continues to inundate the capital.

Redefining the special autonomy of Jakarta needs to start with clearly defining the overlapping central and provincial responsibilities. The average Jakarta residents may not be aware that not all main roads are the responsibility of the governor of Jakarta.

Some important roads are the responsibility of the central government. Washington DC can be a good model to observe, where there is a well-defined boundary between the area under the responsibility of the federal government and the rest which belongs to the responsibility of the mayor of Washington DC.

Responsibilities of the governor of Jakarta and the city mayors need to be redefined. The Jakarta governor should only be responsible for some fundamental areas such as issues of public transportation, while the responsibility of the mayors needs to be enlarged to make them more responsible to the grievances of their residents.

It will undoubtedly lead to the reduction of most of the power currently held by the officials at the city hall (the governor’s office). Hopefully, this will help bring about efficiency and effectiveness with regard to the services provided by the city hall.

To ensure that residents of Jakarta will have the chance to articulate their aspirations effectively, Jakarta needs to have more than one single local council. It is absurd to believe that 9 million people can effectively be represented by 94 members of the local council whose electoral districts are not clearly defined. Therefore, in consonant with the devolution of power to the city mayor, the local council at the city level needs to be given more authority so that ir can have the power to supervise the authority devolved to the city mayors.

Giving more power to the city mayors will not be an idea that the governor of Jakarta will like — Jakarta’s current local council will strongly resist the idea of establishing stronger city councils at the city level.

But residents of Jakarta need to fight hard to ensure that every single one of them will be better served by accessible and friendlier governments at the city level and no longer by the unmanageable city hall and insensitive 94 members of  the local council whose claim to represent 9 million people is really absurd.


The writer is a member of the drafting team for the revision of the 2004 Law on Local Governance.

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