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cademics and legislators have questioned the worthiness of Medan municipality for winning the Adipura award due to the city’s inability to deal with a myriad of urban issues.

They specifically pointed to the problems with waste management and transportation that the city was still desperate to tackle.

The Adipura award is presented by the Environment Ministry to those cities deemed as successful in environmental management.

The cities are classified into four categories according to the total population. Medan is among nine metropolitan cities with population figures of more than a million to have attained the award this year, although the achievement has been met with cynicism.

Panca Budi University lecturer Bhakti Alamsyah said Medan did not deserve the award given the numerous urban problems that had yet to be improved.

He said residents still complained about poor waste management and the inferior condition of infrastructure.

He said he was surprised to learn that Medan had been proclaimed by the central government as one of the recipients of the Adipura award in the metropolitan category.

“This is not objective. What parameters did the organizing committee use to determine that Medan was worthy of the award?” Bhakti told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday upon the arrival of the award to the city.

Hundreds of people, consisting of neighborhood chiefs and civil servants, marked the occasion by parading the award around the city.

Among the well-wishers were students who were said to have been mobilized to join the reception ceremony.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, on behalf of the central government, presented the Adipura award to Medan Mayor Rahudman Harahap at the State Palace in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Bhakti said he did not consider that Rahudman had done anything so special for the city to earn the award.

“Try to look the city from the air. There are so many problems that have escaped the attention of the mayor,” he said, adding that to know Medan as a whole, people should not only look at urban areas like Jl. Sudirman and Imam Bonjol but they should also look at the suburbs, such as Tembung, Sukaramai and Pulo Brayan.

North Sumatra Legislative Council deputy speaker Kamaluddin Harahap said the Medan municipality should have felt ashamed in receiving the award as “it did not reflect reality and the facts”.

Kamaluddin viewed the presentation of the Adipura award as being in the interest of the mayor alone, and not in the interest of the community in Medan as a whole.

In response to these criticisms, Rahudman has called on every party, including his critics, to improve the city together.

“Don’t just criticize but give us input, and let’s fix the city together,” said Rahudman.