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epok Mayor Nur Mahmudi has expressed opposition to the idea of merging Depok with the Jakarta administration, saying Depok residents were content with the municipality'€™s status as part of West Java province.

He said he preferred traveling to the West Java capital Bandung for coordination meetings with the provincial administration, which is led by fellow member of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) Governor Ahmad Heryawan, than to brave the Jakarta traffic.

'€œThe trip from Depok to Bandung is only two hours. I would rather go there than West Jakarta [for meetings],'€ he said.

Nur said the concept of creating a '€œmegapolitan city'€, which would put all the cities in Greater Jakarta under one administration, had been floated on several occasions, but there had been no serious follow-up. He made his remarks after Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi casually proposed merging the municipalities.

He said that if the idea was going to be seriously considered then the central government should step in and appoint officials to address it.

'€œIf the government wants to consolidate the Greater Jakarta administrations using a Perpres [Presidential Regulation], it should be done right. The regulation should have a clear function and should not disturb regional autonomy,'€ he said.

He said right now cities in Greater Jakarta were coordinated by an organization called the Development Cooperation Agency Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi, Puncak and Cianjur (Jabodetabekjur). However, in his opinion, the agency had not made any real contribution toward solving the urban problems faced by Greater Jakarta.

The megapolitan city concept became a hot topic during the tenure of former Jakarta governor Sutiyoso in 2006. He said the concept was supported by Law No. 32/2004 on Local Administration, which obligated synergy in spatial planning.

At that time, the provinces of West Java and Banten rejected to the plan for pragmatic reasons: Greater Jakarta contributed an estimated Rp 1.6 trillion to the income of the two provinces.

The idea of merging Depok into Jakarta was more recently rekindled by Harry Wicaksono, a lawmaker from the House of Representatives Commission III overseeing Law and Human Rights. He said Depok was geographically closer to Jakarta than Bandung.

'€œThe economic activities, cultures and even crime patterns [between Depok and Jakarta] are almost the same. It will be better if their administrations and law enforcement bodies are under the same roof,'€ he said.

Furthermore, many residents in Depok choose to have Jakarta identification cards for various reasons. For example, during a recent electronic ID registration, 66 percent of 3,000 residents in Depok'€™s Cinere district preferred to keep their status as Jakarta residents.

Head of the Depok City Council Rintis Yanto said there was nothing wrong with the megapolitan concept because it would prioritize economic synergy and spatial planning development.

However, if the concept involved merging all the cities in Greater Jakarta, then the government would have to revoke Law No. 15/1999 on the establishment of Depok city and Cilegon in Banten.

'€œWe are in a strategic position. If the government wants to improve spatial planning and economy, go ahead. But if they want to merge us [with the rest of Greater Jakarta], we cannot accept it,'€ he said.