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ommunities are hoping for a better Jakarta under the administration of acting governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama, who would replace on-leave governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo should he be elected president in the upcoming election.

Hariadhi, who chairs the Ganti Jakarta (Change Jakarta) community, said he hoped Ahok could embrace communities while promoting various city projects. He said Ahok should look to Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil, who has welcomed community participation for the renovation of Taman Jomblo (Single'€™s Park), which is located under an overpass.

'€œThe city administration should invite volunteers to get involved with communities because they have a lot to contribute. The administration often works alone by using TV and ads. Reaching out to the community will create a stronger sense of belonging among residents,'€ he told The Jakarta Post over the phone recently.

He said volunteers in various communities could help the administration succeed with projects, such as relocating squatters to low-cost apartments by offering a short training program to develop their skills. He said his community, for example, had trained residents of low-cost apartments in Klender, East Jakarta to develop vertical gardens.

The Ganti Jakarta community also has a website that keeps track of new additions to the city, including the new park at the Pluit Reservoir, North Jakarta, the cleaner Ria-Rio Reservoir in East Jakarta, as well as the new free city tour buses in the heart of the capital city. The community'€™s volunteers have also created stories to promote disaster preparedness, including on how to survive floods and fire prevention.

Larasati Wijayanti, a volunteer of Koalisi Pemuda Hijau Indonesia (Kophi), a community of young people that share a concern for climate change, said he hoped Ahok could come up with a program that would educate people on the proper disposal of trash.

'€œThere are still many litterbugs in the city. The city should get tough and impose sanctions. But more importantly, they have to raise environmental awareness,'€ she said.

Meanwhile, Alfred Sitorus, leader of Koalisi Pejalan Kaki (Pedestrian Coalition), which regularly promotes pedestrians'€™ rights on Fridays, said Ahok should not only get tough on his subordinates but also uphold the city'€™s bylaws to maintain security and public order.

'€œAhok should deploy public order officials to guard sidewalks from illegal parking and street vendors. The city'€™s Transportation Agency should also cooperate with the police to prevent motorcycles from taking over pedestrian streets, especially during rush hour,'€ he said.

Responding to the many expressed hopes, Ahok said he was trying to come up with new ways to get people to stop littering. He said that he recently ordered Sanitation Agency head Isnawa Adji to replace banners containing warnings of fines for littering with harsh but educative slogans.

'€œSuch banners have little impact. I want new banners reading: Only monkeys litter everywhere. Only dogs pee everywhere,'€ he said on Monday.

He further said that he could not order the police to stop motorcyclists from using pedestrian streets because the police were under the authority of the President. He, however, planned to have CCTV installed to monitor traffic violations.

'€œTelecommunication companies can put their microcells on our street lamps, but they have to provide CCTV, too,'€ he said.