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A year of hits, misses for Ahok
Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, better known by his nickname Ahok, took office as governor of Jakarta last year after Joko âJokowiâ Widodo left City Hall for the State Palace
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asuki Tjahaja Purnama, better known by his nickname Ahok, took office as governor of Jakarta last year after Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo left City Hall for the State Palace. He took office during the middle of his and Jokowi's term and in just one year he became Jakarta's most controversial governor.
Since taking office last November, Ahok had numerous hits and misses with his policies and a torrent of controversies.
Ahok, known to be a tough and outspoken governor, has launched a number of policies and programs that have won the hearts of his constituents, such as bureaucratic reform, the Smart City program and the development of child-friendly community centers (RPTRA), but he has also had some that have sparked arguments and criticism, like the low budget spending and rough eviction policy.
Bureaucratic reform is one of his flagship programs. Ahok's first move in office was to get rid of officials who, in his eyes, were mediocre or underperforming. Civil servants in Jakarta are now rotated to new positions at least every two months.
Residents have praised the city administration for improving services, especially after the establishment of the One-Stop Integrated Service (PTSP) agency, which aims to create a business-friendly bureaucracy by eliminating costly red tape for entrepreneurs and investors. Obtaining permits and non-permit documents in Jakarta was known to be complicated and slow because of the bureaucracy, thus providing scope for illegal middlemen to involve themselves in taking care of residents' documents.
'There are no more illegal middlemen. Now we are the middlemen,' Ahok has said. The PTSP is responsible for issuing up to 518 permit and non-permit forms.
This being the information age, services have also been expanded to the world of the internet. Late last year, the governor launched Qlue, a crowd-sourcing smartphone application with which users can report various incidents, such as floods, crimes, fires or waste. Civil servants at the subdistrict and district level are evaluated and assessed by their responses to the reports made via Qlue.
Despite the praise from residents, however, civil servants have viewed Ahok's iron fist as demotivating and demoralizing. Experts like Gadjah Mada University's Wahyudi Kumorotomo have also said that such a program, in which civil servants are constantly rotated to new jobs, may cause instability, which would negatively affect the sustainability of policies.
However, some of the governor's programs have also been controversial. Ahok's tough eviction policy has left many without homes because of a housing supply backlog. Housing and Government Building Agency head Ika Lestari Aji has said that the city administration this year aims to relocate up to 12,000 families that are occupying riverbanks, while intending to build 5,000 low-cost apartments this year.
His performance this year has also been dented by the low budget disbursement. In October, the Home Affairs Ministry's regional finance director general, Reydonnyzar Moenek, revealed that Jakarta accounted for the country's lowest ratio of budget spending, having only disbursed 19.39 percent of its budgeted Rp 69.2 trillion (US$5 billion).
Many civil servants have complained they were worried about being scrutinized by law enforcers and admitted to being unsettled by the ongoing investigations into alleged corruption in the city administration, thus they deliberately delayed spending. Jakarta Goods and Services Procurement Agency head Blessmiyanda also revealed that many civil servants still had trouble drafting procurement documents, thus hampering the spending process.
