W

hile public monitoring application Qlue is generally considered an effective medium for handling complaints, the app'€™s ability to resolve complicated issues remains questionable.

The head of Pondok Pinang subdistrict in South Jakarta, Hendi Nopriadi, said recently that Qlue did help him to receive residents'€™ complaints, but that he still preferred to communicate directly via phone or in person.

'€œQlue is helpful as it helps people to complain and I can easily look into the complaints. However, I cannot recognize the complainants if they use fake names or initials,'€ he said.

Hendi, who has led his subdistrict for seven months, said that he received two to four reports through Qlue every day. '€œThe reports are mainly about congestion, broken sidewalks, street lamps and garbage,'€ he said.

Communication with those who issued the reports, however, could be tricky, he said. '€œI once received 30 reports of the same problem in one day, from the same user,'€ he said; he had been unable to do anything to stop this particular user from harassing him.

Qlue is for use solely by residents or complainants, while public officials use the separate CROP app to respond. Reports are marked red, yellow or green to indicate whether they are awaiting response, in progress or completed, respectively. However, in cases where issues are not resolved, reasons are rarely given.

The subdistrict head said that he had once received a report of a damaged road outside of his subdistrict. '€œThe complainant tagged the area as my subdistrict, but I couldn'€™t do anything about it, as it wasn'€™t in my jurisdiction,'€ he said.

Hendi said he had shared his phone numbers and address with residents, allowing them to report issues via phone, text message or even letter. '€œI sometimes get 30 reports per day,'€ he said, adding that he regularly went into neighborhoods to observe and discuss problems.

Noor Machyudi, the head of Gunung subdistrict in South Jakarta, had a similar experience. '€œSome complaints, such as violations of building permits, fall outside my remit, and should be handled by the spatial planning agency. All I can do is forward the problem to the agency,'€ he said.

He added that as he could not solve the problem, the complaint would remain red or yellow.

Unresolved complaints reflect badly on the performance of subdistrict heads, with the rankings used by Jakarta Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama to promote or demote heads.

Noor said that besides Qlue, he visited one community unit (RW) every week to discuss issues in person in a program he called Forum RW. '€œWe usually discuss important and complicated matters like river normalization during the discussions,'€ he said, adding that each RW usually raised eight to 10 ideas or problems relating to the area.

Qlue marketing vice president Ivan Tigana said that in cases of spam reports, the Qlue crew could help the subdistrict heads and coordinate with the Jakarta Smart City unit to delete the reports. He added that his team was working to iron out Qlue'€™s technical problems.

Urban politics expert Amalinda Savirani from Gadjah Mada University said that she appreciated the introduction of Qlue, but warned the city against using it as the sole channel of communication.

'€œMeeting directly with residents allows more fluent communication, and also gives a voice to those divorced from technology,'€ she said.