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Public participation needed to create livable city for all

Pressure on the Jakarta administration to hear out its residents in deciding urban development is mounting, as an NGO warns of a segregated city — a condition starting to be seen in the recent Bukit Duri evictions in South Jakarta

Indra Budiari (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, October 4, 2016

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Public participation needed to create livable city for all

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ressure on the Jakarta administration to hear out its residents in deciding urban development is mounting, as an NGO warns of a segregated city — a condition starting to be seen in the recent Bukit Duri evictions in South Jakarta.

Ahmad Rifai, the co-founder of urban initiative and empowerment NGO Kota Kita, said Monday that the eviction policy of the Ciliwung River normalization program that affected hundreds of houses in Bukit Duri was a foregone conclusion even though several residents and local advocacy group Ciliwung Merdeka had fought hard both inside and outside the courtroom.

“Bukit Duri residents fought a lonely battle,” he told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a seminar titled “Social City Concept: An Exchange on Urban development in Indonesia and Germany” at Tarumanagara University.

“Even worse they were stereotyped as squatters who had occupied land illegally” Rifai said.

On Wednesday a joint team comprising hundreds of personnel from the Jakarta Police, military and Jakarta Public Order Agency (Satpol PP), with help of a backhoe begun dismantling the former residents’ homes in Bukit Duri. The evictions were widely criticized, including by human rights group, as it was carried out without hearing the opinions of affected residents.

Evictions went through even after residents proposed developing the area into a kampung susun to Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama. The proposal, however, fell on deaf ears as Ahok insisted that evicting the residents was necessary to reduce flood risk in the city.

The city is expected to relocate 50,000 families to low-cost apartments to make way for the river normalization project as the governor has said he wants the river clean before the 2018 Asian Games starting.

Rifai said Bukit Duri residents considered being blamed for flooding and their consequent evictions as only a legal issue, but actually it was also a human rights, children rights and spatial planning issue. He also believed that evictions should only be carried out if public participation was incorporated by the city administration prior.

“They [city administration] always talks about achievements and development instead of taking a closer look at the social aspect,” he said.

Martin zur Nedden, the executive director of the German Institute of Urban Affairs, said the city administration should consider engaging with residents in decision making related to the city as a vital infrastructure investment.

He added that he was aware that it would take a lot of time to listen to every resident’s opinion on the city’s development direction, however, he believed that it was necessary to create a friendlier environment for everyone instead of particular groups of people.

“It will be a time consuming phase, however, public participation is the basis of [a] social city,” Martin continued.

The social city concept, which empowers people to become active in shaping their urban environment, was introduced in Germany in 1999 to increase the quality of cities from an economic, as well as a social point of view.

Urban planning expert Suryono Herlambang said the administration should allow residents to design their own living spaces. For instance, he said, it could focus on a densely populated area susceptible to flooding and let residents have a say on how to improve the situation.

He added that the existence of direct regional elections in the country caused a public participation deficit as elected leaders were under pressure to fulfill their campaign promises to residents. Processes of public participation, however, was something that cannot be implemented quickly.

“Just look at Bukit Duri, [its residents] were evicted because the governor promised to solve the flood issue and [therefore,] he is pressured to fulfill the promise as soon as possible,” he said.

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