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Jakarta Post

Transformed city, same old problems for Jakartans

Underwater dance: Ancol Dream Park features an underwater ondel-ondel (giant Betawi effigies) performance at SeaWorld Ancol, North Jakarta, on Friday to commemorate Jakarta’s 491st anniversary

Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sat, June 23, 2018

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Transformed city, same old problems for Jakartans

U

nderwater dance: Ancol Dream Park features an underwater ondel-ondel (giant Betawi effigies) performance at SeaWorld Ancol, North Jakarta, on Friday to commemorate Jakarta’s 491st anniversary. The performances runs through Sunday. (JP/Adeline Sunarjo)

Born and raised in Jakarta, 36-year-old Budi Firmansyah, who considers himself a native of the capital city, has been a witness to how the metropolis has drastically changed in appearance.

With the rise of skyscrapers and better infrastructure, including the almost finished MRT, Jakarta has been turned into a modern city, very different from what he saw when he was a young boy.

But in his neighborhood in Cilincing, North Jakarta, he also sees that little has changed in terms of congestion, flooding and rampant poverty, which continue as the city celebrates its 491st anniversary on Friday.

Cilincing, the coastal neighborhood known for its slums, has been continually ignored by the city administration, which prioritized the development of business and commercial centers, Budi said.

“The Jakarta administration renovated sidewalks along Jl. Sudirman and Jl. MH Thamrin, yet it has done little to improve conditions in the slums,” Budi told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

He also resented the fact that the city’s poor had little access to entertainment centers and amusement parks, which had traditionally been marketed for the city’s affluent middle class.

To enter Ancol Dreamland Park, which is only a short drive from Cilincing, local residents have to pay an entrance fee of Rp 25,000 (US$ 1.77).

“The entrance fee of Rp 25,000 for cars and Rp 15,000 for motorcycles is too much for us low-middle class families,” Budi said.

He said Jakarta would be a more liveable city if the poor were given access to some of those amenities, Budi said.

Other residents, however, praised the city administration for providing basic services such as garbage collection, which had significantly improved in the past few years.

Setiasari, 50, a resident of Cibubur, East Jakarta, said the city had been significantly improved, especially on the issue of sanitation, thanks to the presence of Public Facility Maintenance Agency (PPSU) workers.

One of the high-water marks of the city was when the Jakarta administration turned the Kalijodo red-light district in North Jakarta into a public open space that could be accessed by anyone.

She said the only problem in which the city administration had made little headway was traffic congestion.

“They have to finish some ongoing developments on some streets in the capital soon to solve the traffic congestion problem,” she said.

For historian JJ Rizal, with the city nearing the half a millenium mark, it needs to take a good look at its illustrious history and take inspiration from there.

He said Jakartans in the past had the tradition of naming their neighborhood after the open, green space that once dominated its landscape.

He said the names of many neighborhoods in the city started with the word “rawa (swamp), including Rawa Buaya, Rawa Belong and Rawa Bambu. Another popular word used is “utan” (forest), such as Utan Kayu and Utan Panjang.

“So, it’s a major injustice that now Jakarta doesn’t have enough green space. We should learn how the native Betawi people respect the environment and the local wisdom,” Rizal said.

He also suggested that when developing the city, the government should consider the fact that Jakarta began as a city centered around its coast.

“Jakarta is not only about land but also water. The city administration should develop the coastal area more and let residents enjoy the beach for free, he said.

In a speech delivered in a plenary session of the city council on Friday, Governor Anies Baswedan said the city administration was working hard to solve some key problems in the city including poverty.

Anies said that programs in his campaign pledges such as the One Center for Entrepreneurship (OK OCE) program could help solve the poverty problem.

He also called on all stakeholders to get behind the city administration to solve problems plaguing Jakarta.

“We have to prove that the capital’s leaders and resident representatives can communicate, interact and work together to solve the city’s problems, and that its leaders are on the side of the disadvantaged,” Anies said.

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