T

he Jakarta City Council is opposing a plan by Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to grant 1,000 new minibuses to replace the infamous decade-old public minibuses Metromini and Kopaja.

Wanda Hamidah, a councilor from the National Mandate Party (PAN), said that councilors would not approve the governor’s plan to give free minibuses to PT Metro Mini and PT Koperasi Angkutan Jakarta (Kopaja).

“These companies are profit oriented. We are against the use of funds from the city budget to provide free vehicles to these businessmen,” Wanda said.

Jokowi, she said, has yet to give a satisfactory explanation of his plan. “Transportation Agency officials we met failed to provide clear details of his plan,” Wanda said.

The councilors, she said, demand that Jokowi present his plan as soon as possible.

Separately, Dwi Rio Sambodo of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, said the majority of the Council also requested Jokowi explain his plans on transportation matters. “The Council is questioning where the city administration is putting the central government in his grant policy, as well as the MRT and monorail plans,” Dwi said.

Later on Monday, Jokowi promised to explain his plan to the Council. “Public transportation is part of the public service, not business. The fact is it has been 30 years since the city saw a new minibus,” he told reporters at the City Hall in the afternoon.

The governor said that the plan was legal under a Home Ministry regulation. “The new minibuses will be distributed through a transportation cooperative to the transportation businesses after they sign an agreement.”

The plan was to give one new minibus and take away two or three old minibuses from the companies, he said. The companies would also be obliged to save money to buy new vehicles.

“Details of the calculations of my plan will be made after the Council approve it. I will come before the Council, but I need to underline that public transportation is a matter of public service,” Jokowi said.

Jokowi, on his second day in office, proposed a new management system of public minibus which offered subsidies and grants to Metromini and Kopaja, with a view to easing their operational costs which in turn will help them improve services.

The move sparked new hope for better management of public transportation.

Jakarta Transportation Agency head Udar Pristono said the planned subsidies were legal under Home Minister Regulation No. 32/2011.

The agency has indicated that the Jakarta government would consider phasing out many aging, polluting public minibuses as a multi-year project and might not be completed even by the end of Jokowi’s five-year term in 2017.

Jokowi has made the procurement of 1,000 new minibuses and 350 new buses for the Transjakarta Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system as one of a few items the Transportation Agency needs to attend to next year.

The agency has also been told to focus on constructing BRT Corridor 13 between Blok M in South Jakarta and Ciledug in Tangerang.

Jokowi, only in office for two weeks, has been making headlines for a number of new policies.