TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
After floods, calls mount to cancel Formula E race in Jakarta
Netizens are calling on Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan to cancel the upcoming Formula E, an all-electric racing series, in Jakarta as they say they believe the budget should be directed to a more urgent matter: flood management
Change Size
N
etizens are calling on Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan to cancel the upcoming Formula E, an all-electric racing series, in Jakarta as they say they believe the budget should be directed to a more urgent matter: flood management.
A petition to cancel the Formula E, which is slated to be held in June, had garnered more than 7,100 signatures by Tuesday morning, four days after it was posted.
The petition on change.org was initiated by Irawan Endro Prasetyo, who wrote that “one of the biggest and worst floods that have ever happened in the city’s history” during the first few days of 2020 was due to the budget cuts of the city’s flood management, allegedly for the preparations to host the race.
The petition, which was addressed to the International Automobile Federation (FIA), City Council Speaker Prasetio Edi Marsudi and Anies, says: “We need all available resources to help people and rebuild our city, not to waste them on one event that ridicules the citizens’ sufferings. Please consider moving this event to another city that is more prepared to host it.”
Raiyan Laksamana, in explaining his support for the petition, wrote: “The Formula E is just a vanity project compared to [the] humanitarian crisis that is happening in Jakarta right now.”
“It’s absolutely appalling to hold this event when the city needs to be rebuilt after a devastating flood. Jakarta is not ready for this,” said Serena Suprawoto, another netizen.
Anies responded to the claim mentioned in the petition by saying that it was untrue.
“There are no [budget cuts],” said the governor on Friday, as quoted by tribunnews.com.
Anies added that instead of worrying about the budget, what was more important was to help the people of Jakarta who were affected by the floods.
“The people right now need solidarity. Whatever the views are in regards to the policy, when there are thousands of people being affected by flooding, it’s actually time for us to get together [and] ease their burdens.”
The massive flooding in Greater Jakarta, Banten and West Java has claimed the lives of at least 67 people and displaced 36,000 others, according to recent data from the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).
Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA) secretary-general Misbah Hasan said that the Jakarta administration set aside Rp 3.87 billion (US$277,500) for the Water Resources Agency last year, of which 83 percent was used for the Flood and Erosion Management Program.
The agency was hesitant to execute land acquisitions because of unclear technicalities, resulting in low budget use.
“Due to the low budget use, in the administration’s 2020 budget, the Water Resources Agency was only allocated Rp 2.54 billion or a decrease of 21 percent from the last year’s budget,” said Misbah told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
Misbah explained that a reallocation of the budget might go to host the electric car race. The administration has already set aside Rp 1.6 billion for Formula E, also known as the Jakarta ePrix.
“For the reallocation, it might be used to host Formula E because the budget for Formula E was not present in the capital’s medium-term development plan and only appeared in the city’s working plan and the capital’s 2020 budget priorities,” he said.
“This will need funds from other agencies whose budget realization performances were bad,” Misbah told the Post.
Meanwhile, Trisakti University urban expert Nirwono Yoga urged the administration to evaluate its flood management budget, which includes money for land acquisition near rivers and lakes or reservoirs, lake and reservoir revitalization, rusunawa (low-cost rental apartments) and green open spaces, among other things.
“[The administration needs to] postpone or cancel programs that are not directly related to flood management,” Nirwono told the Post on Monday.
Anies first announced that the city would be one of the hosts of the 2020 Formula E on July 7, 2019, via an Instagram post, and in a press conference two months later.
William Aditya Sarana, a Jakarta councillor for the 2019 to 2024 term from the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), had criticized the administration’s plan to host the event.
“Formula E is not urgent and its nature is merely entertainment. It’s better to be allocated for other things,” the PSI politician said on Aug. 16, as quoted by tribunjakarta.com.
“As far as I know, many cities, for example Montreal, canceled hosting Formula E because it was too expensive.”
William was referring to Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante’s decision to pull the plug on the 2018 edition of the racing series after facing ballooning costs from the 2017 Formula E.
Plante made the decision after learning that it would cost up to C$35 million ($26.99 million) of taxpayers’ money to host the race.
In 2016, Moscow also canceled hosting the race over logistics issues, including road closures, as reported by theverge.com.
The all-electric racing series is known for its use of public roads as racing circuits, which could be another problem worth mentioning with traffic as dense as Jakarta’s. (ydp)
