JAKARTA, INDONESIA A SINKING GIANT?

Jakarta: In Dire Need of Improvement

Andre Vltchek
Worldpress.org contributing editor
July 26, 2007

Today, high-rises dot the skyline, hundreds of thousands of
vehicles belch fumes on congested traffic arteries and super-malls
have become the cultural centers of gravity in Jakarta, the fourth
largest city in the world. In between towering super-structures,
humble kampongs house the majority of the city dwellers, who often
have no access to basic sanitation, running water or waste management.

While almost all major capitals in the Southeast Asian region
are investing heavily in public transportation, parks, playgrounds,
sidewalks and cultural institutions like museums, concert halls and
convention centers, Jakarta remains brutally and determinately
‘pro-market’ profit-driven and openly indifferent to the plight of a
majority of its citizens who are poor.

Most Jakartans have never left Indonesia, so they cannot
compare their capital with Kuala Lumpur or Singapore; with Hanoi or
Bangkok. Comparative statistics and reports hardly make it into the
local media. Despite the fact that the Indonesian capital is for many
foreign visitors a ‘hell on earth,’ the local media describes Jakarta
as “modern,” “cosmopolitan, ” and “a sprawling metropolis.”

Newcomers are often puzzled by Jakarta’s lack of public
amenities. Bangkok, not exactly known as a user-friendly city, still
has several beautiful parks. Even cash-strapped Port Moresby, capital
of Papua New Guinea, boasts wide promenades, playgrounds, long
stretches of beach and sea walks. Singapore and Kuala Lumpur compete
with each other in building wide sidewalks, green areas as well as
cultural establishments. Manila, another city without a glowing
reputation for its public amenities, has succeeded in constructing an
impressive sea promenade dotted with countless cafes and entertainment
venues while preserving its World Heritage Site at Intramuros. Hanoi
repaved its wide sidewalks and turned a park around Huan-Kiem Lake
into an open-air sculpture museum.

But in Jakarta, there is a fee for everything. Many green
spaces have been converted to golf courses for the exclusive use of
the rich. The approximately one square kilometer of Monas seems to be
the only real public area in a city of more than 10 million. Despite
being a maritime city, Jakarta has been separated from the sea, with
the only focal point being Ancol, with a tiny, mostly decrepit walkway
along the dirty beach dotted with private businesses.

Even to take a walk in Ancol, a family of four has to spend
approximately $4.50 (40,000 Indonesian Rupiahs) in entrance fees,
something unthinkable anywhere else in the world. The few tiny public
parks which survived privatization are in desperate condition and
mostly unsafe to use.

There are no sidewalks in the entire city, if one applies
international standards to the word “sidewalk.” Almost anywhere in the
world (with the striking exception of some cities in the United
States, like Houston and Los Angeles) the cities themselves belong to
pedestrians. Cars are increasingly discouraged from traveling in the
city centers. Wide sidewalks are understood to be the most ecological,
healthy and efficient forms of short-distance public transportation in
areas with high concentrations of people.

In Jakarta, there are hardly any benches for people to sit and
relax, and no free drinking water fountains or public toilets. It is
these small, but important, ‘details’ that are symbols of urban life
anywhere else in the world.

Most world cities, including those in the region, want to be
visited and remembered for their culture. Singapore is managing to
change its ’shop-till-you- drop’ image to that of the center of
Southeast Asian arts. The monumental Esplanade Theatre has reshaped
the skyline, offering first-rate international concerts in classical
music, opera, ballet, and also featuring performances from some of the
leading contemporary artists from the region. Many performances are
subsidized and are either free or cheap, relative to the high incomes
in the city-state.

Kuala Lumpur spent $100 million on its philharmonic concert
hall, which is located right under the Petronas Towers, among the
tallest buildings in the world. This impressive and prestigious
concert hall hosts local orchestra companies as well top international
performers. The city is currently spending further millions to
refurbish its museums and galleries, from the National Museum to the
National Art Gallery.

Hanoi is proud of its culture and arts, which are promoted as
its major attraction millions of visitors flock into the city to
visit countless galleries stocked with canvases, which can be easily
described as some of the best in Southeast Asia. Its beautifully
restored Opera House regularly offers Western and Asian music treats.

Bangkok’s colossal temples and palaces coexist with extremely
cosmopolitan fare international theater and film festivals,
countless performances, jazz clubs with local and foreign artists on
the bill, as well as authentic culinary delights from all corners of
the world. When it comes to music, live performances and nightlife,
there is no city in Southeast Asia as vibrant as Manila.

Now back to Jakarta. Those who have ever visited the city’s
‘public libraries’ or National Archives building will know the
difference. No wonder; in Indonesia education, culture and arts are
not considered to be ‘profitable’ (with the exception of pop music),
and are therefore made absolutely irrelevant. The country spends the
third lowest amount in the world on education (according to The
Economist, only1.2 percent of its GDP) after Equatorial Guinea and
Ecuador (there the situation is now rapidly improving with the new
progressive government).

Museums in Jakarta are in appalling condition, offering
absolutely no important international exhibitions. They look like they
fell on the city from a different era and no wonder the Dutch built
almost all of them. Not only are their collections poorly kept, but
they lack elements of modernity there are no elegant cafes, museum
shops, bookstores or even public archives. It appears that the
individuals running them are without vision and creativity. However,
even if they did have inspired ideas, there would be no funding to
carry them out.

It seems that Jakarta has no city planners, only private
developers that have no respect for the majority of its inhabitants
who are poor (the great majority, no matter what the understated and
manipulated government statistics say). The city abandoned itself to
the private sector, which now controls almost everything, from
residential housing to what were once public areas.

While Singapore decades ago, and Kuala Lumpur recently,
managed to fully eradicate poor, unsanitary and depressing kampongs
from their urban areas, Jakarta is unable or unwilling to offer its
citizens subsidized, affordable housing equipped with running water,
electricity, a sewage system, wastewater treatment facilities,
playgrounds, parks, sidewalks and a mass public transportation system.

Rich Singapore aside, Kuala Lumpur with only 2 million
inhabitants boasts one metro line (Putra Line), one monorail, several
efficient Star LRT lines, suburban train links and high-speed rail
system connecting the city with its new capital Putrajaya. The “Rapid”
system counts on hundreds of modern, clean and air-conditioned buses.
Transit is subsidized; a bus ticket on “Rapid” costs only $.60 (2
Malaysian Ringgits) for unlimited day use on the same line. Heavily
discounted daily and monthly passes are also available.

Bangkok contracted German firm Siemens to build two long “Sky
Train” lines and one metro line. It is also utilizing its river and
channels as both public transportation and as a tourist attraction.
Despite this enormous progress, the Bangkok city administration claims
that it is building an additional 50 miles (80 kilometers) of tracks
for these systems in order to convince citizens to leave their cars at
home and use public transportation.
Polluting pre-historic buses are being banned from Hanoi,
Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and gradually from Bangkok. Jakarta, thanks to
corruption and phlegmatic officials, is in its own league even in this
field.

Mercer Human Resource Consulting, in its reports covering
quality of life, places Jakarta repeatedly on the level of poor
African and South Asian cities, below metropolises like Nairobi and
Medellin.

Considering that it is in the league with some of the poorest
capitals of the world, Jakarta is not cheap. According to the Mercer
Human Resource Consulting 2006 Survey, Jakarta ranked as the 48th most
expensive city in the world for expatriate employees, well above
Berlin (72nd), Melbourne (74th) and Washington D.C. (83rd). And if it
is expensive for expatriates, how is it for local people with a GDP
per capita below $1,000?

Curiously, Jakartans are silent. They have become inured to
appalling air quality just as they have gotten used to the sight of
children begging, even selling themselves at the major intersections;
to entire communities living under elevated highways and in slums on
the shores of canals turned into toxic waste dumps; to the hours-long
commutes; to floods and rats.

But if there is to be any hope, the truth has to eventually be
told, and the sooner the better. Only a realistic and brutal diagnosis
can lead to treatment and a cure. As painful as the truth can be, it
is always better than self-deceptions and lies.
Jakarta has fallen decades behind capitals in the neighboring
countries in esthetics, housing, urban planning, standard of living,
quality of life, health, education, culture, transportation, food
quality and hygiene. It has to swallow its pride and learn from Kuala
Lumpur, Singapore, Brisbane and even in some instances from its poorer
neighbors like Port Moresby, Manila and Hanoi.

Comparative statistics have to be transparent and widely
available. Citizens have to learn how to ask questions again, and how
to demand answers and accountability. Only if they understand to what
depths their city has sunk can there be any hope of change.
“We have to watch out,” said a concerned Malaysian filmmaker
during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Kuala Lumpur. “Malaysia suddenly
has too many problems. If we are not careful, Kuala Lumpur could end
up in 20 or 30 years like Jakarta!”

Could this statement be reversed? Can Jakarta find the
strength and solidarity to mobilize in time catch up with Kuala
Lumpur? Can decency overcome greed? Can corruption be eradicated and
replaced by creativity? Can private villas shrink in size and green
spaces, public housing, playgrounds, libraries, schools and hospitals
expand?

An outsider like me can observe, tell the story and ask
questions. Only the people of Jakarta can offer the answers and
solutions.
———— ——— ——— ——— ——— ——— -
Andre Vltchek: novelist, journalist and filmmaker, co-founder of
Mainstay Press (www.mainstaypress. org) publishing house for political
fiction. His recent books include novel ‘Point of No Return‘ and a
book of political essays ‘Western Terror: From Potosi to Baghdad’ as
well as ‘Exile’ with Pramoedya Ananta Toer and Rossie Indira. He
produced 90 minutes documentary film about Suharto’s dictatorship and
its impact on present-day Indonesia ‘Terlena : Breaking of a Nation’
) www.millache. org) and wrote political drama ‘Ghosts of Valparaiso’.
Senior fellow at Oakland Institute (www.oaklandinstitu te.org) he
lives and works in Southeast Asia and South Pacific and can be reached
at:andre-wcn@ usa. net