Jakarta – Jakarta lacks concern for its residents in many ways, particularly in the commercial sphere, with the city administration paying little attention to the ordinary people, a professor says.
"The city has two different commercial phenomena. The first one consists of luxury shopping centers and malls, while the second one consists of slum-like traditional markets and street hawkers," Benny Hoed of the University of Indonesia (UI)'s School of Cultural Sciences says in an essay.
"The city administration, however, doesn't seem to care about the traditional markets as its officials appear to prefer to build as many modern malls as possible, and let the traditional ones go to the wall," he added.
Benny's essay, titled Jakarta Yang Manusiawi (A humane Jakarta), is among a compilation of studies published by the Capital Development Working Group of UI's students' union, which was launched last week at the university's campus in Depok, south of Jakarta.
Benny suggests that the administration pay attention to traditional markets and street hawkers as they serve the needs of low-income people.
An attempt by the Jakarta administration to clean up the city led it to endorse a new public order ordinance earlier this month that restricts hawkers from trading on sidewalks and pedestrian bridges without official permission from the governor.
The Institute for Economic and Social Rights has calculated that hawkers in the city cumulatively earn a total of about Rp 13 trillion (US$1.413 billion) per year. This is a lot of money compared to the 2007 city budget, which stands at Rp 17.97 trillion.
Benny urged the administration to eradicate the levying of illegal fees by government officials on hawkers, and to rejuvenate traditional markets by making them cleaner and tidier.
Administration expert Eko Prasodjo, psychologist Sarlito Wirawan Sarwono and a number of professors, lecturers and students from the university also expressed their views on Jakarta's development in the book.
Head of the group, Zainal C. Airlangga, said the book was meant to offer alternative solutions to the current issues faced by the city administration, such as garbage, traffic jams and the poor performance of government officials.
"We think that these matters, as well as the infrastructure and the services provided by administration officials, must be improved. The government needs to listen to input from academics as these are based on scientific research," he said.
Zainal said the group had only printed 1,000 copies of the book, which would be given to policymakers, non-governmental organizations, academics and public libraries.