Hasyim Widhiarto, Jakarta – Two years into the job, Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo still has to work extra hard to make good on his campaign promises, a discussion concluded Monday.

Husin Yazid, executive director of the Policy and Development Strategy Research Center (Puskaptis), said the city administration had to immediately consider increasing its budget allocation and efforts to promote its programs and policies, since most residents remained unfamiliar with them.

"Our latest survey found 21 percent of respondents couldn't judge the performance of the city administration simply because they had no knowledge about the administration's programs," he said.

The Puskaptis survey was conducted from Sept. 17 to 27, and involved 2,000 respondents from Jakarta's 44 subdistricts. It queried the public's satisfaction with the administration's performance over the past two years.

Fifty-one percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the performance of the city administration, while 28 percent were not. The survey also found a significant number of residents had no idea what their administration had been doing over the past two years.

University of Indonesia urban development expert Rudy Tambunan said the results of the survey were a reflection of the administration's failure to empower residents.

With a lack of dialogue between the administration and the public, Rudy said, it would be hard for the administration to urge the latter to support its programs or policies.

"Many urban problems, including floods and land subsidence, can actually be reduced gradually by changing the way people live," he said. "So it's important for [the administration] to build the capacity of its residents from now on."

In response, Achmad Harjadi, Fauzi's deputy for city planning and the environment, said the administration would consider the survey results and ensuing critiques in its efforts to improve its performance over the next few years.

Sworn in on Oct. 7, 2007, Fauzi and his running mate, retired Army general Prijanto, prioritized flood mitigation and traffic alleviation efforts.

While progress in the latter has hit a dead end following a series of failures to secure funding for projects like the monorail and mass rapid transit (MRT), the administration's attempts to control flooding have proven more successful.

Last week, the administration pledged to have the 23.5-kilometer East Canal Flood finished by the end of the year. Once completed, the Rp 4.5 trillion project should reduce flooding across a 270-square-kilometer flood plain straddling eastern and northern Jakarta.

Of the 18 public service sectors evaluated in the Puskaptis survey, nine, including education and civil registration, were praised by more than 60 percent of respondents.

Three sectors, related to services in local government hospitals, processing title deeds and applying for land and building permits, were at the bottom of the list, with less than 50 percent of respondents happy with them.