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Citizens Tweet to tackle Jakarta’s main troubles

The central government stirred controversy in December when it floated the idea of levying a 10% tax on small restaurants (wartegs) with annual revenues of more than $6,600. The chairman of a union for small-restaurant workers said the regulation would cause trouble for Jakarta’s nearly 27,000 small restaurants since the revenue barrier was so low that nearly all wartegs would be prone to the tax levy. Warteg owners warned that they would have to pass the new cost on to their customers by charging higher prices. In a move aimed at boosting his oft-flagging support, Governor Fauzi Bowo said the Home Ministry had approved the regulation, but he decided to postpone it because he would never issue a policy that hurts the “small people.”

 

Meanwhile, frustration with slow progress on improving Jakarta’s environment has given rise to a number of citizen groups that are taking efforts into their own hands. Sulfikar Amir, a member of the non-profit conservation group called Save Jakarta, promoted the group’s efforts in December by encouraging Twitter users to send their ideas for improving the capital to the Save Jakarta’s Twitter account, @savejkt

 

The group believes social activism can improve Jakarta by pushing for better governance that is dedicated to making necessary changes to stem flooding and waste management.

 

Sulfikar said the ideas collected by @savejkt would be compiled into a proposal and submitted to the Jakarta government in February. Critics of a master spatial plan for the city for 2010-2013 say it was drafted without public input and fails to clearly address the city’s biggest issues – traffic, floods, pollution and water supplies. But the government points to clear evidence, such as workers seen installing new streetlights in Central Jakarta in early December. The Central Jakarta spatial plan aims to improve roads, add parks and community activity centers in crowded urban areas. It’s unclear, however, what efforts are being made in areas outside the center, often the ones most in need of new development.

 

Source: www.thejakartaglobe.com