Fauzi challenges Jakartans over traffic, flood mayhem

JAKARTA LIFE'S STYLE

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo says he is not worried about mounting public support for a class action lawsuit Jakarta residents plan to file against his administration following hours of gridlock that paralyzed the capital for several hours on Monday.

“I think they have the right [to lodge the lawsuit]. Go ahead. We will respond to it,” he said Wednesday.
“I have done my duty in line with the work plan,” he said.

Fauzi was aiming to respond to a string of complaints lodged on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. He said he would like to thank the critics, hoping that by unleashing their emotions the public would be relieved from the frustration of living in a chaotic city.

Jokes were posted online about the governor’s nickname, “Foke”, and making a mockery of his winning campaign slogan during the direct gubernatorial election in 2007, “Serahkan pada ahlinya” (Let the expert take over). The slogan referred to Fauzi’s more than 30 years’ experience in the administration and his scholarly record in city planning.

Other posts were more satirical, labeling Jakarta “the Venice of Asia”, highlighting the administration’s inability to tackle flooding. Pictures lampooning the Governor were also exchanged using the Internet and smart phones.

Nurkholis Hidayat, the director of Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH), said many residents had contacted his office since Tuesday morning, to file complaints about the Monday mayhem. Many people wanted to file a class action lawsuit, he said.

“They want to teach a lesson to the city administration, which didn’t even want to apologize to residents for the chaos,” he said.

On Tuesday, Fauzi declined to apologize to the public, saying the subsequent gridlock was the result of heavy rain.

He called on residents to view the Monday flooding as a natural result of extreme weather conditions.
Nurkholis said his organization would facilitate the lawsuit proceedings.

Tweeps (the users of the Twitter social microblogging site) have called for a class action lawsuit,
advising concerned residents to send emails to dinasavaluna@gmail.com whose Twitter account is
@dinasavaluna to obtain further information.

Following the Monday flooding, the administration said it had allocated a significant budget to reduce inundation by clearing up drainage systems in 106 locations across the capital. This year, the administration targets to complete drainage repairs in 33 locations.

In response to the Monday traffic, Fauzi said his administration would heed the recommendations of Jakarta Transportation Council (DTKJ) to make Jakarta’s railway system the backbone of the city’s public transportation services.

“We will start to revitalize the Serpong line first because the network has high traffic. Many passengers even travel on the tops of carriages,” he said.

DTKJ chairman Azas Tigor Nainggolan said the revitalization program was aimed at optimizing the 24-kilometer Serpong Line that connects Manggarai in South Jakarta to Serpong in South Tangerang.

“We propose an improvement to infrastructure to make the train headway 5 minutes during peak times and 10 minutes during off-peak times,” he said, adding that with this improvement the trains could serve up to 30,000 commuters a day, three times more than its present capacity.

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