Want to Stop the Annual Mudik Road Carnage? Push Development in Areas Outside Jakarta

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Want to Stop the Annual Mudik Road Carnage? Push Development in Areas Outside Jakarta
Yohanes Sulaiman | August 28, 2012

The Transportation Ministry stated last week that there were 4,333 traffic accidents during this year’s mudik season, leaving 760 people dead and 5,308 injured, while causing Rp 8.33 billion in damages. By Monday the death toll had risen to 820. 

The police blamed the high number of accidents and casualties on many motorists’ disregard for traffic regulations, which is not surprising considering that it is also estimated that 1,548 of those people who were involved in the accidents did not have a driver’s license. At the same time, the government is blamed for not providing adequate alternative modes of transportation. 

All of this ignored one big problem: the inequality of economic growth throughout Indonesia. 

This year it is estimated that 8.3 million people left Jakarta to return to their hometowns in Central and East Java. While officials in Jakarta have consistently tried to prevent more people from moving to the already overburdened city, they are fighting a losing battle. 

Like it or not, people will keep coming to Jakarta as long as Jakarta remains the center of our national economy. 

In 2010, for instance, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, Jakarta contributed roughly 16.31 percent of the national gross domestic product. That means that the GDP of Jakarta alone was slightly larger than the GDP of entire province of East Java and twice as big as the GDP of Central Java. 

With such an economic concentration in a very small region, it should come as no surprise to anyone that people will flock to Jakarta in the hopes of improving their lives. They then will return to their hometowns during mudik season. With so many people on the road, it should not be any wonder that traffic accidents will increase, especially considering the poor condition of the roads and the ignorance of many people when it comes to proper road etiquette and basic knowledge of the law. 

While better transportation infrastructure and driver education would help decrease the number of accidents, a much better policy is needed to bolster economic growth in the other parts of Java that are the destinations of the annual exodus. In order to do that, the government has to improve the transportation infrastructure. 

Because of massive traffic jams, horrible road conditions, the lack of deep-water harbors to ship products, red tape and what is perceived as a lack of legal protection outside of Jakarta, it is only natural for industries to gravitate to Jakarta. The capital has better transportation infrastructure and is where people can find better jobs. 

While the government is planning to increase the budget for infrastructure spending by 14.9 percent in 2013, bringing it to Rp 193.8 trillion (approximately $20.3 billion, and 11.6 percent of the budget), such an increase is long overdue, and considering the current state of Indonesia’s infrastructure, would probably be inadequate. 

What the government needs to do is to encourage more private investment in transportation infrastructure and labor-extensive industries, especially outside of the Jakarta region. To do that, however, the government has to develop a strong, united and coherent economic policy, trim the bureaucracy, streamline labor laws and business permits, and ensure investors that even in the outlying regions, they will not suffer from the greed of unscrupulous local officials. 

More important, the government needs to show commitment in upholding the law and eradicating corruption. Sadly, the government has been burying its head in the sand in the past few years. 

While President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono keeps voicing his displeasure over his government’s poor performance in boosting economic growth, his inaction in the light of a recent fight between the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the National Police has done little to generate public trust. 

Actions speak louder than words. As long as Yudhoyono is unable to translate his rhetoric into action, investors will remain jittery over what they perceive as Indonesia’s lack of seriousness in upholding the rule of law. And they won’t have the desire to invest far from the capital’s city limits. 

Thus Jakarta will keep having its traffic jams, and the annual death toll from mudik will keep increasing.

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Pelan2

3:10pm Aug 28, 2012

Pak Yohanes - on the spot again - too bad that SBY does not read your snippets when they are published.

With the electoral system presently in force, no capable independent Indonesian will come forward to lead. Presidential candidates will be the "has beens" - brought up through the political parties, which are all ridden with corruption, and if elected, they are faced with the "payback issue" to those political parties that backed him/her during the run-up to the election. Rather disappointing that 250 mill Indonesians have to choose between a bunch of handpicked "crooks" instead of getting fresh, forward thinking Indonesian candidates. One "small" hope though, is that Jokowi steamrolls over Fauzi Bowo in the DKI-1 election on Sep. 20th and that he will later move on to the national stage - last hope I would say..

jchay

3:57pm Aug 28, 2012

Move the capital city out of Jakarta, give more incentive for investors, get rid of non-performance and corrupt Bupati.. c'mon Indonesia, it's 2012. Be smarter voters or else you're shooting your own foot!

bajajbutut

7:11pm Aug 28, 2012

At the end of the day, I think it's up to the motorists to start looking after ourselves. Accident can occur anywhere, anytime. I really think it's the people mentality, their driving style and their disregard to road safety that account more to road accidents than anything else.

Yohanes-Sulaiman

7:31am Aug 29, 2012

Thank you all for your comments.

@Pelan2: To be frank, I am probably one of few people who actually look at Jokowi skeptically. Yes, he is a lesser of two evils, but dunno, I think he is way overhyped, and when he could not deliver due to the huge problems that Jakarta face, then expect s**t hits the fan. I wish him the best though.

@Jchay: the idea of moving capital out of Jakarta has actually been broached as early as in 1910s(?). Bandung's "Gedung Sate" was supposed to be the new Dutch Governor General palace. So, don't think it will happen anytime soon (unfortunately).

@Bajajbutut: agree, but that does not address the root cause of the mudik phenomena itself. Still, you are right that the driving style in Indonesia is atrocious and I blame it to the lack of law enforcement with the police ready to look elsewhere when they are offered some incentives.

zerodiversity

9:20am Aug 29, 2012

Pak Yohannes made a good point but I am done thinking that SBY would do something about the problem. From now till 2014 SBY would be more interested to negotiate on ways to consolidate his power after his term is done. He would not put the country interest first.

Yohanes-Sulaiman

10:33am Aug 29, 2012

@zerodiversity: I agree. The next two years will be power consolidations. There are some rumors about him trying to groom a young minister in his cabinet to be his successor (not Hatta), so I don't think there will be any major breakthrough in respect of anything in the next two years. (You might notice that this piece is more of an analysis than the usual "exhortation.")

Pelan2

10:56am Aug 29, 2012

@Yohanes - noted your reservations about Jokowi, maybe you are right. However, if he wins by a huge margin, at least that would show that he has the majority of Jakartans behind him which would give him a good mandate to govern and the political parties should be very careful not to put "the breaks on" keeping the 2014 elections in mind.

Yohanes-Sulaiman

11:29am Aug 29, 2012

@Pelan2: I don't discount the impact of a landslide to his ability to get things done. That will be a good wake up call to a lot of Indonesian politicians and the corrupt oligarchy that support them. At the same time, however, this might also inspire his political opponents to try to make his life hell, in order to ensure that he won't be a viable candidate for higher office. Moreover, people tend to be impatient for someone who they believe as Messiah, and thus when he cannot deliver in his first or second years, expect things to turn ugly. Still, I do sincerely hope that my misgivings are misplaced in this case.

zerodiversity

2:29pm Aug 29, 2012

Don't expect too much even if Jokowi-Ahok did manage to win the election. There are too much problems piled up in Jakarta and the bureaucracy is too much to expect Jokowi to perform miracles. If Jokowi manages to show us his determination for changes and small but concrete steps towards making improvement, I will say he is a good enough leader.

As for the yearly mudik problems, I am surprised that we are already going into 2013 and there is still no express toll road from Jakarta to Surabaya. Connecting the entire java island would have indirectly improved the traffic condition in Jakarta tremendously. I believe the main reason we don't have a connected java island is because too many people want a share of the big profit the project would have given.

Yohanes-Sulaiman

7:14am Aug 30, 2012

@Zerodiversity: Corruption is probably the only reason for this lack of express toll road. I believe that there was a company planning to invest in a toll road a couple of years ago, but they decided to pull out once they found out that the total bribes that they had to pay would have already at least doubled the original estimate of investment needed to build the toll road.

TheSplodge

10:22am Aug 30, 2012

@All

It would be interesting to have a break down of deaths caused by accidents to see where the majority of problems lie.

I, for one, would be surprised if the vast majority of deaths and injuries were not to motorbike riders. If that is the case, surely one way to lessen the awful carnage would be to ban all motorbikes from leaving the city, especially the 'bebeks'. Since Jakarta bikes have a 'B' on the license plate I can't imagine it would be very difficult to enforce.

I realize that this does not solve the problem of how to get hundreds of thousands of Indonesians back to their kampungs but saving around 6000 people from being killed or injured must surely be the higher priority.

zerodiversity

10:39am Aug 30, 2012

@Pak Yohannes

I agree, the government and bureaucracy here is a farce and disgrace to the country. Those so-called "government people" think only of themselves and how much money they can siphon off the country. I am not surprised foreign and private companies refused to invest money in toll road projects because of the huge amount of 'grease' money they have to pay

devine

3:38pm Aug 30, 2012

Pelan2; my guess is that SBY actually reads the snippets... but does not understand them...

Nullify

3:43pm Aug 30, 2012

Country Corruption indices such as Corruption Perception Index etc are made and published yearly to aid potential investors in their feasibility studies. Ignore these indices at your own perils.

The Gas-Guzzling Public Shares Some Blame in Need for Fuel Price Increase

Don't you love it when trolls are coming out from the woodworks?

Anyhow, the point of this article is that by not creating a viable method of alternative (off-road based) transportation, the government is trapped in this vicious cycle of having to provide fuel subsidies, which in turn encourage people to actually waste fuel. Not to mention corruption, etc -- all the usual suspects.

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The Gas-Guzzling Public Shares Some Blame in Need for Fuel Price Increase
Yohanes Sulaiman | March 19, 2012

'Short-term aid doesn’t address the underlying problem of Indonesia’s fuel addiction.'

Should everything go as planned, the price of the subsidized gasoline will increase on April 1. Such a price increase, while understandable in light of uncertain global oil price thanks to ongoing crisis in the Middle East, was badly managed and planned.

Listening to the speeches in which the planned price hike was justified, however, I realized that this was the first time the government has faced global oil price instability that forced it to increase the price of fuel.

A few years back, before the global economic crisis, the world saw the price of oil jump to $147.30 per barrel in July 2008. At that time, the price of subsidized gasoline was increased to Rp 6,000 (66 cents) per liter. Back then, it was argued that the subsidized fuel was killing the economy by draining the treasury and that the government needed to reduce the subsidy in order to spend the money on much-needed infrastructure and improving Indonesia’s fuel economy.

It made economic sense as much back then as it does now. Rather than waste money on subsidizing fuel prices that do nothing but encourage the public’s wasteful use of fuel, it is much better to slowly reduce and phase out the subsidies, forcing the public to actually limit its fuel consumption by buying fuel-efficient vehicles and maintaining its vehicles regularly.

The caveat, however, is that the government must improve the public transportation system, providing an alternative method of travel to the public, thus encouraging it to switch to this fuel-efficient method of transportation that is also affordable. This switch will help reduce the number of vehicles on the street and thus alleviate traffic jams and minimize the amount of gasoline wasted by cars sitting idle in the middle of gridlock.

Yet, apparently nothing was learned back then.

There have been only a few attempts to wean the nation from its oil addiction. The gas-guzzling old trucks belching a cloud of smoke from their exhaust pipes, with so much pollution that would make a coal-fueled power-plant blush, remain a common sight. Traffic remains terrible, with no alternative transportation method such as a monorail or subway being built that would reduce the number of cars on street.

Instead, the government relies on the TransJakarta busway system that reduces the number of lanes on the road and further exacerbates the traffic jams. This system also remains so unreliable — with tales of hours of fruitless waiting, pick-pocketing and sexual harassment — that the public no longer think of it as an attractive alternative method of transportation.

People instead spend their paychecks to purchase motorcycles that further add into national fuel addiction and taxing the already-burdened transportation network that is strained to the brink of collapse. Some transportation analysts are already sounding warnings that by 2014, traffic in Jakarta will grind to a halt with the roads completely filled with idling vehicles.

This time, the same excuse is again used, that the public needs to sacrifice its money to maintain the health of the state budget. The public, however, is skeptical about whether the increase is needed and if it can even believe that the government acts with the public’s best interests in mind. The government seems without any sense of urgency.

Lawmakers enjoy their time sitting with chauffeurs in their gas-guzzling vehicles at the taxpayers’ expense. Mini-Gayuses remain at large, helping themselves to the taxpayers’ money, and ministries funnel the money to the political parties, current developments in the courts seem to suggest.

How healthy is the state budget, anyway? While the spending on infrastructure was finally increased this budget year, the increase remains pale in comparison to the sheer size of the country and the amount of rupiah actually needed to overhaul the dysfunctional transportation system. As a result, infrastructure remains in shambles, which exacerbates traffic jams, further adding to the cost of transportation in Indonesia and doing nothing to increase the fuel economy.

Worse, in order to blunt public criticism, the government has also engaged in another misguided short-term policy of handing out cash payments to the poor (BLT). This bribe to the people will do nothing but give the people reason to expect a government handout every time things don’t go well.

There are also some questions to be asked, such as who qualifies for such assistance and whether there are safeguards to prevent the money from being given to those who do not deserve it, like the cronies authorized to distribute the money. BLT opens the door to illegal fees on the aid by corrupt local government under the guise of administrative costs, and even corruption within the bureaucracy itself.

More importantly, such short-term aid doesn’t do anything to address the underlying problem of Indonesia’s fuel addiction. There aren’t any reliable methods of transportation, aside from the gas-guzzling personal vehicles, due to the lack of investment in a functioning public transportation system.

Could the public be blamed then for questioning the wisdom of this increase of fuel price? Not surprisingly, many have called for the government to — instead of raising the fuel price — fix its own dysfunctional behavior first by cracking down on government corruption and waste that drain the treasury on a much larger scale than the fuel subsidies.

It is clear that the good times cannot continue and that sooner or later the public will have to take the bitter pill of a fuel price increase, and that the country has to be weaned off of its fuel addiction. The government has the responsibility to ensure that the public has an alternative in the form of a cheap, reliable and efficient public transportation system that will improve overall fuel economy. The government also must show that it does take seriously the fuel price hike issue, as well as the widening state budget deficit, by curbing the governmental waste and forcing bureaucrats and lawmakers to use cheap and fuel-efficient vehicles.

The government has already had a master plan to improve the strained transportation system developed by the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas). It is time to muster enough political will to implement it and not allow money to be funneled away through corruption and vested interests.
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colroe

11:54am Mar 19, 2012

Maybe there could be a campaign to have vehicle owners ensure their drivers switch off the air conditioning in the car while the "boss" is busy. Also teach the public who own diesel vehicles that a modern diesel engine does not need half an hour of idling (warming the engine) before the journey.

Serigala-Berbulu-Domba

9:21pm Mar 19, 2012

The Governments approach to addressing this issue has involved a lot of handwringing over a long period of time, when an incremental fuel subsidy reduction program should have been implemented long ago. Instead, successive Governments have adopted a stop, start approach to this issue, when firm resolve should have been applied to address this issue on a systematic basis. This has resulted in the current situation of the fuel subsidy amounting to approximately US$20 billion, a clearly unsustainable position. The proposed April 1, 2012 increase in the price of premium gasoline of Rp1,500 per litre will be a start in addressing the current situation, but further increases in subsidized fuel prices will be required in future to further reduce the massive fuel subsidy amount in order to provide funding for infrastructure, education and other much needed social programs.

Uninfomed observations recently expressed by PDI-P, DRD and PKS representatives on this issue are totally irresponsible.

Roland

12:24am Mar 20, 2012

IN regards of a completely clogged Jakarta by 2014 - what actually happened to the initiative to replace the completely inefficient "3 in 1" system with a inner city toll? I thought it will take place this year but it seems that it was just another castle in the sky. Same as the emission stickers which are supposed to be on every car with a Jakarta registration...never heard of again after its introduction.

ANd yes, 'colroe' it is obvious that a lot of gasoline is getting wasted with idling cars "just" to run the air condition - but on the other side I remember one idiotic rule connected with the "3 in 1" system, which officially requires all cars to have their windows lowered during its duration in the morning and afternoon, so law enforcement officers can see the inside of the car and its passengers. Personally I wouldn't mind at all to switch to a hybrid or natural gas powered car, but there are not even refueling stations available, regardless of the voices that said kits will be a

agentmacgyver

5:59am Mar 20, 2012

Way to end with a whimper. After a fine description of the problems, the solution is "political will" to end corruption.

Don't hold your breath!

Yohanes-Sulaiman

11:10am Mar 20, 2012

@agentmacgyver: Pray tell, what kind of ending you want? I stressed already that there are people actually working on traffic/transportation problems. The Bappenas has already had the transportation improvement plans that never sees the day because there is simply no money to implement it, as the money went to the area which produces the most political payback (and graft).

For instance, I mentioned (and not published by the Editor) that the national budget for this year shows how messed up everything is, with the notoriously corrupt Ministry of Religion get a huge budget increase under justification of "fulfilling the national mandate of spending 20% of budget on education" that shows the government simply does not have a sense of urgency on this matter.

Thus what really needed is the political will and money to get that plan implemented.


@Colroe: good points, didn't think about that. Though, from our experience here, what they will do is to make some "marching patriotic song" with the theme of fuel efficiency, put them on the television and radio for like a few times, then divide the rest of the money to the colleagues/pals/whatever else, and call it a day.

@Serigala: what more laughable is the attempts of some groups like Hizbut Tahrir to expand their influence by publishing "nine points against the planned fuel price increase," which is totally full of BS. For example, they argued that the govt was lying that fuel is costly, since they can get it from free from inside the oil-rich Indonesia. Nothing about exploration, drilling, etc, which costs a lot.

Of course, they still have the la-la land mentality, that we can just spread the seeds, and lo and behold, we can have a country full of productive plants without lifting a finger to take care of them.

@Roland: it is all gong-and-whistle approach as usual. You just need to show that you do something, even cosmetic, then you can say that you tried, then back to the real business of trying to amass as much funds as possible for the next election.

Besides, the implementations of these policies will be a nightmare with a very unprepared police force and bureaucracy to handle them.

JohnnyCool

12:04pm Mar 20, 2012

Why does a "secular country" need a Ministry of Religion in the first place? And a "notoriously corrupt" one at that?

Fuel price rises are never popular anywhere. Indonesians have the cheapest petrol in the region. Paying more realistic prices for it is inevitable. How the government weans the population off its status-quo mentality on this is a huge political problem. Start - stop - restart - maybe "approaches" underline the unwillingness of governments to tackle the problem head-on.No one ever said it would be easy to appease the masses.

Gutless and ineffectual governments have only themselves to blame for doing too-little too-late and the consequences.

Yohanes-Sulaiman

12:32pm Mar 20, 2012

@JohnnyCool: the "Ministry of Religion" is part of the deals made in the early days of Indonesian independence, that Bung Karno and Hatta would scratch the words of "with the Moslems obligated to perform sharia" from the preamble of the constitution and in exchange, the Ministry of Religion was created to control all religions in Indonesia. Of course the ministers must come from either Muhammadiyah or Nadhatul Ulama....

jusdogin

12:55pm Mar 20, 2012

personally id rather see a fuel subsudy that seeing billions stolen. nmaybe thats a win win solution for the nation

JohnnyCool

1:08pm Mar 20, 2012

@Yohanes: Thanks, but I already knew that. This is no longer the "early days of Indonesian independence". Why do we "need" it now? Need to re-write the constitution, perhaps?

Why does modern-day secular Indonesia still waste money on a Ministry of Religion? Beats me.

agentmacgyver

6:15pm Mar 20, 2012

@JohnnyCool: Suggestions for reform are beyond the reach of the columnist who, perhaps for professional reasons, can at best lament the status quo with faint praise. Last week, readers were told to be patient for the judiciary to reform itself. This time the headline contrasts with a crucial paragraph, as if the people are partly to blame for a pathetic and criminally underfunded public transportation system!

JohnnyCool

8:29pm Mar 20, 2012

@agentmacgyver: I'm still slapping myself in the head for even having notions related to "reforms" of any kind in Indonesia. Is there no hope for this country? Tell me it isn't true.

Sorry - have to go and see if the ferocious Tomcat ants have arrived in Bali.

Yohanes-Sulaiman

10:38am Mar 21, 2012

@agentmacgyver: you grossly misrepresented my argument. I don't blame the public for the underfunded public transportation system. I blame the public for inefficient and wasteful use of gasoline. I blame the government for not having a long term vision on how to wean the public from their gasoline addiction.

The goal of my articles is to inform the public, add something to their discourse. So when I said the judicial reform is needed, then I hope my article could be use to help galvanizing the public on what kind of reform is needed and why.

So what do you want me to write? Call for the masses with torch and pitchforks to storm the barricade and depose the government? I think my approach in telling the public that the plan exist, and hoping they would pressure the govt to start thinking about that, serves the society better.