Pedalling mayor peddles change
Indonesia
has long been ranked CCC by international investors and visitors for
Corruption, Crowds and Chaos – particularly in civic administration.
Till
recently Bandung rightly deserved the triple C rating plus a minus mark. Once known as Parijs von Java’s
because it represented the archipelagic version of the French capital, the place
had lost its charm.
Tourists
and escapees from sweaty and sultry Jakarta still made the 180 kilometer pilgrimage
to the mountainside retreat, but progressively found their journey less than
refreshing.
Textiles
might be cheaper, the Sundanese cuisine more diverse, the art déco heritage
quaint and the climate cooler at 770 meters elevation, but the downsides were
becoming more off-putting.
Flooding
from the Cikapundung River and its tributaries, and waste disposal from
factories and residents were serious spoilers.
Traffic got throttled in choke points and road discipline was an alien
notion.
That wasn’t
all. Mayor Dada Rosada, who’d held the top job for a decade, had been exposed
as a crook. Likewise secretary Edi Siswadi. Both men are now in jail after convictions
for bribing judges to acquit officials charged with stealing social aid
funds.
To the astonishment
of no-one, national audits ranked the West Java capital a basket case for
performance and service delivery. The place had become an Urban Planning 101
classic example of how not to run a city.
Time for a
cleanskin. Enter Ridwan ‘Emil’ Kamil, at
first glance hardly the ideal candidate. At the time he was 42, a California-
educated local lad with academic parents. He had no background in bureaucracy
or local government.
His wife
and two children weren’t keen on Dad entering government but Kamil claims
they’ve adjusted though he works 11 hours a day.
Instead of
being appointed from the military (a favoured labour pool during Soeharto’s New
Order presidency) he was elected for a five-year term despite having a history
in the soft science of building design, not bare-knuckle politics.
He’d formed
a ginger group called Creative City Forum after returning to Bandung in 2004 arguing that the nation’s major
problems concern mismanagement and the failure to liberate and nurture imaginations,
not a lack of creativity.
In Indonesian public life image frequently trumps merit. Kamil wasn’t known as a pompous person, and like
former Jakarta governor turned President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo, made a virtue of
being approachable. It’s an approach he says he’s maintained in office.
“I seldom
use police motorcycle outriders to get me to meetings unless they are really
urgent and I’ve run out of time,” he said during a visit to Wellington. The compact capital of New Zealand has just
one fifth the population of Bandung.
“Otherwise
I cycle or walk. I get to talk to people and hear their concerns. It also gives me time to think about ways to
improve.”
There’s a
space shortage in Indonesia’s third
largest city (behind Jakarta and Surabaya), with 2.5 million citizens and a
population density of more than 15,000 per square kilometer – a third higher
than in the squashed Big Durian.
However
there’s no dearth of ideas fermenting from the former lecturer and businessman,
and the creative people his 2013 election attracted to move inland. He wants
Bandung to become a ‘technopolis’ – Indonesia’s Silicon Valley, drawing
investors who demand a safe environment and well-run government.
Unsurprisingly
voter confidence in local administration was in the pits when Kamil took over. So was morale among the 20,000
bureaucrats. The mayor gave a speech:
‘Look guys,
let’s forgive the past. Now you’ve got
to go with a new leader. You’ll be like water – having to follow the shape of
the container you get poured into. I’m demanding transparency – you must be
open and accountable.
‘I can’t be
fooled. I know my way around. My
credibility depends on my ability to introduce reform and that needs your
support. Everything can be learned. But
this first year is going to be tough.’
And it
was. Mindsets needed to shift gear and
for many that was discomforting; few public servants thought like their boss or
understood his outlook.
Not all
wanted to be swept along by the new broom and in his second year the EXIT doors
opened. More will pass through when he returns from NZ where he’s been a guest
of Prime Minister John Key’s ASEAN Fellowship program.
In previous
lives he’d taught at the prestigious Bandung Institute of Technology. In 2006 he was named as the British
Council’s Young Creative Entrepreneur.
He’d also
been a businessman and architect working on international commissions through
his award-winning company Urbane Indonesia.
These jobs led him to visit scores of overseas centers (he claims 155) –
which helped frame views of an ideal place to live.
“I like
Prague for its picture-postcard look and Kyoto because it has found the right
balance between identity and modernity,” he said. “But for liveability I prefer Melbourne.
“Safety for
citizens must come first. Last year we
started employing 1,500 neighborhood watchers who do things like helping
control traffic and handle beggars.
“We defied
an attempt this year by the Islamic Defenders’ Front to close down a theatre
performance on the life of Tan Malaka. (The communist leader and nationalist
was killed in 1949).
“Public
transport is critical so people can move around easily. We are buying a fleet of electric busses and
renting bikes to poor families to help children get to school. Only 20 per cent use public transport – that
has to increase.
“My vision
is for light rail linking with other systems, like the high speed train
connection with Jakarta. I don’t see
the capital as a competitor, but the other end of an economic corridor
“To get
more money for these and other initiatives we’ve formed partnerships with
commerce and community. The town square
has been developed with a business; a church paid for street work, a mosque
helped clean buildings.
“When the
public gets involved they own the place where they live. Volunteer trash pick-ups
have been successful. The river is now much cleaner. Gotong royong (community
self help) has long been part of village culture. We need to get that spirit back into the city.”
Problems
remain. A cable car project announced
four years ago has still to be completed.
Rapid transit links with Jakarta remain problematic. The gulfs between idea and implementation
remain unbridged. Old regulations
remain as roadblocks. “There are some
things a mayor can’t do,” said Kamil.
This
implies the man favours authoritarianism, a suggestion he’s quick to refute: “A mayor needs to lead by example. But at
the same time he or she should be in the middle, to know what’s happening.
“I’ve set
out to make Bandung a place of happiness, where people enjoy their community.” British
behavioural scientist Paul Doolan’s book Happiness by Design: Change what
you do not how you think has been an influence.
Kamil’s pre-election
ideas are on a You Tube video Creativity
and Design for Social Change in Cities. In the TEDx Jakarta speech he cites
the famous Mahatma Gandhi quote: ‘Be the change that you want to see in the
world’.
“Change is
difficult. People can be apathetic and avoid doing something not because they
are bad but because there are no alternatives,” he said. “We can’t always rely on rules.”
The mayor
is a prolific tweeter with around 400,000 followers. Although a slight figure he’s easy to spot in Bandung with trademark
geeky glasses and pork-pie hats, though he favours a blue Sundanese ikat (headscarf)
for cultural events.
He’s also a
terabyte user of social media to sow and glean ideas. GAMPIL (Gadget Mobile Application for Licence) is an app used to
accelerate business registration by small traders who can get access to
microcredit programs.
Kamil loves
lists, marshalling ideas and adding acronyms. Samples:
“You know
of Pancasila (the nation’s five philosophical principles)? We have Panca trottoir (sidewalk):
Places to sit, good lighting, protective walls, flower pots and signage.”
Then there
are the aphorisms: “Negative space equals negative experiences.” “We want a
liveable and loveable Bandung.”
“Restore joy to city living.”
One liners
are easily dismissed as trite solutions to complex problems. Even the most
creative and enthusiastic changemakers can fail without the skills to wade
through the cesspit of factional politics.
Along with
Jakarta governor Basuki ‘Ahok’ Tjahaja Purnama and Surabaya mayor Tri
Rismaharini, Kamil is being billed by the media as one of Indonesia’s new
can-do regional leaders elected through their competence, not connections.
The proof
of reform comes with real facilities being used by contented electors over the
long term, not as a platform for an individual’s higher ambitions. In the 2013 campaign he stood as an
independent. Since then he’s been
courted by the major parties.
Though he briefly
toyed with the idea of higher office Kamil now says he’s not interested in a
pitch for the Jakarta governorship. Or
beyond. Well, not yet.
(First published in Strategic Review 18 April 2016 - see: http://www.sr-indonesia.com/web-exclusives/view/pedaling-bandung-mayor-peddles-change
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