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  Jakarta Post 29 May 07
City, citizens and leadership: A tale of three Asian cities
Johan Silas, Jakarta

In 1859 Charles Dickens published one of his greatest novels, A Tale of Two Cities, set in a London made turbulent by the Industrial Revolution and a Paris suffering the upheavals of the French Revolution.

Since the publication of Dickens' work, cities all over the world have changed dramatically.

Approaching the turn of the last century, the world community agreed that the 21st century had been the Urban Age, since more than half the world's population now lives in cities.

Countries can out-compete their rivals only if their cities are stronger than other cities.

As our generation can see, the fantastic growth of Shanghai, Singapore and Jakarta in the last decade of the 20th century proved this hypothesis.

The success of a city should be seen as more than its physical achievements; it is also in the improved quality of life of its citizens and the way local leaders work to achieve great results.

Is this a common phenomenon in the dynamic growth of cities and towns in the 21st century? If so, what can and should this generation learn from the hard work of the generation that is about to hand over power?

Needless to say, the bigger the city, the more problems it faces, with no guarantee of sufficient resources to resolve the problems quickly and equitably.

Distinctions should be made between problems that are basic in nature and conceptual in application, and empirical problems that are driven by the need for effective implementation in the field.

This also applies when looking at available potential versus other potential that will take time and energy to become usable.

Some problems that become more acute as cities grow include traffic and transportation, urban waste disposal, sanitation, and poverty. Crime is another practical problem that certainly needs attention.

Most of the practical problems can be nullified if anticipated and resolved at the planning stage. A great deal of technology is available, as well as experience, to deal with practical problems like traffic and transportation.

If one allows the market to find solutions, it is obvious that the one percent of the richest population of the world have more resources than the 60 percent who are poor. Needless to say this income gap has happened in many cities and the wider the disparity, the worse the resulting social problems.

Quality of life is a serious problem faced by many big cities. Pollution and global warming have taken their toll, especially among the poor, and especially in cities.

Just recently, high tides reached a level this generation has not experienced before. Strong waves destroyed many structures along the coast facing the ocean, from Aceh to Java, to Bali and Lombok and as far as Papua.

Closely linked to the issue of deteriorating environmental quality is the issue of sustainability, which has been long elaborated in the ecological footprint index proposed by William Reese and now used by many world cities.

A city that is in good physical condition does not necessarily have a good ecological footprint.

High population growth mainly due to the influx of migrants from rural areas creates another serious social and economic problem.

However, many cities have managed to deal with this issue effectively. One approach now widely discussed is to consider population movement in the light of a mega-urbanization process through the establishment of a network of towns and cities to allow the smooth flow of people to and from the host city.

A small city can, with no significant difficulty, carry out the tasks and responsibilities of a major metropolis.

On the other hand, many big cities still face difficulties performing basic tasks such as providing public services. The problems of big cities have too often been seen from a very narrow and limited perspective, focusing on the difficulty of finding effective solutions.

There are three major stumbling blocks commonly faced by big cities: a lack of resources, a widening gap between rich and poor, and critical environmental problems.

The way to deal with limited resources for development is to start by not wasting whatever resources are available and focusing on the best ways to solve basic development problems.

In discussing the ever-widening gap between rich and poor, one should not forget that there exists the important interface of a healthy middle class. The strategy to deal with a growing underclass is strengthening the middle class to reduce poverty by channeling resources from the rich.

Finally, community-based approaches are a must, and have for a long time been successfully implemented in many cities in both developed and developing countries.

Leadership in managing a metropolitan city needs to start from clear vision, high moral values, caring about the people from bottom to top and pursuing development and progress. It is important to discuss practical issues such as public transportation and public services, from domestic waste collection to the availability of safe drinking water, etc.

But it is more important to deal with the basic issue of understanding the conceptual problems, from lack of resources, to the ever increasing numbers of super- rich citizens, exceeded only by the growth of the poor.

The writer is a professor of architecture at the 10 November Institute of Technology ( ITS) in Surabaya.
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