RNW, 8 February 2011, By Michel Maas
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| (Photo: RNW/Michel Maas) |
The Mayor of Rotterdam, Ahmed Aboutaleb, is visiting the Indonesian capital Jakarta. The two cities have signed a cooperation agreement for water management, but can Rotterdam's good intentions overcome the enormous problems facing the Indonesian port?
The mayor and his entourage are watching a small dredger pushing a mountain of thick black sludge and unidentifiable waste in front of it. A bucket scoops sludge from the water. The show is part of a project which doesn't seem to be making much impact. So much rubbish has accumulated under the bridge on which the bucket grab is standing that a dam has been created.
The dredging project is one of those in which Rotterdam is involved. It's not making any headway because there is no budget. Apparently that often doesn't appear until halfway through the year. No one in the mayor's group understands how this can be possible, but it seems that's the way things work here: Jakarta can do nothing without the government, the city services can do nothing without a budget. "The system needs to change" remarks Mayor Aboutaleb, but there is nothing Rotterdam can do to help with that.
Dry feet
The mayor has just signed an agreement under which Rotterdam is committed to work with Jakarta on water management. "Rotterdam can do a lot for Jakarta. We have a great deal of expertise with water." And expertise is much needed in Jakarta.
Mayor Aboutaleb is given a tour of the northern area, where the city meets the sea. The ground is visibly sinking: at the rate of seven centimetres a year. It won't be long before large parts of the city are under water.
He compares the situation with the Netherlands of 1953: after the flood everyone in Rotterdam was persuaded of the need for good seawalls. "Dry feet are a must. I see people in Jakarta are now aware of that. Dry feet are topic number one!"
Brick wall
The dredgers are part of the dry feet initiative. They will be used to clear out Jakarta's choked up canals and ditches in order to solve another water problem. Every rainy season parts of the city are flooded because there is nowhere for the water to go.
There are no seawalls to be seen and the dredgers stop working as soon as the mayor and his entourage are back on the coach. Ahmed Aboutaleb sighs "sometimes I have the feeling I'm up against a brick wall". Two days in Jakarta and the mayor seems close to despair already.
Then there is Jakarta's massive traffic problem. With no public transport and a desperate lack of roads, the city is in danger of coming to a complete standstill. On Sunday the mayor had an opportunity to spend plenty of time in a weekend traffic jam himself.
Religious background
But Aboutaleb is adamant: "Rotterdam can do a lot for Jakarta". Jakarta's governor, Fauzi Bowo, acknowledges that. Rotterdam is giving his officials training courses and Rotterdam is also giving Jakarta a foot in the door in the Netherlands, in Europe if you look at the broader picture. "We can't finance our projects ourselves. But we can talk to the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the European Union." He may not expect much of Rotterdam but every bit of help is clearly welcome.
Mayor Aboutaleb has another lesson for the Indonesians. The Netherlands is always described there as "the land of the windmills". Then there's the colonial history. And Geert Wilders. "At dinner they asked me what it was like being mayor of Rotterdam with my name and religious background. But in the Netherlands you can be given opportunities no matter where you were born."
He is opposed to the image of the Netherlands "elsewhere in the world, including here in Indonesia" as a country slipping into a deep pit of racism. "It's absolutely not true. I think it's important for someone like me to tell his story on a regular basis."
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