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Depok youth have their way by delivering aspirations, issues
Amid the low level of participation in last yearâs mayoral election in Depok, West Java, one group of young people has showed political enthusiasm through the Depok Youth Movement (GMD)
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mid the low level of participation in last year's mayoral election in Depok, West Java, one group of young people has showed political enthusiasm through the Depok Youth Movement (GMD).
The group, established in April 2015, was initiated by youth from various backgrounds after a coffee shop conversation.
With the wish to see major changes in their city, they initially wanted an independent candidate to take part in December's mayoral election.
Their mission failed due to their inability to meet a requirement of collecting support from at least 8.5 percent of Depok's population of more than 2 million people.
The failure halted their activities for a while until representatives of the University of Indonesia's student executive body from the School of Social and Political Sciences proposed a collaboration to establish a watchdog for the election.
While monitoring the election, they also gathered statements from Depok residents by holding several forums, both online and offline.
'Our focus changed to monitoring the city's policy formulation and implementation,' said GMD spokesperson Felani Galih Prabawa, 23.
The GMD initiated several discussions, including one on Twitter using the #DepokCurhat hashtag, to talk about the future of Depok.
'The forums were open to all Depok residents and communities and were held every Sunday from September to October 2015,' he said.
The aspirations heard in the forums were gathered in a book that will be handed over to Depok mayor elect Idris Abdul Shomad and deputy elect Pradi Supriatna.
The pair, backed by the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and Gerindra Party, won 61.91 percent of votes against rivals Dimas Oky Nugroho and Babai Suhaimi, who were endorsed by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Golkar Party, the NasDem Party, the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the National Awakening Party (PKB).
During the election, only 692,865 of a total 1,250,578 eligible voters used their voting rights.
The winning pair will be inaugurated in June.
For the meantime, Depok is being led by acting mayor Arifin Harun Kertasaputra, who previously chaired the city's Social Agency. Arifin was directly appointed by West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan to replace Nur Mahmudi Ismail, who ended his two terms leading Depok on Jan. 26.
'The book's contents are divided into 10 main areas, like health, creative industry, urban open spaces, human rights and many others. Each area is further elaborated on with problems and solutions sections,' Felani said.
'The most frequently raised issues by residents were more public spaces and facilities in the city. They hope the administration can build sports and art facilities, and a park in the heart of the city,' he said.
Kania Parwanti, Depok's spatial planning and settlement head, acknowledged that one of the city's problems was a lack of green space.
'According to our analysis, there are five main problems lingering in the cityscape: the centers of activity are not spread evenly; the need to improve educational facilities; traffic jams; a lack of green open space and bad waste management,' she said, adding that each issue had been addressed in the city's current urban plan.
Responding to the demand for open spaces, Kania said the issue had been addressed in the city's mid-term development plan.
'It is still an ongoing process. We are also planning to limit the number of shopping centers,' she added.
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The writer is an intern at The Jakarta Post.
