Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo has appointed an acting director and commissioner for the city-owned subway operator Mt Mass Rapid Transit Jakarta (PT MRTJ).

The newly-appointed acting director is Eddi Santosa, an expert in financial and corporate restructuring, while the former city assistant secretary for development, Nurfakih Wirawan, has been appointed acting commissioner.

The two executives will sit for PR MRTJ for the next four months until a fixed board of directors is formed.

Governor Fauzi Bowo signed the ruling in his office, witnessed by notary Sutjipto, JBIC representative M. Otawa, JICA Expert representative S. Utsubo and director of city-owned market operator PD Pasar Jaya Uthand H. Sitorus.

Fauzi said the city administration involved PD Pasar Jaya as partner in the establishment of the company due to its healthy cash flow.

"Besides, the MRT project will be connected with several traditional markets, such as Blok M, Blok A, Mede Fatmawati, Benhil and Blora. I hope it will make markets under PD Pasar Jaya's management become more modern," he said.

He said the appointed executives would determine Jakarta's public transportation for the next 50 years since the MRT was projected to serve the public in the long term.

"I'm sure MRT will integrate Jakarta's transportation modes."

The new director of PT MRTJ, Eddi Santosa, said he would set up an organizational structure and recruitment system and prepare the second phase of loan agreements in the next four months.

"The second phase of loan agreements between the government and the city administration will take place in June or July 2009," he said.

Sutjipto said both appointed executives would recruit employees to fill vacant posts at the company, using a professional recruitment agency.

"The directors selected from the recruitment process will serve for four years while the commissioner will serve three years," he said.

The basic capital to finance MRT is Rp 200 billion (US$21.5 million), which was divided in 200,000 shares or Rp 1 million for each share. The working capital deposited was 25 percent or 50,000 stocks or worth Rp 50 billion.

Of the Rp 50 billion, 49,500 shares or Rp 49.5 billion are owned by the city administration and 500 shares or Rp 500 million are owned by PD Pasar Jaya.

Fauzi said he hoped his administration could finish the land acquisition in 2009 and continue the construction process in 2010.

"We hope construction can finish in 2012 and the MRT can start operating by 2014," he said.

Fauzi said this year, the administration would acquire land around Lebak Bulus to build a final station and MRT's depot.

Eddi, who was the working team coordinator during MRTJ's formation, said land acquisition would be conducted by the city public works agency and the city transportation agency. The agencies will have Rp 40 billion of the total Rp 160 billion budget to acquire the land this year, he added.

The Jakarta city administration said Monday the government would assist in developing marine tourism in the Thousand Islands regency to help boost the local economy.

Arie Budhiman, head of the Jakarta tourism agency, said the government would prioritize future development programs requested by the regency.

"No specific budget figures have been mentioned yet, but the government will encourage the local administration to propose programs. Then both bodies will set up the roadmap and action plan," Arie said.

Edy Putra Irawady, deputy coordinator of industry and trade at the office of the coordinating minister of the economy, said the Thousand Islands had the potential to become the center of marine tourism in Indonesia.

He said the regency's 108 islands could be sorted by economic potential into eight different groups. These include their suitability for entertainment, nature conservation and housing and commerce.

"The Thousand Islands can also be developed along the lines of food production, education and vocational training, shopping centers and exhibitions, sports events and entry points with immigration facilities, customs and a port," Edy said.

He said his office would provide a forum for island regencies throughout Indonesia, including the Thousand Islands, to consult and share experiences in developing their respective marine potentials.

He added the forum would consist of regencies with marine tourism potential, such as Raja Ampat in West Papua, Benoa in Bali, Bangka Belitung, Natuna and Sabang in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, Nias in North Sumatra, Batam, Bintan and Karimun in Riau and Bunaken and Wakatobi in Sulawesi.

Edy said the government and the administration would streamline regulations and reduce bureaucracy to support the development program, as well as set a pollution prevention agenda.

On the tourism development front, Arie said the Thousand Islands regency needed to take concrete steps to attract more visitors.

He said a major concern was the heavily polluted Jakarta bay, currently the main gateway to the regency.

He said his administration would coordinate with the Banten and West Java administrations to raise public awareness of the pollution problem.

Jakarta's 13 rivers all empty out into the bay, bringing tons of household, commercial and industrial waste every day.

Arie added infrastructure, accessibility and weather conditions also limited tourism development in the area.

"Tax returns from hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues in the Thousand Islands have been below expectation for the past couple of years because of all these factors," he said.

"Hopefully this new program will help boost the economy, and hence the tax returns, in the area."

Operator of Perumnas Klender traditional market in East Jakarta is optimistic about a newly launched composting project, despite lack of enthusiasm from vegetable vendors.

"The compost can be used for internal greening in our market complex and can be sold to hundreds of plant vendors along nearby Jl. I Gusti Ngurah Rai," said Sugionono of city-owned traditional market operator PD Pasar Jaya on Tuesday.

Plant vendor Rosmian, who has been buying compost from a distributor from Bogor, supports the project.

"I will buy the compost if the price is fair and if is good quality," she said.

Last week Pasar Jaya started processing organic waste in Perumnas Klender market into compost in a bid to reduce the volume of garbage transported to Bantar Gebang dump site.

A vegetable shredder, with a daily capacity of 1 ton, is used in the composting process. Machine operator Leo Sopang said he and three assistants operated the machine every afternoon, when all the garbage had been collected.

Pasar Jaya estimates a ton of organic waste can fill 10 bags of 15-kilogram bags of compost fertilizer.

"A ton of organic waste can be shredded in just two hours."

The waste is given three days to decompose, 10 days for the decaying process and three more days for drying.

Currently, the market is in the drying phase of its first round of the procedure.

Some 37 sanitation workers are assigned to collect and separate the organic and inorganic waste in the 3.7-hectare market.

A sanitation worker at the market, Dion, said "We are told to collect waste from vendors, who mostly sell cassava leaves, cabbage and various kinds of spinach."

Perumnas Klender market, which manages six other smaller traditional markets in the area (Klender SS, Pondok Bambu, Duren Sawit, Ujung Menteng, Sawah Barat and Cakung) is only processing the organic waste from the main market.

Around 25 of the 100 vendors in Perumnas Klender market are vegetable vendors.

However, some, if not many, of the vegetable vendors are unaware of the composting project.

Vegetable vendor Zahudin, who has been selling vegetables since 1996, said Tuesday he had not heard of the compost project. "What project? If there were one, I would have heard of it," he said.

Sugiono said his company provided rattan baskets for vegetable vendors so they could help collect and separate their waste.

However Sri, another vendor, said "I don't use the basket for my waste. I usually just throw my waste down here," she said, pointing to the narrow alley next to her kiosk.

"The sanitation workers will pick it up later in the day anyway."

A banana leaf vendor, Sutadi, said it would be hard to get the vendors to participate in the project.

He said all of the vendors had to pay a sanitation fee of between Rp 1,000 to Rp 3,000 a day, depending on the amount of waste they produce, and an entrance fee of between Rp 2,500 and Rp 4,000, depending on their stall's size.

"So, it is the sanitation workers' job to separate and collect our waste. We are already too busy with our businesses," he said.

Spokesperson of Pasar Jaya, M. Nur Hafidz, said the compost program aimed to reduce the amount of waste from traditional markets by 30 to 40 percent a day.

"We have instructed all market managers to implement the composting project," he said.

The composting project can be found in many of Pasar Jaya's markets, such as in Glodok, West Jakarta; Rawa Mangun, East Jakarta; and Rawa Badak, North Jakarta.

"Most of the markets, though, do not use machines for their composting," he said.

Nur said Pasar Jaya would assess the programs in the next three months.

"If they don't manage their waste properly, we will penalize them according to existing regulations, such as reprimands, warning letters and fines," he said.

In an effort to prevent tidal floods in the capital next month, the city administration and other stakeholders are raising the height of seven embankments up to 2.5 meters above Tanjung Priok ground level, officials say.

Public works agency head Wisnu Subagyo Yusuf said his agency would raise the height of embankments in Muara Angke, Pluit Karang Ayu, Pluit Dam, Pantai Mutiara, Muara Baru fishing port, Pelindo and Luar Batang, all in North Jakarta.

"Between Friday night and Saturday night, we'll add soil, sandbags and stone up to 2.5 meters at the embankments so high tides can't flow over them," Wisnu said.

Referring to data from the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, Wisnu predicted high tides on June 3 and 4 would reach 2.2 meters.

"We've been recording wave heights since May 25. We see the wave levels are increasing and we predict they will peak between June 3 and June 4 at 2.2 meters," he said.

To prevent flooding in the city, Wisnu said his agency would repair embankments in Muara Angke, Pluit Dam and Luar Batang with sandbags. In Pluit Karang Ayu and Pantai Mutiara, he said, residents and developers had repaired the embankment but the agency reviewed the work and added improvements.

"The embankments in Muara Baru and Pelindo will be repaired by the port operators there," he said.

He said the administration would build permanent walls on the embankments more than 3 meters above Tanjung Priok ground level.

"We're still in the middle of a tender procedure. We hope we'll be able to pick the winner in June or July so the construction can be finished by the end of December," he said.

Wisnu said his agency had prepared more than 5,000 sandbags, two excavators, 10 dump trucks and 14 mobile pumps.

The World Bank predicted Thursday high tides would peak on June 4 and hit North Jakarta's coastal areas, such as Pasar Ikan, Tanjung Priok and Pluit.

High tides as high as 2.2 meters caused flooding in the capital in November and December last year, as well as in February and May this year, resulting in traffic congestion and delayed flights as the floods blocked access to the airport toll road.

Operation director of the airport toll road operator PT Jasa Marga, Adityawarman, said it was building concrete sheet piles spanning 560 meters kilometers 26 to 27 of the Sedyatmo toll road.

"We aim to finish the project by Monday noon because it is estimated the tides will reach maximum height on Monday night," he said.

He said the company had prepared 10,000 sandbags, six-millimeter plywood planks and bamboo for any unexpected occurrences. He said his company had also prepared pumps, including 11 mobile pumps from the administration.

"We've put two pumps near Tanjungan River to pump floodwater back into the river," he said.

The city council and the city transportation council demanded Wednesday busway operator Transjakarta answer directly to the governor instead of the transportation agency.

Nurmansyah Lubis, a city councilor, said it would make the decision making process concerning the Mass Rapid Transit system more efficient.

Transjakarta currently answers to the city's transportation agency.

Nurmansyah said Transjakarta should be headed by an expert in public transportation, not a civil servant.

"To place Transjakarta directly under the governor, we need a gubernatorial decree," Nurmansyah said.

Soetanto Soehondo, a member of the city's transportation council, agreed, saying Transjakarta should ideally work with and answer directly to the governor.

"Transjakarta as a pilot project must succeed because it represents the beginning of a strong public transportation development in Jakarta. Therefore, the governor should pay this project special attention so all Transjakarta operations remain under control," Soetanto said.

During a plenary session at the city council Wednesday, the council's deputy spokesperson, Ilal Ferhard, demanded Transjakarta management undergo a full evaluation. The call came after several problems caused by management issues were found.

Ilal said Transjakarta did not have adequate procedures in place to deal with all technical aspects and business administration. He said the city administration's continual subsidization of the busway needed to be addressed.

"In 2007, the busway received 63,446,336 fares of Rp 3,500 each, even though the real fare should have been Rp 5,245. That means the subsidy reached Rp 1,745 per person," he said.

He said Transjakarta received a subsidy of Rp 153 billion last year on top of its net income of Rp 168 billion.

"Of that figure, it spent Rp 263 billion on bus operations. Transjakarta must carry out a study on operational costs per kilometer so we can establish an effective payment system with private consortia supplying the buses," he said, as quoted by newsportal Beritajakarta.com.

Ilal said Transjakarta always claimed to be in the red and needed to reduce revenue leakages.

Soetanto said Transjakarta could generate more income from its seven existing corridors by improving feeder services, a distance-based fare system and its advertising. He also said the company could be more efficient in operations, management and on bus-route planning.

Two consortia supplying buses, the city administration and Transjakarta are in negotiations over a set of new lower operational rates to be paid to the consortia.

The new lower rates came about after the administration held an open tender for bus suppliers, as mandated by a 2006 presidential regulation on service and goods procurement.

All the tender winners offered lower rates than the existing consortia, PT Jakarta Trans Metropolitan (JTM) and PT Jakarta Mega Trans (JMT).

Primajasa, for example, offered a rate of Rp 9,536 (US$1) for every kilometer its buses traveled on Corridor 4 (Pulo Gadung, East Jakarta to Dukuh Atas, Central Jakarta).

A team of city architecture experts have called on the administration to issue a zoning bylaw for the regulation of construction types in each region in the city.

Woerjantari Soedarsono, a member of the team, said Thursday the bylaw would help the city administration punish sneaky building owners.

"Jakarta has zoning regulations but we don't have a zoning ordinance that provides detailed regulations for enforcement," said Woerjantari, who is a lecturer at the Bandung Institute of Technology.

During a meeting with the administration and city councilors, she explained the zoning ordinance would require people to obtain building usage licenses on top of their construction permits.

If the building does not meet the standards for its intended function, the administration should carry out a test to ensure its safety, she said.

The team's chairman, Gunawan Tjahjono, shared Woerjantari's opinion suggesting the city administration check the safety of buildings with special purposes, such as mosques and markets, as well as buildings larger than 1,500 square meters.

He said each building should meet environmental, visual and functional requirements. He said his team also recommended the administration assure each building adopt green concepts.

"We want building owners to maintain air quality. We suggest the administration set green standards so we can have better spatial quality in Jakarta," Gunawan said.

Head of the city's Property Management and Control Agency (P2B) Hari Sasongko said he supported the idea of a zoning ordinance as it would make areas more dynamic and would utilize land in different ways.

However, he said, the ordinance must be flexible to respond to residents' needs.

"If the regulation is too rigid, people will continue to violate it and the city will be unable to grow. We have many land functions but limited land availability," Hari said.

Supporting Hari's argument, Woerjantari cited her 1997 Kemang survey as an example. She found most of the 350 house owners covered 80 percent of their land despite the regulation allowing only 20 percent coverage.

She said the administration should also establish incentives and punishments to enforce the law.

"For example, the administration could give a tax cut as an incentive to heritage building owners who preserve their buildings' fa*ades. It should close down shops built in non-commercial areas," she said.

If 100 bloggers meet up, there's obviously going to be a few posts on the Internet recording what happened– as a blogger meeting organized by the British Council earlier this month proved.

During the meeting, held in the lead up to the Council's Live Blogging Competition in June, "senior" bloggers Enda Nasution, Asmara "Miund" Letizia, Raditya Dika, and Wicaksono shared their experiences with other bloggers.

Enda said blogging allowed people to express their thoughts and emotions and made people more sensitive to their environment, because it was what most bloggers wrote about.

"Through blogs, people can share information, learn to research before publishing the post and make friends"

Raditya said that blogging also opened opportunities, as he had been offered the chance to publish his blog as a book. The 23-year-old has published three books: Kambing Jantan (The Goat), Cinta Brontosaurus (Brontosaurus Love) and Radikus Makan Kakus (Radikus Eat Toilet).

When asked about how to make an interesting blog, Miund said that blogging did not only have to involve words. There was a photo blog that put photos up of lunch boxes, she said.

"What matters most is we make a blog about our passion. I believe anybody can do that," Miund said.

Wicaksono said blogging made people sharper because of the effort it took to put one's ideas into writing and the need to maintain it constantly.

"Blogging is like playing Tamagotchi (an electronic game where the player raises a virtual pet). If we don't have the patience to maintain it, perhaps we should be a blog reader instead. Being a reader doesn't mean we're not as smart as a blogger," said the editor at Tempo daily.

Miund said that she often received harsh comments on her English-language blogs. She finally set up a comment moderation system and blocked their IP addresses to avoid conflict on her blog.

Enda said there were risks in blogging, such as cyber bullying and phishing.

"Bloggers should be careful about posting their identities and phone numbers," he said.

Wicaksono said the risks in the blogosphere were similar to the real world: "For example, we should not expose our personal identification numbers or our bank account passwords".

Another blogger, Agus Muhammad Ustadz, got more from his blog than he bargained for. He started writing on it after he graduated from college, while he was unemployed and applying for jobs.

His blog was mostly about his scientific essays. A few months later, he got a job at a mining company because his future boss had been reading his blogs.

"I now have dozens of blogs. But I've abandoned the one that got me a job," he said.

Friska Titi Nova said she once tried to make a serious blog with a focused topic in an effort to attract advertising. But she found she wasn't able to update the blog regularly, as she was far more comfortable writing about her daily experiences. But she said her choice had saved her from cyber bullying.

"I've never received any threats or harsh comments on my blogs. Perhaps it's because I only write about my daily experiences. I don't write about politics or any hot topics. But I do receive spam," said Friska, a student at the University of Indonesia.

During the discussion, Friska typed on her laptop enthusiastically. "I hope I can win the competition," she said, smiling.

Dina Lucky, director for business services and relations of British Council, said her office was promoting the Live Blogging Competition because they had recognized the growing trend of blogging as an interactive media.

Bloggers who want to participate can sign up through www.bcnow60.org, she said. In three months, bloggers will be invited to post about intercultural dialogue, creative economy and climate security, dedicating one month to each topic.