Jokowi admits Indonesia is late in building public transportation in today's memory, March 29, 2023

President Jokowi with DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan at the inauguration of MRT Phase I in 2019. (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Today's memory, three years ago, March 29, 2023, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) admitted that Indonesia was late in building public transportation. The delay even came in Jakarta, which is a city with the most complete public transportation system in Indonesia.

Previously, the government was often criticized for presenting public transportation. The owner of the power is considered to only care about the development of public transportation in Jakarta. The rest of the government is considered not to have the intention of building outside Java Island.

Public transportation is not considered important by the Indonesian government. This narrative can be seen from the development initiated by the Jokowi government. Jokowi has built all kinds of infrastructure. However, the focus is only on the island of Java.

Not to mention the most complete public transportation is only seen in Jakarta. Jakarta has public transportation from TransJakarta Bus to MRT. The rest of the cities only have public transportation that is adequate.

The government was criticized. The government was asked to build public transportation outside Java. Instead of immediately building transportation outside Java, Jokowi actually wants to realize the Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Train project.

The project is known to be ambitious. Moreover, the distance is quite short. Many predict that public transportation will not be effective. The government is predicted to not be profitable. However, the work is still being carried out.

This condition makes transportation in other cities increasingly lagging behind. As a result, big cities in Indonesia have a new problem, private vehicle users are busy. This condition inevitably provokes traffic jams everywhere.

"This (the Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Train Project) must be and must not be withdrawn. It is my personal determination to complete this. Therefore, the Indonesian government is committed to providing full support for the completion of this project in the form of wisdom and financial support in accordance with the regulations in Indonesia," said Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves), Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan as quoted by the lamankompas.com, November 16, 2022.

The narrative made the Jokowi government criticized. The public transportation project that was launched was considered unfair. Jokowi was also considered to make other regions late in getting public transportation that was expensive.

Jokowi also received criticism. He also did not hesitate to admit that Indonesia was late in building public transportation on March 29, 2023. Jokowi assessed that delays also occurred in terms of transportation in Jakarta.

President Jokowi inspects the Soekarno-Hatta Airport train project. (ANTARA)

Jokowi assessed that Jakarta was 30 years late in terms of public transportation. This condition made Jokowi in the remaining term of office want to build more infrastructure for public transportation in Indonesia.

"In Jakarta it's late by thirty years, although now there is MRT but only one line. There is LRT but it's not running yet, so if you're in Jakarta in the morning, it's stuck, it's stuck, it's stuck, it's stuck at night. Because of the delay in building it. "

"Not only in Jakarta, Bandung, Medan, Surabaya, Semarang. In Makassar everything is jammed because we are late in building public transportation," said Jokowi as quoted by the ANTARA website. 29 March 2023.