Changes In Jakarta Street Names Make Residents Troubled, PDIP: Why Burden The People?

Entong Fat Street/DOC ANTARA

JAKARTA - Chairman of the PDIP faction of the DKI Jakarta DPRD Gembong Warsono understands the emergence of complaints from residents who are affected by the change of dozens of street names in Jakarta to names of Betawi figures.

Although the Governor of DKI Jakarta Anies Baswedan has guaranteed that the processing of changes to population documents and vehicles for residents affected by the renaming of roads is carried out free of charge, Gembong considers that changing these documents is a hassle for the community.

"Okay, well, in terms of financing it's free. But it's not just about free, it's not simple in terms of time and so on. Why do we have to do work that in fact will burden the community in the end?" Gembong told reporters on Tuesday, July 5.

In fact, continued Gembong, if Anies wanted to pay homage to a number of figures who were considered instrumental for the development of Jakarta, there were other ways that could be done.

"There is another mechanism whose benefits may be much greater than that. Maximizing the preservation of Betawi culture, perhaps the impact is much more significant," he said.

Protests against the change of street names by the Governor of DKI Jakarta continue to emerge. Previously, residents of Jalan Budaya which turned into Jalan Entong Gendut in the Kramat Jati area, East Jakarta, expressed their complaints.

In addition, residents of RW 06 Tanah Tinggi Sub-district, Johar Baru Sub-district also admitted that they did not accept and refused to change the name of the road in their area to Jalan A. Hamid Arief. In changing the name of Jalan Tanah Tinggi V to Jalan Hamid Arief, residents claimed to have never been involved. Residents said, there was no deliberation or notification of the change of street name from the local kelurahan.

"We were never involved in deliberation at all. The residents, even the head of the RT did not receive any notification. We also residents strongly objected to the change in the name of the road," said Irzon, a resident of RT 10/06, Tanah Tinggi Village, Johar New, rejected, Thursday, June 30.