Time is of the essence
Something rang my bell, when I visited an area located at the crossing administrative line between North and Central Jakarta. Sunter, it is actually a place where I had spent some years of my childhood.
Time flies, and 20 years span makes all the different. It convinced me that a place can also be lame and blind, it is about the absence of either right action nor vision. We cannot say that the community is pro status quo. At present, their condition is different than the old times. It does get worse. They have been in a point of a curve, when the trend is all about going down. It seems that, there is a bunch of people in there, so called decision maker, who master the skill of walking backward. And, unfortunately, local inhabitants find their comfort in accepting ‘as it is’ condition.
The river – Kali Sunter- not only remained the biggest dump site in the area, it is even dirtier than 20 years ago. The air and water pollution exacerbated, affecting infant more badly. Traffic jam duplicated in much more city areas. The flood in many years was not as frequent and as high as current level. Reckless driver is more common now, a sign that law enforcement neglected at its lowest point. Not to mention the worsened social conflict.
Other side of a story, sure, something had been built for the last two decades. It is the concrete hardened river embankment. That’s it.Oh, there is also new sign installed, pointing kelurahan office.
We’ve reckoned that in the case where the trail of local government measures is almost invisible, it is the common action of community that matter most. However, here is an idea: point number one should be about how the local community value time. We need to ensure that the right mindset about time is put in place. 20 years should mean anything but fall back. Since we agree that today should be better than yesterday, and tomorrow should be better than today. Community should be aware that every action they do, every resource they allocated-even the smallest scale-will bluntly shape their future condition. It is worth bearing in community’s mind that time is their best asset and on going progress is within their reach. These come first, and the rest follows.: the question about where they want to go, collectively, should then be widely discussed so that they can move forward. And people should get together, cementing their social bond, seek solution of their common problem thus walk the talk in improving their quality of life.
