Jakarta commuters waiting for a bus at a Transjakarta shelter, which features a public service announcement banner from the Jakarta provincial administration showing acting governor Heru Budi Hartono, in Jakarta. - Antara/
JAKARTA: Acting Jakarta Governor Heru Budi Hartono is embroiled in controversy after reportedly revoking the Jakarta Excellent Student Card (KJMU) from hundreds of students in the city, a move that many see as an effort to undo his predecessor’s policies.
Dozens of Jakarta university students recently took to the internet to voice their frustrations as their KJMU scholarships were terminated without warning.
Since 2016, the Jakarta administration has been handing out scholarships for high school students from low-income families to pursue higher education in universities across the country.
The programme, first introduced by former governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, initially involved 30 universities. When Anies Baswedan was elected governor, he expanded the programme to cover 110 universities across the nation.
As of last year, around 19,000 students were beneficiaries of the programme, receiving Rp 9 million (US$577) each per semester to pay for their tuition.
Iman Satria, head of Jakarta City Council Commission E overseeing people’s welfare, said last week that the scholarship was terminated because the city had slashed the programme’s budget from Rp 360 billion in 2023 to Rp 180 billion this year.
However, Heru denied the Gerindra Party politician’s statement. The acting governor said that the city administration suspended the scholarship programme to verify whether all awardees in fact came from lower income households.
“The Jakarta administration needs to verify the beneficiaries’ data to make sure that the scholarships really go to underprivileged students,” Heru said last Thursday.
I’ll ensure that the current KJMU awardees will continue receiving their scholarships until they finish their studies [as long as they pass the verification],” he continued.
The Jakarta Population and Civil Registry Agency has performed a primary data verification for all KJMU beneficiaries. As of Tuesday, the administration decided to stop scholarships for 624 students because of data discrepancies and indications that they belong in higher socioeconomic groups.
Officials said that they would further check these students’ living conditions before deciding whether the city should completely terminate their scholarships.
Some KJMU awardees, however, complained that the city officials had not been transparent in determining the students’ socioeconomic statuses. They also deemed the verification system as damaging to students from the lower-middle class whose families no longer live below the poverty line but are still struggling to afford expensive university tuitions.
Some internet users have said that Heru’s decision is part of an attempt to undo Anies’ legacy. Although he did not initiate the scholarship, Anies is known for increasing the number of awardees and universities included in the programme.
The accusation largely stemmed from the fact that Heru was one of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s aides at the palace before his appointment as the capital’s interim governor.
Meanwhile, Anies, often seen as Jokowi’s political antithesis, ran as an opposition figurehead in last month’s presidential election. Since being appointed as interim governor in October 2022, Heru has been accused attempting to erase Anies’ legacy.
One of his very first policies was to change the Jakarta’s official Anies-era slogan, a move many considered unnecessary.
In April last year, Heru removed sidewalks and bicycle lanes in South Jakarta, claiming that this would help ease traffic. He later retracted the decision following public outrage. The expansion of sidewalks and bike lanes was part of Anies’ flagship programme.
The city administration built 103km of bike paths and 67 bicycle-sharing stations during his five-year gubernatorial term.
Jakarta also renovated 265 km of sidewalks in an effort to reduce dependance on motorized vehicles. Heru was also recently accused of preventing displaced families of Kampung Bayam in North Jakarta from moving to an apartment building that the city built for them.
The families were evicted from their homes in 2020 to make way for the Jakarta International Stadium (JIS), which was built while Anies was governor.
Anies initially ordered city-owned developer PT Jakarta Propertindo (Jakpro) to build the Kampung Susun Bayam low-cost apartment as a new home for residents affected by the JIS construction.
The governor’s term, however, finished just days after the apartment construction was finished.
Shortly after being appointed, Heru overhauled Jakpro’s board of directors. New president director Iwan Takwin recently said that the displaced Kampung Bayam residents had received compensation for their properties even though they had lived illegally for years on public land.
He added that the Jakarta administration had prepared the Nagrak low-cost apartments in Cilincing as housing for former Kampung Bayam residents. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
