Sumber: The Jakarta Post
Fed-up living in a city beleaguered with problems, and an administration that seemingly pays no heed to the concerns of the public, a group of concerned Jakartans have begun a Twitter group that they hope will promote change in the city by brainstorming solutions, one Tweet at a time.
The Twitter account, @SaveJKT, serves as a conduit for Jakartans to exchange ideas and concepts about how to create a better Jakarta. The feed now has about 2,400 followers.
One of the founders of @SaveJKT, Zulfikar Amir, said the movement had grown fast since its inauguration in October. Currently @SaveJKT has 2,438 active followers.
“Basically, this movement started because we are getting more concerned about the fact that Jakarta is getting more and more chaotic,” Zulkifar told The Jakarta Post.
Followers of @SaveJKT have discussed a wide range of issues from traffic congestion to the shrinking green space in Jakarta. The latest issue to be discussed was whether Jakarta should invest in shopping malls or rural regions to prevent migrants from crowding Jakarta.
But other than serving as a forum for discussing Jakarta’s myriad of problems, @SaveJKT also sets its sight on influencing future elections in the city.
“We fully realize that our ideas will never turn into policies unless we have political clout. Therefore, we will also use the 2012 gubernatorial election as momentum when we will support the nomination of an independent candidate,” Zulfikar said.
He said @SaveJKT was equipped with three teams who would try to endorse an independent gubernatorial candidate in 2012.
“We have a campaign team, a concept team and a strategy team. The concept team is the most important one because its main job is to pool all the ideas on how best to manage Jakarta and turn them into workable programs,” he said. “The campaign team will then introduce the programs from the concept team in its Twitter feeds while also conducting off-line campaigns, such as holding public discussions.
The strategic team’s main job is to find the ideal governor candidate that this movement will endorse,” he added.
@SaveJKT set the deadline of May 2011 for the introduction of a gubernatorial candidate.
University of Indonesia sociologist Imam Prasodjo praised the movement, saying it could prove to be an efficient way for Jakartans to voice their grievances.
Imam, however, doubted the movement could function as a political tool.
“This kind of social network movement can be a quiet but effective pressure group, but as a vote driver, it will face enormous challenges. The movement can reach out to the educated segment of the community, but I doubt its ability to reach the lower rungs of society” he told the Post.
